Andy Mulligan's Trash

The novel ‘Trash’ by Andy Mulligan is a thought provoking text, set in Behala dump-site. This text offers a unique insight into an unusual world, where the citizens have to face extreme poverty, corruption and have to survive in some of the harshest conditions. The themes used in this text help to increase the responders understanding of a contrasting place to the one they live in. The three main protagonists Raphael, Gardo and Rat tell the story, showing the reader a place where the characters battle problems and challenges daily that we would never encounter. This forces the reader to re-examine their perspective of poverty and how they live. Mulligan achieves this through the techniques of setting and imagery.

Trash gives the responder an understanding of how the people in third world countries live in extreme poverty, Without food, education, income or adequate shelter. This story is set in a dump-site located in Behala. “I was a trash boy since I was able to move without help and picking things up. That was what?- three years old, and I was sorting.” This illustrates how hard people in third world countries have to work just to obtain the supplies they need. This was written by one of the main

Its gives the reader an understanding about how hard it is to survive while hoping they don't get sick. They live in and eat aged food, trash and dirt. “So you live day to day and hope you don’t get sick.” This shows people in wealthy countries that not everyone lives the same favourable life as they do and gives them an insight into what people in extremely poor countries have to live in. “We should trust nobody but ourselves”. This shows that the people around them are greedy and selfish. They need to have hope and determination to survive. Lying, stealing and being selfish is needed to receive the resources that they need. Therefore this text gives the reader an idea of how people live in such a diverse