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Due to the miserable living conditions of the underclass, both Engels and Morrison disclose the social reality of poverty. Even though the description of the poor in Engels’ masterpieces occurs in the mid-nineteenth century, while Morrison’s slum trilogy is published in the late Victorian Britain, indeed, the condition of the poverty is still maintained and even become much more severe. “With regard to the vast masses of workers, their now poverty and insecurity are as severe as ever. The East End of London is a growing bog of poverty full of despair and hunger during unemployment. Although jobs are found, physical and mental decay is everywhere” (Engels, 1998: 29).

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Morrison draws a map of the slums in East London, with sprawling streets dividing its general area and scope, and the interior of the nearly closed slum suffusing a taste of the people at the bottom of society. For instance, “it is past the mid of a summer night. The narrow street is all the blacker for the lurid sky. Below, the hot and heavy air lie. On the contorted forms of those who make for sleep on the pavement, and there rises mingled stink—the odor of the Jago” (Morrison, 2011: 22). Different from the prosperity brought by the industrialization and urbanization, the whole slum is inundated with sticky air and is divided into a complete enclosed area by the narrow streets. People living here are stuck in both hostile living environment and degenerative morality.

1.2 Capitalist System: Excessive Exploitation to the Impoverished

According to Engels’ anti-poverty theory, poverty is caused by many reasons. First of all, the Enclosure Movement and Industrial Revolution occupy the land and forest near the city, and “machine labor has triumphed over that of manual in all the principal branches of British industry” (Engels, 1998: 41). In that case, a large number of peasants are forced to end up their traditional small farmer’s life and turn to be the working men. According to the record, in the middle of the 19th century, Britain is evenly divided between rural people and urban people. However, by the end of the 19th century, the ratio has turned into 2:8 (Wu, 2014), which implies that an increasing number of men of property, including the small farmers who have possessed their land and trade become the men without any property, as a result of the development of the industry.

In To London Town, Morrison depicts an experience that the May’s family have to move from the Epping Forest near the city to the East London, because the advancement of industry destroys the ecological environment that they are living by. To begin with, the Epping Forest lives a quiet and peaceful life. “The August air renews with an enlivening breath, and Epping thick blends and murmurs through a bunch of leaves. Far away beyond the hurling greenwood, distinct clouds floats flat on the upper air; and a more extravagant gold develops over the slopes as the day goes toward the west” (Morrison, 2018: 5). Nevertheless, the development of cities makes the forest lose its vitality. For instance, on the edge of the city, “本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。