Street Lawyer III

John Grisham's The Street Lawyer reflects many topics and issues concerning homelessness and poverty. The story follow's a man named Michael Brock, a successful lawyer in D.C who works at a firm named Drake and Sweeney. After a homeless man takes him and several others hostage at gun point in his firm, Mike sees the huge struggle of the homeless in his own city and ends up changing his ways to help the homeless.


Towards the end of the book, Michael shares the same views as the homeless man, named Mister, at the beginning of the book. They see that the rich, usually the white population including Mike himself, don't think twice in helping the poor and helpless in need. Veterans, such as Mister, don't even get the attention they deserve, even when they are homeless themselves. Mister and Michael share the same view that the differences of the classes hurt both alike and no-one is helping one another out.


Entering his new job to help the homeless in the Street Clinic he made with Mordecai, one of his first clients was a crack addicted woman named Rudy. Ruby represents the homeless in many ways. She is addicted to the drug cocaine, which like many of the homeless, is one of the many problems they face in their struggle to survive out on the streets. She comes to the street firm for help on her case, which many of the homeless do not take advantage of however.


With this in mind, homelessness and lower classes are well defined then the upper classes of D.C. Michael was included with the upper, white class that lived in the nicer parts of the city. People such as Mister (though white himself) lived in the lower side and more dangerous parts of D.C, usually the blacks and lower classes of people who did not have enough money to support basic living conditions. This is a huge problem in the dividing of the upper and lower classes of D.C, and can be the same with cities around the world. Men like Michael need to see and understand this problem and try everything in their power to change this.