Arleen thanked Pana. Getting off the phone, she thanked Jesus. She smiled. When she smiled she looked like a different person. The press had loosened its grip. From landlords, she had heard eighty-nine nos but one yes. Jori accepted his mother’s high five. He and his brother would have to switch schools. Jori didn’t care. He switched schools all the time. Between seventh and eighth grades, he had attended five different schools–when he went at all. At the domestic-violence shelter alone, Jori had racked up seventeen consecutive absences. Arleen saw school as a higher-order need, something to worry about after she found a house. . Matthew Desmond
About This Quote

Pana is a person who has an illness that makes them sick or feel like they are in pain. Arleen is the mother of Jori, the main character whose life is in crisis. Pana is in need of help, and she is in pain. Jesus may be Jori's mother but he has not helped Jori out of his crisis yet.

When Arleen smiles, she looks different from the person she was before her son lost everything he had worked for. The press has loosened its grip on her life and she can now find a landlord to rent a house for her and her son to live in.

Source: Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City

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