Evicted

by

Matthew Desmond

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Evicted makes teaching easy.

Larraine Character Analysis

Larraine is a white woman in her 50s who lives in the trailer park. She is very poor, deeply religious, and likes to spend money whenever she can on luxury items to make her life less miserable. She is evicted from her trailer and experiences sustained housing insecurity after this point.

Larraine Quotes in Evicted

The Evicted quotes below are all either spoken by Larraine or refer to Larraine. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Poverty, Exploitation, and Profit Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

You've got to wonder if the street people don't have the right idea. Just live on the street. Don't have to pay rent to nobody.

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker), Tobin Charney
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Men often avoided eviction by laying concrete, patching roofs, or painting rooms for landlords. But women almost never approached their landlord with a similar offer. Some women—taxed by child care, welfare requirements, or work obligations—could not spare the time. But many others simply did not conceive of working off the rent as a possibility. When women did approach their landlords with such an offer, it sometimes involved trading sex for rent.

The power to dictate who could stay and who must go; the power to expel or forgive: it was an old power, and it was not without caprice.

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker)
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

To Sammy, Pastor Daryl, and others, Larraine was poor because she threw money away. But the reverse was more true. Larraine threw money away because she was poor.

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker), Pastor Daryl (speaker)
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:

Larraine loved to cook. "I have a right to live, and I have a right to live like I want to live," she said. "People don’t realize that even poor people get tired of the same old taste. Like, I literally hate hot dogs, but I was brought up on them. So you think, “When I get older, I will have steak.” So now I'm older. And I do."

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker)
Page Number: 220
Explanation and Analysis:
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Evicted PDF

Larraine Quotes in Evicted

The Evicted quotes below are all either spoken by Larraine or refer to Larraine. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Poverty, Exploitation, and Profit Theme Icon
).
Chapter 3 Quotes

You've got to wonder if the street people don't have the right idea. Just live on the street. Don't have to pay rent to nobody.

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker), Tobin Charney
Page Number: 40
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 9 Quotes

Men often avoided eviction by laying concrete, patching roofs, or painting rooms for landlords. But women almost never approached their landlord with a similar offer. Some women—taxed by child care, welfare requirements, or work obligations—could not spare the time. But many others simply did not conceive of working off the rent as a possibility. When women did approach their landlords with such an offer, it sometimes involved trading sex for rent.

The power to dictate who could stay and who must go; the power to expel or forgive: it was an old power, and it was not without caprice.

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker)
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 18 Quotes

To Sammy, Pastor Daryl, and others, Larraine was poor because she threw money away. But the reverse was more true. Larraine threw money away because she was poor.

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker), Pastor Daryl (speaker)
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:

Larraine loved to cook. "I have a right to live, and I have a right to live like I want to live," she said. "People don’t realize that even poor people get tired of the same old taste. Like, I literally hate hot dogs, but I was brought up on them. So you think, “When I get older, I will have steak.” So now I'm older. And I do."

Related Characters: Larraine (speaker)
Page Number: 220
Explanation and Analysis: