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The Relationship Between Father And Daughter
Effect of prostitution
Effect of prostitution
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Over 2 million children are sold into sex trafficking each year (Global). Sold gives the eye-opening narrative of just one of them. I followed Lakshmi through her journey as she learned about life outside her small hometown in Nepal. She loved her mother and baby brother and worked hard to keep up with her repulsive step-father’s gambling habit. When given the opportunity to take a job that could provide for her family, Lakshmi accepted the offer. Unknowingly, she walked into the hands of horrible people who led her blindly on the path of prostitution. Discovering her fate, Lakshmi latched onto hope when all seemed bleak. After months of endless abuse, some Americans gave her the opportunity to escape her situation, and, thankfully, she took …show more content…
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 …show more content…
At home in Nepal, Ama was Lakshmi’s role model, and even though she wasn’t able to provide Lakshmi with the luxuries that their neighbors had, “her slender back, which bears all troubles- and all hope- was still the most beautiful” to Lakshmi (McCormick 7). Even though she was not dynamic, I fell in love with how she inspired Lakshmi through her trials and her representation of the strong, hard-working women in Nepali culture. There were also a few other static characters, most of which I did not like at all. Her stepfather, Auntie Bimla, Uncle Husband and Auntie Mumtaz were the figures of authority that Lakshmi associated with her tortured existence in India, but in the midst of the hardship, there were characters that provided just as much light to Lakshmi’s life as there was darkness. For example, the young tea vendor lifted Lakshmi’s spirits with his polite gestures of free tea when she couldn’t afford it, as well as keeping her on the right path when Lakshmi was tempted to buy alcohol to soothe her misery (McCormick 224). Along with Lakshmi’s friend Shahanna, he too was taken away and I was convinced of Lakshmi’s impending doom even more than she herself probably was. All seemed dark until the second American came with his “digital magic”. By using his camera to show her pictures of rescued girls, this brave man was able to convince Lakshmi
The book Renting Lacy: A Story of America’s Prostituted Children by Linda Smith addresses the topic of the underground world of child sex trafficking. Unfortunately, it is a topic that has been purposefully neglected in our society for many years. The author presents every chapter with a real story of a sexually exploited child. The stories are intense, powerful but especially touching which makes the reader feel frustrated, desperate, and vexed. After every chapter, Smith tries to include commentaries that presents a deeper understating about human trafficking. It seems that the purpose of her commentaries is to make the reader think deeper about the problem of sex trafficking and accumulate desires to act towards this issue as they continue
The documentary, Very Young Girls, was heart-wrenching, informative, and very hard to relate to these young girls. These girls are daughters, sisters, friends, family, and some are already mothers. However, these young women are treated and seen as criminals, not as victims. Prostitution and human-trafficking happens everywhere and every day, including in the United States. People have this perspective that human trafficking only happens in foreign countries. There’s a negative stigma on prostitution because we, as a society, only pay attention to the sexual acts and services that these women provide. Young women’s dignity, adolescences, and respect is taken away from them. Yet, this was not their choice, but they do not have positive influences
Hope and friendship are two cornerstones for surviving life’s difficulties. For example, it helped Lakshmi to move forward and continue her life despite how hard it was, and how easy it would be to end it all by giving up. Another example is how hope and friendship in my life has helped me get through school.
Kara, Siddharth. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New York: Columbia UP, 2009. 5. Print.
The value of a woman as a mother, wife, sister, daughter or aunt has been replaced for sexual please. Greed and perversion disguised as men chose to debase America’s women and children for their own selfish gain. Child sexual exploitation is the most hidden form of child abuse in the U.S. and North America today. It is the nation’s least recognized epidemic. The overwhelming majority of children forced to sell their bodies on the street are girls. Young boys face hardship and abuse as well, but they often fend for themselves to survive. The girls, on the other hand, inevitably fall victim to pimps and organized trafficking networks. (Sher, pg. V)
Over millennium people have changed their point of views, similar stories or practices were given different names. For example, ideologies of Greek Mythology and Hinduism are very similar because both beliefs in polytheism. Many believe the Bell-Krater which is a wine mixing bowl and it was dedicated to Persephone, the goddess of spring and harvest. However, according to Hindus this Bell Krater wasn’t for mixing wine, but, for grinding herbs such as Mendhi (Henna) and Haldi (Turmeric). This artifact was created to portray the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, who represents wealth and prosperity. The Hindu Goddess Lakshmi being lifted up above to transform to become a goddess. The mixing bowl for Hindu was to grind herbs such as Mendhi (Henna) and Haldi
Mumtaz, the ruler of the brothel, runs the house with brutality and a sense of street smart. Cheating Lakshmi of her paltry earnings, Mumtaz tells the girl she will never leave until she can pay off her family’s debts, which will never happen given the way the process is set up. She is living what is essentially enforced slavery. Despite her dire circumstances, Lakshmi continues to live by her mother’s words “simply to endure is to triumph” and slowly forms friendships with Shahanna and Anita who enable her to make it through her new struggles (McCormick 16). She learns to speak English from “this David Beckham boy” (McCormick 140). In time, Lakshmi meets a disguised Ame...
Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a $32-billion-per-year business, and that 79% of this activity comprises sexual exploitation. As many as 2 million children a year are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, according the the U.S. State Department.-- Cynthia G. Wagner. (Darker Side, par. 4) The words prostitute, pimp, escort, and stripper tend to be way too common in the American everyday vocabulary. People use these words in a joking manner, but sex trafficking is far from a joke. Everyday, from all different countries, people are bought and sold either by force or false promises. Some are kidnapped and others come to America with dreams of a dream life and job. The buyers involved in the trade will do anything to purchase an innocent life just to sell for their own selfish profit. Many people wouldn’t think of a human body to be something you can buy in the back room of a business or even online. But those plus the streets are where people are sold most often. There are many reasons and causes for sex trafficking. The factors behind sex traffic...
The Guardian describes the story of Marinela, A seventeen year old Romanian girl who was kidnapped and sold as a sex slave. The British newspaper shared that “[Marinela’s] Daily shifts lasted twelve hours, 10pm to 10am, seven days a week.” She was later discovered and arrested for prostitution in England. It was also reported that, “Her first day in custody was the first time since her arrival in England six months earlier that she had not been forced to have sex.” (Townsend). Unfortunately, Marinela’s story is not unique, she was discovered with at least one hundred other Romanian teenage girls, and she is one of an estimated four million victims of human trafficking each year (Moju Project). Romania’s human trafficking crisis is a direct consequence of the country’s communist history, volatile political rule, and discrimination towards women. Although child trafficking is a pervasive issue in Romania, it can be solved by raising awareness and creating a safe, family- oriented environment that protects, and educates “at-risk” children while promoting self-confidence.
“Stolen people, stolen dream” is the brutality faced by numerous, vulnerable, gullible children in the black market around the world even in the admirable United States. Trafficking of children is the modern day slavery, the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. More than ever, it has become a lucrative method that is trending in the underground economy. A pimp can profit up to $150,000 per children from age 4-12 every year, as reported by the UNICEF. Also, according to the International Labor Organization statistics, “There are 20.9 million victim of human trafficking globally, with hundreds of thousands in the United
The novel depicts the life of Jaya at the level of the silent and the unconscious. A sensitive and realistic dramatization of the married life of Jaya and her husband Mohan, it portrays and inquisitive critical appraisal to which the institution of marriage has been subjected to in recent years. It centers round the inner perception of the protagonist, a woman who is subtly drawn from inside, a woman who finds her normal routine so disrupted that for the first time she can look at her life and attempt to decide who she really
Indian-Canadian writer Anita Rau Badami has penned a few widely praised books managing the complexities of Indian family life and the cultural gap that rises when Indians move toward the west. A nostalgic mother-daughter story told by two women from the Moorthy family, Badami's Tamarind Mem is a novel about the energy of memory and narrating. The Washington post surveys the novel as being “splendidly evocative.... as much a book about the universal habit of storytelling as it is about the misunderstandings that arise between a mother and daughter.” Lisa Singh calls her reading experience of Tamarind Mem as being “bittersweet…. with often stunning, poetic prose, [Badami] gives us an intimate character study of two women” (Star Tribune).
“Life has taught me many things ; showed me much; it has also lashed out at me till I bled. I do not know how much longer I am going to live; nor do I know in what form life is going to confront me. Let it come in any form, I am ready to face it stoically. That is what my life has taught me. That is my life, and that is me.”(Pawar
Dhowli and her mother were forced into the world of being untouchables because they were widows. It was not from a choice or action; it was because their husbands had died. In India, widows were forced to live a life of isolation and have very limited financial and social opportunities. “Dhowli” by Mahasweta Devi tells the story of Dhowli and the challenges facing widowed untouchables in India. “Dhowli” is about a woman facing a forbidden love that ultimately brings her final downfall of losing her family and becoming a prostitute. Throughout the story, the reader begins to understand the discrimination and hardships that untouchables faced.
In Charulata, Ray seems to suggest that the Bengali Renaissance was essentially a bourgeois male fantasy backed by wealth, lofty ideals and self-indulgence. It was male-centric and lacking in practical wisdom and it became a victim of its own high minded idealism. The high liberal rhetoric of these men was a borrowed voice from the west which had no real connection with the actual realities of the day. Most of them could not even keep their own house in order. Bhupati Nath Dutta, Charulata’s husband, the self-proclaimed liberal social reformer, is portrayed as being so lost in himself that he unknowingly neglects his wife who remains in seclusion within the “andarmahal” or inner sanctum of the house. Bhupati, in his western clothes, spouts the new liberal rhetoric but he hardly notices Charu’s bid to break out of her role as a 19th century housewife. Thus, Ray shows that the neo-liberalism which these Bengali Renaissance men insisted was in substance only a facade trying to conceal the same old power and gender structures. Although Bhupati instructs Amal, his cousin, to look after Charu’s education and creative writing, his overall attitude reveals that Charu’s creative gifts are hardly of much importance in the larger social context. Bhupati’s neo-liberal political and socialist stance is thus revealed to be much nar...