The Street Lawyer

Building on his use of metonymy, Grisham employs juxtaposition, or the placement of two concepts close together with contrasting effect, throughout the novel to emphasize the stark differences between the world of Drake & Sweeney and that of the unhoused. The reader’s introduction to Drake & Sweeney comes when Michael steps out of the elevator and into its “splendid, marble foyer” (2). This phrase directly contradicts Michael’s description of “the pungent odor of smoke and cheap wine and life on the street without soap” he smells on the “man with the rubber boots” on the previous page (1). From the start, Grisham plays on the reader’s preconceived notions that street people are unkempt, unclean, and harsh on the senses, while a large law firm in downtown DC is dazzling, bright, and pristine.

A few chapters later, Grisham juxtaposes descriptions of the firm with the 14th Street Legal Clinic, where Mordecai Green works: “The clinic occupied half of a three-story red-brick Victorian mansion that had seen better days. The windows on the top floor were boarded with aging plywood […] [Michael] didn’t know whether to knock or just barge in [...] It was a law office of sorts, but a very different one from the marble and mahogany of Drake & Sweeney” (36-37).