Imagine a cool mountain breeze blowing through your hair and goats baaing in the back background. This is what Lakshmi grew up with. As a young girl she would play with her goat and water her plants and take care of her little baby brother. Her step dad was a gambler and did not hold onto money well. The family lost so much money that they could no longer support the family. Lakshmi’s step dad sold her to a woman where she was told that she was helping make money for her family. In reality he just needed to get rid of her so he could pay for the people living in the home ( her brother and mom). As she is fighting for her safety in this new world that she lives in Lakshmi must be brave and face any fears she has. Lakshmi has developed the trait …show more content…
Lakshmi lives in a brothel called “The Happy House” where she was treated exceedingly poor. Moving to the happy house came as a shock to Lakshmi because of how badly the woman who ran it treated her. “Then Mumtaz flies at me. She grabs me by the hair and drags me across the room.” (103). Mumtaz is a very aggressive woman who runs the happy place and she punishes the girls that do not do as the men or she says. “There is a slicing sound, and a clump of my hair falls to the floor.” (107) Mumtaz makes it almost impossible in every way for the girls to leave. She will scar them and make them ugly or she won’t give them medicine to help them get better. She makes them too weak or scared to fight back. While she was at the happy house she met a girl named Shahanna that she became friends with over the time she was there. “It’s Shahanna, the girl with the nut-brown skin, holding a cup of tea.” (114) Shahanna took care of Lakshmi and they treated each other like sisters. When Lakshmi was taken away not only was she escaping to freedom she was leaving everyone who helped her along the way. Even though the story stops abruptly Lakshmi will never forget who helped in that terrible place. A person who goes through something as traumatic as this will come out as a different person and Lakshmi definitely remained …show more content…
‘How much do you want for her?’” 52-53. Lakshmi’s dad was a man with bad habits and he would usually gambel any money her family made. When his habits get the best of him he makes a decision that was made to easily on his side. He sold Lakshmi to a mumtaz, and from then on her life changed forever. “Krishna is shy when he passes me in the village, his sleepy cat eyes fixed on the ground in front of his feet.” 18 When she lived in the mountains she was promised to a boy named Krishna. Lakshmi looked forward to this so when she got her period it meant she could be with him soon. She always watched when he would come home and she was happy when he would walk by. Leaving Krishna was hard for Lakshmi because that was her leaving promised future. When leaving Lakshmi was brave because she kept an open mind about her undecided
What happens when a young girl is betrayed and sold into a world of harassment and betrayal? Her father dies, and her mother and she are “taken in” by a “man.” She is sold by her so-called stepfather to a woman named Mumtaz. Mumtaz owns a place called the happiness house. This is where the main character and a few other girls live. This is the place where men come, and girls were forced to do things that they didn’t want to do. Mumtaz found ways to not let the girls pay off their debt, and they could only leave after they are diseased. Lakshmi is a young girl, who is forced to lose her gold (innocence) at a young age. Throughout her journey, she realized
In Great Expectations, Pip is set up for heartbreak and failure by a woman he trusts, identical to Hamlet and Gertrude, but Pip is rescued by joe who pushes Pip to win the love of his life. Similar to Gertrude in Hamlet Miss Havisham becomes a bystander in Pip’s life as she initiates the play that leads to heartbreak several times and she watches Pip’s life crumble due to her teachings. The next quote shows Miss Havisham explaining to Pip the way she manipulated his love Estella to break his heart every time. “‘but as she grew, and promised to be very beautiful, I gradually did worse, and with my praises, and with my jewels, and with my teachings… I stole her heart away and put ice in its place’” (Dickens, 457). This quote makes it clear the Miss Havisham set Hamlet up for failure by making him fall for a woman he could never have.
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 novel, ‘Between shades of gray’ written by Ruta Sepetys was published in 2011. In the novel, various character traits can be distinctively seen between the protagonists and antagonists. In the book, the main protagonist, Lina Vilkas is one of the characters with various traits such as hopeful, brave, caring, helpful and determined. Within the book, these traits can be thoroughly seen from the beginning to end.
Does being the antagonist always mean you are evil? In AELA this year, we read a short story called Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Rudyard Kipling. In the story, the main character, a mongoose named Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, is washed out of his home, and taken in by a family of people. In the backyard, there are two snakes, Nag, and his wife Nagaina. Rikki has to fight the snakes in order to ‘save’ himself, and the other creatures in the backyard. That is, however, only Rikki’s side of the story. This essay is about Nagaina, and how she may be more than just an evil antagonist. In the story, Nagaina is not only sly, but also intelligent and caring. Almost everything Nagaina did was for her children, still eggs at the time.
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...
