“The goondas are men who work for Mumtaz,” She says. “If you try to escape, they will hunt you. If they catch you, they will beat you. If you get a disease, they will throw you out in the street. If you try to get back in, they will beat you.” (McCormick 156) When we hear “slavery,” we imagine history; when whites believed they had more power over African Americans. Slavery reveals as submissive to a dominating influence (Merriam Webster Dictionary,) there are many different ways to define such a negative word; such as, subjection, captivity, enchainment, imprisonment, incarceration, and so on. No matter what you call it, it still has a negative connotation.
It’s hard to picture modern slavery, maybe because it isn’t happening to people we
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Lakshmi believed that she was being sent to India to work for a wealthy family as a maid to send money back to her family. When she arrives at the Happiness House, she meets many different girls from all over who are slaves to Mumtaz, the mistress of the household. They’re forced to sleep with multiple men and even end up fighting over these men. They believe that the more men they sleep with, the sooner they may return home; but that’s not the case. These girls have been forced to abide by Mumtaz’s rules and sleep with as many men as possible. They may not accept any gifts from these men; if they do Mumtaz will grind up chile, put it on a stick and shove the stick up into a girls vagina causing her unbearable pain. Beaten senseless and mistreated, these girls begin to lose hope for the better future they had hoped for. Slaves in their own skin forced to give up part of themselves to men they don’t even know and will never …show more content…
She was beaten and mistreated and even starved for refusing to perform the sexual acts with the men she’s forced to sleep with. Tapas states that she would much rather commit suicide than sleep with any of those men. She also states that all the other girls there were brutally beaten, locked into cages or even hidden in attics. Prostitution and sex trafficking can happen anywhere. These girls are forced to have sex with men who are twice their age. If these girls are thrown out onto the street they may not return to their homes. Their parents will reject them for working in the prostitution industry since they have tarnished the family name. In the article, "There's high rates of suicides among these girls because they have no escape," says Gupta. "Once or twice I know of girls who tried to get out and they were beaten black and blue and locked up all over again." (Gupta) In middle eastern countries, families aren’t able to afford health insurance and even have little to no food to provide their family. A man’s child had tuberculosis and he figured that if he sold her into prostitution it would be one less child to worry about. So for $80 dollars, he thought he had sold his daughter into prostitution when he actually sold her to Gupta who cared for her and even sent all four of his children to boarding
Women’s Escape into Misery Women’s need for male support and their husband’s constant degradation of them was a recurring theme in the book House on Mango Street. Many of Esperanza’s stories were about women’s dreams of marrying, the perfect husband and having the perfect family and home. Sally, Rafaela, and Minerva are women who gave me the impression of [damsel’s in distress].CLICHÉ, it’s ok though. It’s relevant They wished for a man to sweep them of their feet and rescue them from their present misery. These characters are inspiring and strong but they are unable to escape the repression of the surrounding environment. *Cisneros presents a rigid world in which they lived in, and left them no other hope but to get married. Esperanza, however, is a very tough girl who knows what she wants. She will keep dreaming and striving until she gets it. She says, "I am too strong for her [Mango Street] to keep me here" (110). Esperanza learned from all of these women that she was not going to be tied down. She said, "I have decided not to grow up tame like the others who lay their necks on the threshold waiting for the ball and chain" (88). **Especially after seeing that Sally was suffering so much. Sally’s father is making her want to leave home by beating her. Sally "said her mother rubs lard on the places were it hurts" (93). There is not enough lard in the world to be able to cure the pain within Sally’s heart. Sally, "met a marshmallow salesman at a school bazaar" (101). Pretty soon " sally got married, she has her house now, her pillowcases and her plates" (101). Her marriage seems to free her from her father, but in reality she has now stepped into a world of misery. This was supposed to help her heal; " she says she is in love, but I think she did it to escape." (101). Unlike the other women Sally has no escape, no poetry, not even papaya coconut juice, not to mention, " he does not let her look out the window" (102). That is why "she sits at home because she is afraid to go outside without his permission."(102). Rafaela’s situation also involves imprisonment in her own home. Cisneros introduced us to Rafaela, a young beautiful girl whose expectations from marriage were to obtain a sweet home to live in. Instead...
In the book Sold by Patricia McCormick shares the story of Lakshmi who at the age of 13 is sold by her step father and is forced into the a life of prostitution. She is born and raised in a simple village community, her only trouble in life is her step father. Lakshmi will soon come to learn there is a whole world outside of her village and it is not as pure as she once believed. Lakshmi is starved and beaten until she finally comes to terms with her new fate. She tells stories of what happened to her while locked away, what she learns from the other girls, and what could happen to her if she angers Mumtaz. Lakshmi does not understand what is happening only they are happening to her. The experiences Lakshmi goes through can relate to everyones’ personal experiences in life.
It is not the girls fault and if these traffickers are punished and made an example of, it could discourage others from following this dark path and this will mitigate and eventually end sex trafficking. Some countries don’t persecute the traffickers, or they do very little to punish them, and this needs to change to eliminate sexual trafficking. When some countries are “lagging behind with no counter-trafficking laws at all”(Jesionka), this prevents people who are held captive from getting the justice they deserve in some parts of the world. If the world worked together to eliminate this, the countries that are exploited for this trade would keep their people safer. The countries need to take on these traffickers if there is going to be any difference in this modern slavery.
