middle of fifth avenue

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middle of fifth avenue 48.216038, 16.378984

The map shows the evolution of Fifth Avenue, more buildings surrounding the once Fifth Avenue Hotel and about three to four times the amount of people living there compared to when the novella was written. Most of the time people look towards the future as the past is too harsh of a reality for them. Sillerton Jackson spoke of the future of prostituting as he referenced Lizzie’s and Henry’s affair.

Old Sillerton Jackson reflects towards the future and how things would be nowadays.  Jackson stated that they would meet in the middle of the fifth avenue nowadays, as to say no one would care about their affair, and all saw Lizzie as a scarlet.  However, nowadays 2018, Lizzie would probably have been applauded by some for her efforts to sustain her family and bashed by the rest because she didn’t pick up a trade or something. Lizzie did not have any training when it came to employment, she did the one thing she knew, having sex for money. Some people would be sympathetic towards Lizzie and understand her reasons for having sex with Henry for money, while others would say she should get a real job. Lizzie had to do whatever she could to survive and if that meant she had to make a man think she was interested in him and have sex with him to take care of Charles and herself, so be it.

Lizzie only wanted to make her husband happy and not worry about her, she used the only thing she thought she had to make money.  Lizzie does not care about Henry, however, cares about what he could do for her happiness with his money.  Comparing both Lizzie’s and Henry’s characters from the novella to current day, no one would care as much as the Wesson family nor any of their friends. But instead, a person nowadays would say that Lizzie did what she had to do for her family and meeting in a hotel, they would call her classy. Classy because most prostitutes do their deeds in the streets, in a car or maybe even a hallway of an abandoned building. Lizzie at least had the decency to do her work inside of a hotel, most prostitutes would kill for that luxury.

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