Behind The Beautiful Forevers Analysis

“Hope is like the sun, which, as we journey toward it, casts the shadow of our burden behind us”(Samuel Smiles). The book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, written by Katherine Boo, depicts a troublesome slum that is trapped in a rapidly revolving culture. Where time is progressing continuously for the rest of the world, the slums of Annawadi are stuck in it’s backlash. In a place invisible to ignorant eyes, the future of Annawadi was doomed from the start. Annawadi was polluted by society and the people who call its slums their home. Annawadi can even be called an eternal illusion that traps and manipulates its people. In a place where misery and pain is guaranteed, a light a created to keep out the dark. Hope falsely created by the people of

The hopes and dreams of Annawadi’s citizens breed corruption. In hopes of leaving Annawadi, Asha resorts to scams and cheating to make them come true. For her, it is the only effective method to make those dreams happen. However, in reality, the people living in Annawadi were doomed from the start. Either having a dream come true or even a jump in social class is a rarity that does not favor the people. Hope is what makes them delusional and blind from reality. This is what’s holding back most of the people of Annawadi. They sit around and hope that other people will make a change, that the Corporator will stop the raze, and that they won’t be forgotten. After Kalu died,no one realised that his death was already set in stone. Boo wrote “ To Annawadi boys, Kalu had been a star. To the authorities of the over city, he was a nuisance to be dispensed with” (168). Kalu’s mistake was giving police intel on criminals, and therefore died a brutal death. His punishment for being naive was paid by a quick case, false cause of death, and no autopsy. In addition, Sanjay was also treated like Kalu. Boo wrote, “So Sanjay’s mother learned only what another mother, who slept on the pavement, dared to whisper: ‘Your boy died with fear in his heart.’” (174). The people who live in Annawadi who had dreams are forced to face the truth. When Abdul was in jail, Mirchi had to sort garbage to earn money for the family. The boy who dreamed of working in a fancy hotel and declared to never sort garbage was forced to eat his words. Once Mirchi started working his mother would complain about how terrible he was. Mirchi had to take up any job he could, even multiple ones. After realizing his dreams were for a boy he told his sister that they were “down to earn-and-eat.” (238). Unlike Mirchi, people like Abdul doesn’t waste their time on false hope, instead, they