Imagine having your parents sell you into prostitution and you don't realize it until it's too late. How would you feel? Sold by Patricia McCormick is novel about a girl, Lakshmi, who lives in the mountains of Nepal and is forced to leave her home due to a monsoon. After the disaster, her home, crops and livelihood and family is left alone and in need of help. In order to get this help, Lakshmi is sold off. However, Lakshmi does not notice that she is sold off until she is abused and treated like an animal by Mumtaz in the happiness house. A thought of betrayal sweeps over her, and because of the depression, she has no hope for life and cannot stay positive. Throughout this book, there are many people who have helped Lakshmi gain hope and positivity,
Slavery by definition is 'the state of being a slave' but slavery in the British American colonies in the 1700's was more than just a singular incident that oppressed one African, it was the systematic enslavement of a race of people that the colonists used to grow their economies and to improve their own lives regardless of how much pain it caused and how many lives it ruined. The developement of slavery in the British -American colonies contributed to the population growth of the colonies, as well as to the economic stability and trade in the colonies; slavery created regionalism in America that exists today, and added unparalled contributions to art in America.
The word “slavery” comes from the Eastern European word “slav”. “The traditional definition of slavery was legal. Slaves were peoples’ property and could be bought and sold, traded, leased or mortgaged like a form of livestock.” Old World slavery, that was pre-European exploration, differed from New world, post- European exploration, slavery by a great deal. The percentage of slaves in the Old world was not as vast as it was in the New World. Old World slavery also was not raced based or hereditary, meaning not all of the slaves were Africans or Native Americans and their offspring were not considered slaves as well.
This seemed to follow a pattern. Rain, who was recruited into sex trafficking at age 11, claimed her pimp only had minors in his “stable”. To keep control of his victims he threatened them by threatening their families. Finally yet importantly is Cindy who, along with other women, were intimidated and trapped within a home to insure their obedience. Their stories depict a world dominated by shame, regret, and fear.
Slavery is defined as a person being owned by someone, a state of bondage, servitude, or work performed under harsh conditions for little or no pay. Both continental African slavery and external commercial slavery deprived people of freedom. Continental slavery focused on adding people to a group to be productive members of the society and for other reasons beside monetary benefits. External slavery consisted of obtaining slaves for monetary means while inducing physical, emotional as well as psychological detriment to ensure compliance (Reader, 1997). With the emergence of European colonies, a system of trade with American Indians was created ...
A theme that I quickly noticed was innocence. Lakshmi was told that she was going to the city to work as a maid, but while her step-father sold her, she thought, “I don’t understand at all. A great deal of money has just been paid for work I have not done yet” (McCormick 55). Even while Uncle Husband told her to lie and while she watched a girl get humiliated for disobeying, Lakshmi did not know the amount of danger she was in until she stood at Happiness House in her uncomfortable, new dress and was adulterated by a stranger (McCormick 102). McCormick strengthened the novel with symbols, and a recurring one was books. Dispersed in the pages were different books that came to represent different things to Lakshmi as she grew and developed. Initially, Lakshmi hated Harish, the son of a Happiness House worker, because he had his own storybook (McCormick 151). Every day, Lakshmi would steal the book and “pretend she was in school again with Gita and her soft, moonfaced teacher” (McCormick 155). The storybook went from a source of jealousy, to a loved memory, to the bond between the beautiful friendship of Harish and Lakshmi as he taught her to read the American stories inside. Another book was Lakshmi’s notebook that recorded her debt and earnings. She was convinced that her calculations would be enough to prove she had earned her way home. In this way, the forbidden notebook came to symbolize her
In order to understand how sex trafficking affects its victims, one must first know the severity of sex trafficking and what it is. The issue of sex trafficking affects 2.5 million people at any given time (Abas et al., 2013). The form of sex slavery affects many women and children across the world. Even though both males and females are sexually trafficked and exploited, there is a deep emphasis on the sexual exploitation of women and children. This is due to gender discrimination (Miller, 2006). This is because women and children are more vulnerable and appeal to the larger populations of brothels and the so-called “clients” since the majority are men. Ecclestone (2013) stated that children as young as age three are trafficked. Sex trafficking has changed over time; “Today, the business of human sex trafficking is much more organized and violent. These women and young girls are sold to traffickers, locked up in rooms or brothels for weeks or months, drugged, terrorized, and raped repeatedly” (Walker-Rodriguez & Hill, 2011). It is found that many of the victims of sex trafficking are abducted, recruited, transported and forced into involuntary “sex work”. These sexual acts include prostitution, exotic dancing, pornography, and sexual escort services (McClain & Garrity, 2011). What happens to these sex trafficking victims is extremely traumatizing.
Many of the girls who are thrown or introduced into prostitution, usually have no way of escaping. Pimps would keep eyes on them twenty-four-seven, and if not themselves, they would have partners to keep a look out on them, so no escape would be possible.
Slavery, which has been around for a extreme amount of time, it has been abnormally
The first definition that comes to mind when we hear this term, is the act of being a slave or a person who does not own their own labor. While, yes, this is a definition of slavery; it’s only one of many. For example, our textbook defines slavery as the most extreme form of forced labor (Ember). Another definition would include: the state of one bound in servitude as the property of slaveholder or household (“Definition”). All of these definitions are correct. Slavery is the act of holding/owning another person against their will; a state where one individual has complete control over another’s life, liberty, and fortune. Slavery not only occurred inside the United States, but throughout the entire world.
When we think about slavery many things come to our mind. There are many different ways one can describe slavery. If you were to look it up in a dictionary it would say that a slave is “one who is owned and forced into service by another,” this was the definition given in the Webster’s Dictionary. But then again if you were to look it up in the Oxford Dictionary the definition given here is of one who is an “obsessive devotee.” On the whole slavery can have different meanings to different people.
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...