An Analysis of Homelessness in The St. Lawyer by John Grisham

Analysis, Pages 5 (1078 words)

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I rarely jump to conclusions with homelessness. I believe that homelessness can be due to a wide variety of reasons. People can become homeless if they lose their jobs, they get sued, evicted from their homes, addicted to drugs, or any number of other reasons. In Mister's case, he and a few others were evicted and some ended up dying on the streets. So we see that there are a wide variety of reasons that homelessness exists. Before reading Grisham's book I guess I never thought deeply about how people become homeless.

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Unfortunately, in addition to myself, I think most middle class Americans keep homelessness on their back-burners.

Pretty much everyone I meet agrees that it's a problem, but I personally feel that we need to do more than just be concerned. In the book Grisham points out (using Mister) that we don't do enough, if anything, to help homeless people. Donating money to shelters and cans for a food drive is great, but I feel we can take it to the next step.

For me, personally, this means working at "Friends of the night people", which is a local shelter that provides meals for the homeless.

I now see that homelessness is a more serious problem than I thought it to be. I think Washington D.C was a great place for Grisham to set his novel in because It made me think. If there is homelessness in our nations capital then we have some serious renovations ahead. Before reading The Street Lawyer I never put any serious thought into what our government has to do with homelessness.

Now I want to educate myself as to what programs our nation has to help the homeless.

The Street Lawyer, by John Grisham is your typical "small guy bringing down the giants" bestseller. It takes place in Washington DC, where Michael Brock, our hero, is a practicing anti-trust lawyer at Drake & Sweeny, on his way to achieving the almighty title of "partner". This means a million-dollar annual salary could be on its way. On top of that, Drake & Sweeny is the nation's fifth-largest law firm. Things seem to be going good for our hero; up until about the second page.

Michael is dealing with three major problems in this book. His marriage is on the rocks, because of his commitment to a job that he hates and he's currently being held hostage at gunpoint with eight other lawyers in his office. The gunman is a homeless man who goes by the the title of "Mister". The combination of these three problems create somewhat of an epiphany for our hero. He sets out to discover the reason for Mister's seemingly suicidal mission. Eventually Michael finds out that his own law firm had evicted "Mister" and sixteen others from an warehouse in the middle of the winter. He also is given a hint that the eviction was illegal and that some rather sympathetic evictees ended up dying on the streets. Michael's struggle with guilt leads him into the streets to become an advocate for the homeless! He ends up taking on the very powerful law firm that he just left.

Along the way to righting this social and legal injustice, our hero meets an array of interesting individuals, who provide relief from the corporate lawyer "suit and tie" types. One of these characters, who I believe stands out above the rest, no pun intended, is Mordecai Green. Measuring a whopping six-foot five-inches, Mordecai becomes Michael's mentor and partner. Together they take on the big shots of Michael's former firm, all the while fighting against the indifference of the power class system.

I really enjoyed the overall message in this book. It was a quick smooth read and it definitly made it to my top ten list of Road Trip Literature. However the story seemed to be filled with the same plot twists found in most law novels. The problem I have with stories like these is that they often lead to a creatively predictable and slightly suspenseful resolution in court, with the underdog coming out on top. We see our hero, Michael, play both attacker and defender at the end of the book. This is due to the fact that much of his evidence of wrongdoing was illegally obtained from his old company. Regardless of of all of this Michael wins the suit against Drake & Sweeny. I was a little upset that Grisham would take this route. I feel that a writer of his caliber could have come up with something more original. Grisham always serves up his stories with detailed inside knowledge of law firms, I'll give him that, but it is his basic "little guy beating the odds" story that drives me insane. Although hardly original, it does keep you in a little suspense, right up to the uncomfortably heroic ending. I don't know why, but something about lawsuits being heroic doesn't sit right in my stomach.

Although slightly unimaginative the book does show some real sensitivity in several areas. Grisham describes racial fears and stereotypes honestly, without either blowing them up or deflating them. He also speaks of a conflict many people face today. We see Michael, trying to maintain that balance between his personal values and the demands of his intensely competitive workplace. Lawyer novels are always good to use when demonstrating the conflict between morals and business procedures. Finally Grisham manages to maintain a positive, optimistic tone about homelessness. He points out that we can make progress towards ridding America of homelessness, instead of being overwhelmed by it. Even if many of the homeless people never have, what we might call, a normal middle-class life, they can at least have a place to sleep, a hot meal and some help with their personal struggles.

In the end you'll see that it's actually a very warm book, in spite of all the social problems, the lawsuit, Mister's graphic death, Michael's loveless marriage or Drake & Sweeny's greedy disregard of human life. The book gives a few good perspectives on homelessness, which are all touching, frightening, insightful and serve as good filler for this modern day "David and Goliath" remake. In the end chances are that you'll either find yourself rushing to the nearest soup kitchen to volunteer, or you'll resent being guilt-tripped by a rich and famous entertainer cum "self-appointed social critic."