I noticed something very interesting in Evicted. Matthew Desmond never attempts to make Sherrena, Tobin, or Quentin look like villains. That could have been very easy, especially since Desmond spent time living in their property and had a landlord-tenant connection with them. He could have written them as awful people who just looked for money. That wasn’t all he made them out to be.
The book opens with Arleen renting an apartment from Sherrena. When they meet for the first time in the book, Desmond writes, “There was a knock at the door. It was the landlord, Sherrena Tarver. Sherrena… was loaded down with groceries. She had spent $40 of her own money and picked up the rest at a food pantry. She knew Arleen needed it” (3). This is the first time we meet Sherrena, and her first action is a kind one. She offers help to her new tenant without requiring payment. It’s out of the goodness of her heart. Had Desmond wanted us to dislike Sherrena, he could have chosen not to put that scene in the prologue. It could have just focused on the awful shape the apartment was in and how expensive it was. He does, of course, touch on these things, but not with the intent of making Sherrena look bad. Just to highlight the terrible conditions Arleen and her children would have to live under.
We begin hearing less and less about Sherrena, Quentin, and Tobin in the second half of the story. This is most likely because the tenants begin to spread out as they get evicted and Desmond follows them. But, in the time we are with them, they aren’t the antagonist. It’s made quite clear that the system is the true villain in this story. The landlords, like the tenants, do everything they can to provide for their families. Every character is best described as morally gray. I think it’s nice that Desmond doesn’t attempt to antagonize anyone. He doesn’t give the people a scapegoat. For it’s the housing system and the government who has failed, not the people.