She woke up realizing that there is one day less than yesterday. Lakshmi realizes that “all I know is that each time one leaves, my debt to Mumtaz grows a little smaller”(130). This expresses that after each day ends there is one less day that she will be in the tortuous house. This gave her hope to try with all her might every day so Lakshmi can get a lot of money which would lead her to return home. She kept an account of everything to calculate exactly how much time she would be there and try her hardest even though she hated doing it. This gave her hope to continue what she was doing and try harder. Lakshmi was always positive in every situation she had to face. In the novel Sold, it expresses that “if you look hard enough, chaos turns into the way letters turn into words”(76). This quote explains that she was positive in all situations. Even at the lowest point of time, she was optimistic and looked at the brighter side. She had the hope that one-day thing was turn to something good and life would get better, but she just has to try harder. She determined that she will work harder to achieve her goal which was to leave the brothel. Her main strength was having hope and being optimistic in every situation in faced in the
The poverty that Lakshmi and her family face is inconceivable. The thought of not having money to fix their roof, sufficient food supplies, or enough money to enjoy simple luxuries is made clear in the beginning of the story. Lakshmi sees the possibility of her going to the city for a job as an opportunity to help her family and to earn wages to aid in their financial struggle, as well as self-confidence and to prove that she is a hard worker. Ama, her mother, is subordinate to her husband and follows all directions. When Lakshmi and Ama are enjoying popcorn and a cigarette, respectively, Ama says that with that year’s crop, they may be able to afford some new things. All Lakshmi thinks of is the tin roof. The realization of not getting a new roof sets in when they think of all of the payments and expenses that need to occur before ...
Before finding out about her biological parents, Asha acts very immaturely and inconsiderately. The first example portraying Asha's unsophisticated behaviour takes place while Asha has a disagreement with her parents because of her poor grades. After her mother offers to helps, she replies, “'I don't need a tutor, and I definitely don't want your help,' Asha says choosing her words to sting her mother'” (Gowda, 150). Here, Asha is deliberately trying to hurt her mother's feelings and is acting very inconsiderately. Also, the fact that she is yelling at her mother, even though her mother is only offering to help, showcases her immaturity.
I picked this theme because no matter how much Mumtaz (the ‘owner’ of Lakshmi) tried to get Lakshmi to give up on her life at home and instead wanted her to stay miserable at ‘happiness house,’ Lakshmi never forgot she had a country, an age, and a family. “You are safe here only if you do not show how frightened you are.” (McCormick, 116) In the back of her mind, there always were thoughts of her friend Ama, her stepfather, and her baby brother suffering back from Nepal. She always thought of her real home in Nepal and always said one thing to herself, looking at the mirror. “My name is Lakshmi. I am from Nepal. I am thirteen years old.” (McCormick, 263/many other pages) She never forgets where she comes from, who she really is, how old she is, and that she is a child and does not belong to ‘happiness house’. This has helped her keep up a positive attitude, and soon enough, she was thinking about her family and how she should take care of them once she was free. This helped her not only persevere but to complete the work and eventually
Next let us examine Mariam's plight. She is denied the chance to go to school. "What's the sense schooling a girl like you? It's like shinning a spitspoon." She lives with a cruel mother. "You are a clumsy little harami. This is my reward for everything I've endured. An heirloom-breaking, clumsy little harmi"(4). She has a neglectful father. "Mariam kept thinking of his face in the upstairs window. He let her sleep on the street. On the street. Mariam cried lying down"(35). Her mother commits suicide and Mariam blames herself. "You stop that. These thoughts are no good, Mariam jo. You hear me, child? No good. They will destroy you. It wasn't your fault. It wasn't your fault no". Mariam nodded, but as desperately as she wanted to she could not bring herself to believe him"(44). She is forced into marriage to a man she does not love. "I don't want to," Mariam said. She looked at Jalil. "I don't want this. Don't make me"(47). She is sent to live in a strange city were she does not know anyone. She has a physically abusive husband. "Then he was gone, leaving Mariam to spit out pebbles, blood, and the fragments of two broken molars"(104). Her husband is cruel and says hurtful words to her. She can not do anything right in his eyes. When he is not ignoring her he is being verbally or physically abusive towards her.
After that happened the days passed by and she started developing
Another form to earning some money is turning to prostitution. This is where the one beautiful young widow with long hair comes to play. Kalyani was forced into prostitution by the head of the ashram Didi in order to keep the place by ends meet. Didi’s friend Gulabi takes her regularly to the upper class homes where the men pay her for her “duty”. In addition, the ashram is alongside the Ganges River.
So goes this story and tells us how the poor Rukumani suffers to hide her love from her parents, how she suffers to get away from the arranged marriage her parents are planning for her, how she suffers without seeing her lover Devanayagam and worst of all what happens when she finally tells her parents about her love.