ipl-logo

Review Of The Book 'Evicted' By Matthew Desmond

1061 Words5 Pages

Desmond, Matthew. 2016. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Crown Books.

Book Review Assignment

Evicted is a non fictional book written by Matthew Desmond that relates actual events in the city of Milwaukee. Matthew Desmond is a sociologist that follows eight families while these families fight to keep them and their families living with any type of roof over their heads. These eight families are living off of food stamps, welfare, and subsidies and most of their monthly income is to be used on rent leaving them with maybe 20 dollars for the whole month to be spent on other necessities. The families have one of two tenants that can evict them whenever they feel is necessary. Desmond writes this book in third person so that the characters can speak for themselves. He explains how these families living places look with fine detail to give us a better image on where these families live and show his audience they are in poverty. These families will live in any type of condition and will not complain about it because they are so desperate. By following these families and writing this book, the audience is truly shown the major problem of poverty in our country. Matthew Desmond …show more content…

He backs up all of his claims with evidence that really happened while he was following the eight families in poverty. Desmond helped convert my understanding on poverty. He provided facts and statistics throughout the book that convinced me he knows what he is talking about. If he mentioned something in his book that he did not see at first hand then he mentioned it at the end of the book with the source he obtained it from. I did not detect personal bias since this was written from third person point of view and he backs up all of his claims with support. By writing it in third person he is able to show his audience the perspective from the landlords and the

Show More
Related
1157 Words | 5 Pages

Abram Auguste Law School Personal Statement I was awoken by the screech of tires, and the grisly thud and crunch of metal colliding. I have only experienced a few fender benders, but I woke to a different feeling. The time moved slow and sound amplified as the car flipped and went airborne over the guard rail lobbing thirty feet onto opposing traffic on the highway. As I lie distorted in the rear seat, a combination of blood and gasoline drenched my clothes and leaked down my flesh wounds.

Read More
647 Words | 3 Pages

The novel, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives by Sasha Abramsky is about how he traveled the United States meeting the poor. The stories he introduces in novel are articles among data-driven studies and critical investigations of government programs. Abramsky has composed an impressive book that both defines and advocates. He reaches across a varied range of concerns, involving education, housing and criminal justice, in a wide-ranging view of poverty 's sections. In considering results, it 's essential to understand how the different problems of poor families intermingle in mutual reinforcement.

Read More
927 Words | 4 Pages

Matthew Desmond’s Evicted takes a sociological approach to understanding the low-income housing system by following eight families as they struggle for residential stability. The novel also features two landlords of the families, giving the audience both sides and allowing them to make their own conclusions. Desmond goes to great lengths to make the story accessible to all classes and races, but it seems to especially resonate with people who can relate to the book’s subjects or who are liberals in sound socioeconomic standing. With this novel, Desmond hopes to highlight the fundamental structural and cultural problems in the evictions of poor families, while putting faces to the housing crisis. Through the lens of the social reproduction theory, Desmond argues in Evicted that evictions are not an effect of poverty, but rather, a cause of it.

Read More
1121 Words | 5 Pages

I viewed Frontline a documentary series, which episode was entitled Poor Kids. The frontline personnel spent time with three children Kailey, Johnny, and Britany along with their families as they all struggle financially. We perceive a glimpse of what it is like to live below the poverty line in America through a child’s eyes. While observing the documentary, I became consciously aware that children who are considered poor or living below the poverty line were more mindful of the responsibilities of life. The children were worrisome of the lack of employment for their parents, bills, and in Britney’s case; how they would accommodate their way of living to support a new addition to the family.

Read More
2206 Words | 9 Pages

In preparation for this paper I chose to read Fire in the ashes: twenty five years among the poorest children in America by Jonathan Kozol. In this book Kozol has followed these children and their family’s lives for the past twenty five years. In his writing Kozol portrays a point of view most from his background and standing would not be capable of having. He portrays what life is like for those who have been let down by the system that was meant to protect them. Kozols writing style can be very blunt at times, not for shock value, but for the sake of portraying these children’s realities, and not sugarcoating the inequalities that they are faced with.

