Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of forced sterilization, racism, violence, suicide, and sexual trauma.

Necessary Lies starkly depicts the economic disparities between Jane and the families she serves in Grace County. Jane’s clients strive to break out of the cycle of poverty, but their daily lives are consumed by the struggle for survival. The aid they receive from social workers like Jane provides only temporary relief, and their financial status subjects them to dehumanizing treatment at the hands of the state. As Jane navigates her privileged role as an upper-middle-class social worker, Ivy grapples with the entrenched nature of the cycle of poverty and its far-reaching impacts on her life and her family.

The narrative illustrates the cyclical nature of poverty, highlighting the difficulties the Jordans and the Harts face in breaking out of the economic conditions they were born into. All members of the families must devote themselves to work to keep the household afloat. Even Ivy and Mary Ella, though they are not legal adults, must labor on the tobacco farm to earn the money that the family needs. Their daily lives are focused on making ends meet, preventing the girls from focusing on their education or other factors that might help their futures.