Major Themes in Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City – By Mathew Desmond
Introduction
Authored by Mathew Desmond, Evicted is centered on eviction and the side effects that it can have on individuals and society. Eviction, which is always accompanied by destitution and people losing everything they ever had, can have enormous emotional impacts on individuals. When people lose their homes, it becomes difficult for them to continue living because of the many negative things that follow. It was because of these reasons that Desmond chose to write about these things, which are very common and regular in our daily lives. The two main characters in the book are Tobin Charney and Sherrena Tarver. Charney runs a trailer park while Sherrena “rents houses for those who cannot afford to rent themselves.” Desmond delves into the issue of eviction and its sociological impacts, although there are many other themes woven into the book. The focus of this paper is to present an analysis of the major themes contained in the book.
Major Themes in the Book
Exploitation
The author illustrates the theme of exploitation through his depiction of the landlords, particularly in his depiction of Sherrena. Sherrena gives descriptions of how her property management career depends on the exploitation of impoverished people. When providing a description of the foreclosure crisis that occurred during the 2008 economic recession, for instance, Sherrena explains that anybody with money would benefit from the failures of other people (Desmond, 2016, p. 139). She later describes the hood (the exploitation system) as being good, pointing to the paradox in the exploitation system she describes (p. 140). When it comes to profit and investment, most people would not consider poor communities to be lucrative. But as Desmond points out, a lot of money can be made from poor people (p. 278).
In his book, Desmond illustrates how the desire for landlords to make profits gives them insight into the profit opportunities in the unjust housing system. He even argues that making profit from the poor folks is not an easy task but a task that requires initiative and certain skills (p. 40). Throughout the book, he shows that property management and making decisions on whether struggling or unreliable tenants should go or stay is an uphill task and that not all people would be successful in the career. As the author shows, the initiative and the skills that landlords need to succeed often takes the form of ruthlessness and cruelty. While making profit or money through the exploitation of vulnerable is a skill, it is definitely not at admirable career.
Lack of Choice and Hopelessness
This is another theme that is most common in sociological studies on the impacts of poverty. People are always impoverished and with little opportunities or choices that they become cynical, hopeless, and desperate. This often leads to other problems such as substance abuse and violence, behaviors that prevent people from taking initiatives and making decisions that could bring them out of poverty. The author stresses that those with housing insecurity often find it impossible to makes decisions that could better their lives. Eviction or housing instability destroys people’s self-worth, physical well-being, and mental health (p. 298). It is, therefore, important that all people have access to good quality and stable housing.
The author explores ways in which poor tenants are led by desperation and hopelessness to accept exploitation and inequality not because they agree with it, but because they are more focused on surviving difficult or challenging issues. Even though, for example, Tobin is one of the top earners, his tenants who earn very little are forced to accept the vast injustice of inequality because they have no choice (p. 166). Eviction is another thing that forces the characters in Desmond’s book to accept inequality. Because of the high demand for cheap houses, the landlords know that there are scores of other people ready to occupy their houses immediately they are vacated (p. 48). Under an environment like this, landlords have little incentive to forgive late payment of rent, lower rent, or even renovate their houses.
Discrimination
Racial discrimination is one of the forms of discrimination addressed by Desmond in his book. For instance, both wealthy white landlords and impoverished white tenants living at trailer park do not want anything to do with the north side of the city which is occupied by blacks, even if it means losing profits (for the white landlords) or housing opportunities (for the poor white tenants). Vanessa and Crystal, for example, would rather look for a house elsewhere instead of looking in the north side. They even refer to black people as black motherfuckers (p. 221). Larraine describes the north side as a dangerous place because it is occupied by black people (p. 290).
Desmond also demonstrates that different forms of discrimination are interconnected, and they do not exist in isolation. In other words, all forms of inequality and discrimination are linked or related in some way, making certain people in society or community more vulnerable than others. While incarceration, for example, affects black men; for example, affects black men, eviction affects black women (p. 93). The sociologist explores the reasons for this state of affairs. Unlike men, women cannot exchange manual labor for rent reductions. Furthermore, women are vulnerable to discrimination for being mothers.
Conclusion
The focus of this paper was to present an analysis of the major themes contained in Desmond’s Evicted. As explained in the introduction section, the book is centered on eviction and the side effects that it can have on individuals and society. Three major themes in the book have been discussed, which include exploitation, lack of choice and hopelessness, and discrimination. Exploitation is depicted through the landlords who exploit their tenants for more profits. The theme of hopelessness is illustrated by the worrisome states in which the tenants find themselves in. Racial discrimination has also been discussed as a major form of discrimination evident in the book.
References
Desmond, M. (2016). Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Crown Publishers