Analysis Of The Monster Named Eviction By Matthew Desmond

The Monster Named Eviction Every year, millions of families are involuntarily moved from their homes to other, less fitting houses. They lose their homes so often, that moving often is simply just apart of their lives. Author Matthew Desmond illustrates this terrible occurrence in the book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. In the once large city of Milwaukee, Desmond visits eight different families for over a year to capture the struggles of finding any housing in their lives. He writes of the bad luck that falls upon them and poor decisions they make, but how they still seem to create small moments of joy that they cherish. In his book, Desmond brings up the issue of housing that millions of families face, slightly shows his …show more content…
Eviction tends to turn into a vicious cycle where the evictee cannot escape. They use more than half of their income to pay rent, get evicted for any number of reasons, and then are forced to move with no money for new rent. With no money for new rent, they cannot pay and are again evicted- never able to escape the cycle. Some may ask why tenants do not just save their money, but as Demond learned, “Saving and stability become wishes, and some days children go hungry because the rent eats first” (page unavailable). He continues to explain how the United States government has the money to fix much of this problem, but decides to spend the money elsewhere. Politicians before have tried to better the problem of eviction and homelessness, but many of their grand plans have fallen through, leaving families in the same rat hole. Because poverty is such a difficult environment to escape, and since the government is not proficiently helping, millions of families are stuck in a never ending cycle of misery.
Reader’s eyes were opened widely and blurred by tears while reading the true stories of Milwaukeeans in Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. Matthew Desmond was able to capture the heart-breaking details of the evicted life for the families in his book, biasly show sympathy for them, and address the ways he wishes society could fix the problems for them.