Read More
630 Words | 3 Pages

Living in low-priced neighborhoods were the Landlord will evict without an additional thought abolishes many lives and advancement opportunities. Countless people rent cheap houses or apartments so they can get a foothold in this crazy world, and stand up straight alone. People need a home to get a job, license and government help. When a landlord evicts deprived of a subsequent notice, it completely catches people off guard, and all progress of advancement gets lost in the trash. Based on “Evicted” by Mathew Desmond evictions and foreclosures are the things that keep people from advancing in life because to advance in life a foothold is a necessity and evictions and foreclosures effectively remove that foothold.

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

Homelessness in The Glass Castle In the 1960s, according to American Civil Liberties Union, 20% of the United States population were homeless, and shunned from the rest of society because of stereotypes. The Glass Castle is a memoir written by Jeannette Walls, to tell the story of her life growing up as a homeless child with an alcoholic father and an artistic mother. Her memoir is a story about relationships, and how the outside world influences them. In The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls, homeless people are marginalized as uneducated, reckless and mentally unstable.

Read More
824 Words | 4 Pages

A hardship that many people have to endure is poverty. The characters in the short stories, Angela’s Ashes, by Frank Mccourt and The Street, by Ann Petry, both experience living in impoverished conditions. In the story The Street, Petry shows the life of a single mother who lives through the struggles of being poor. In another story portraying poverty, Angela’s Ashes, the author uses kids to paint the image of indigence. These kids are burdened with the task of caring for themselves.

Read More
754 Words | 4 Pages

A suburban life is a paradise full of shopping, colorful gardens, and well-groomed homes. Despite all these benefits, a suburban life is an isolated life. People living in suburbs are rarely exposed to miseries in society. One of these conflicts is homelessness. When living in an environment surrounded by homes, individuals often have difficulty imagining not being able to sleep in a warm bed, eat a proper meal or even receive necessary medical attention.

Read More
245 Words | 1 Pages

For major social issues like racism and homelessness they are very hard to solve. Many times they are just being managed and not solved. Sometimes it’s easier to just manage an issue and keep pushing it away for a later time, until it starts being a big problem and costing society a lot of money. Like racism they try to manage it by having separate but equal, but it is still racist. Martin Luther King Jr fought for civil rights for many year, he used peaceful protest for his cause.

Read More
1029 Words | 5 Pages

There are many things that cause poverty that can be overlooked and not considered. In the book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” the Lacks family is living in poverty while

Read More
879 Words | 4 Pages

According to the PBS Frontline video “Poor Kids” 2012, more than 46 million Americans are living beneath the poverty line. The United States alone has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the industrialized world. It is stated that 1 out of 5 children are living in poverty. The video documented the lives of three families who are faced with extreme hardships and are battling to survive a life of being poor. All three families have more than one child and could barely afford to pay their bills and purchase food for their household.

Read More
799 Words | 4 Pages

The most influential novel that I read this year is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. Walls’s memoir had moving themes of strength, perseverance and forgiveness. It also caused me to have passionate reactions. Finally, The Glass Castle impacted me the most because it forced me to reconsider my opinion of homeless people. This novel was a beneficial reading experience.

Read More
1105 Words | 5 Pages

In her memoir, the Glass Castle, Jeanette Wall’s discusses and explores many different concepts that affected her family dynamic and her development. One of these matters is homelessness. Individuals are able to live in a stable environment, sleep in a warm bed, wear clean clothes, and enjoy proper meals; but not all of these basic needs are enjoyed by everyone and their families. This undesirable situation is portrayed in Jeannette Walls novel. Jeannette vividly depicts homelessness by exploring its causes, its impact on daily life, and its effect on her family.

Read More
1846 Words | 8 Pages

The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless Man, authored by Nels Anderson, offers an account of the behaviors, choices, relationships and living situations of the homeless in 1920’s Chicago. This study, conducted for the Chicago Council of Social Agencies, provides a platform to voice first hand accounts of the adventures and the hardships of the vagrant life. Born to a Swedish immigrant father and housemaid mother, Anderson spent much of his childhood moving around; from The West, to an Indian reservation, to Hobohemia, he moved 10 times over the course of 10 years. Anderson seeks answers to the many questions surrounding homelessness because he grew up in a milieu that only knew the vagrant life. Once he left high school, Anderson joined the

Read More

More about Review Of The Book 'Evicted' By Matthew Desmond

Related Topics

Open Document