I have never been a very good reader. I often cannot concentrate, or I simply just don’t retain the information read. To my surprise, however, Evicted by Matthew Desmond did not pose a struggle for me. I could not read this book fast enough. The events, the stories, the system, the everything is so utterly shocking to me. The social divide acts as the surface to the shock factor, but the most intriguing part to me was the behaviors of each person. Evicted begins to understand how these people act in certain situations: when times are hard, when times are good, or even when times are just “okay”. I want to sort out my thoughts on this post about the fire incident that is explained at the end of Part Two, pages 197-203.
From this incident, it is clear to see just how desensitizing the world is. Everyone is just trying to survive. To what degree that survival may be, varies and the divide certainly is vast. Some are trying to survive like Tobin, who takes home $447,000 a year, while others are trying to survive like Arleen, who is not really sure where her next meal for her kids is coming from. These circumstances and situations shape us as humans and it affects not only the decisions we make, but also how we feel and, in relation to the fire incident, it may affect our ability to sympathize. “They are not getting any money back from me” (pg 202), the positive thing “is that I may get a huge chunk of money” (pg 203), or “one less eviction to worry about” (pg 203) are just a couple of the shocking comments Sherrena made shortly after discovering that Kamala’s 8-month old daughter just died in a fire. Sherrena seems desensitized to the situations that occur regarding any tenant, regardless how big or small. She has been dealing with conflict after conflict for so long that she seems to have hardly any compassion. Similar situations can be compared to firefighters, police officers, doctors, etc. When you are involved in similar conditions day in and day out, they may become second nature and you may lose the ability to have a reaction anymore; the mind is set on survival mode.
Another point from Evicted I would like to discuss is that everyone in this life has choices. The families discussed in this book receive assistance from the government, one way or another, and the majority, if not all, spend this money on drugs, or useless objects they don’t need, like Lorraine who had “blown a few hundred dollars on a Luminess Air makeup application kit advertised on television” (pg 121). If even just half of these people were responsible with their money, they most likely would not face eviction. In some sense, I do feel sorry for them, but in another, I don’t. Granted, there are underlying issues and circumstances, however, I am speaking in relation to the people who fit the description above. It is hard for me to feel sorry for someone who takes more pleasure in getting high than putting food on the table for their children.
The mix of emotions I had while reading this book will make my head spin for quite awhile. Eviction is a remarkably staggering book.