Sold By Patricia Mccormick: Summary And Analysis

In a touching novel about the horrific life of a thirteen year-old Nepalese girl, Lakshmi, Patricia McCormick uses a fictional story to portray the lives of real girls. McCormick introduces the reader to the harsh truth about the existence of sex slavery. She paints a vivid picture in the reader’s mind of the brothel, where deceitful adults take an unknowing Lakshmi, called the Happiness House. Sold tells the struggles and perseverance of young girls to make the reader consider what life is like for the women living in brothels or with pimps, and how it affects them after their release or rescue. Having an optimistic outlook can get one far in life, but when considering something as horrible as human trafficking, finding something cheerful

is challenging. Coming into a society full of hypocrisy with people who shun girls like the ones in Sold is a difficult task for the victims of sex slavery. It is clear to see how strict double standards hold trauma survivors back from full integration into society.

If victims of human trafficking had the option to help themselves, friends and family would not accept them due to societal shaming. In Sold, Mumtaz introduces Lakshmi to an outgoing and bold long-term worker at the Happiness House, Monica. The other girls in the brothel look up to her because of the fact that she earns the most money. When the girls pay back all the money that Mumtaz has scammed them out of, she tells them they may leave. A few days after Monica gets to leave the brothel and go back home to her family, she returns unexpectedly and discloses to Lakshmi, "When they heard I was coming… they met me outside the village and begged me not to come back and disgrace them” (130). Lakshmi questions Monica about her daughter, and Monica solemnly replies, “They told her I was dead” (130). Even though Monica was only a part of human trafficking so she could help her father pay for his surgery, no one in her family or any of her friends welcomed her back after she came home. Before traveling back to her village only for her family to turn her away, Monica had unrealistically high hopes for how life would be after she leaves the brothel. She declares to Lakshmi,

“They will thank us and honor us when we go home” (122). Girls living in human trafficking have a sense of false hope. Being lied to that they have something good to look forward to only make the girls want to do better and work harder while with their pimp or in a brothel. Only those who have experienced the shame that their former friends and family put on them, like Monica has, realize that it does not get much better once out in reality. “Successful Reintegration Takes Care” (Nicholas Jaeger) states, “... a family may experience shame and derision because of what their loved one has been through, as if he or she was a criminal rather than a victim.” The community also looks down upon the family of the sex slave just as if they are victims, too. Some families do not want for their community to turn them away. Consequently, they choose to turn away their loved one who has become an outcast and a disgrace to their society. Friends and family members have the duty to be there for support, no matter the circumstances. However, this is not the case for many of the girls involved in human trafficking, due to the fact that their relatives put shame on them for the actions that they have committed, but had no control over.
The girls involved in human trafficking would rather remain with the reliable danger they have become accustomed to rather than going into the unknown society beyond the walls of their horrible lives. Some girls living in brothels believe that someone will emancipate them or their captors will release them. Unfortunately, this could hold them back from attempting to better their lives on their own. The girls have gotten used to the routine of their present lives, and some see no need to change it. Pushpa, a character in Sold, is one of the women who live in the Happiness House. She has two children, Harish who is eight and Jeena who is presumably between the ages of one and three, who also live with her in the brothel. When Pushpa comes down with the coughing disease, Mumtaz threatens to kick her out since she can no longer work due to her illness. She begs Mumtaz to let her and her children stay because she does not know what the outside world has in store for them. She would rather suffer through life in the brothel than face the harsh world outside the door of the Happiness House. Leaving the life she has become so familiar with scares Pushpa. As for most people, change can be troublesome, especially if one’s life has changed so drastically before. The thought of altering the way they live may frighten some of the victims, while others may not have the ability to change their situation even if they would want to. The girls in the Happiness House cannot depart until they pay off their debt towards Mumtaz. The inability to leave gives the girls the thought that staying would be easier. “What is Human Trafficking?” states, “... integration back into society is incredibly difficult because of the shame, stigma, threat of retribution, and trauma experienced during enslavement.” The girls in brothels know this to be accurate so they fear what is out there for them. This causes some to feel the need to stay in the situation they are currently in and to be fearful of how their lives will be after they are free.
Attempting to reintegrate into a society full of hypocrisy can seem to be a difficult task for the victims of human trafficking who have escaped their former lives.

Many men come to brothels for young girls, but when the girls get out of the brothel, the same people who pay for their services are the ones who reject them from the community. Also, people who know about what is going on do nothing to help the unfortunate situation in which many young girls are in. The hypocritical state of today’s society makes it challenging for these girls to eventually become ordinary citizens in the community. “A Human Security Crisis of Global Proportions” explains how “... victims are typically very young, most ranging in age from eight to eighteen years old.” Shunning a child is immoral. Parents, and even older siblings, are the ones who shape the person who the child will grow to be. Without the support and love from relatives, children have nowhere else to go, and no one to define who they will become in the future. All these girls have known are their abhorrent past lives. Having the ability to become a part of society after enduring such hardships can be strenuous without aid from the rest of the community and, most importantly, friends and relatives. Family should be there for each other, no matter what, and, in cases like this, it is obvious some families are not fulfilling that duty. In pursuit to scare the girls away from trying to escape the Happiness House, Mumtaz

cuts the escapee’s hair so everyone knows what she has done. On Lakshmi’s travel to get to the brothel, she sees a girl about her age with her head shaven that is being beaten and spat at. Shaving the girls’ heads is a way for the people who are in charge of them to try and dehumanize the girls as much as possible. This physical mark labels them as an outsider and automatically makes other people skeptical of their past. The shunning of girls involved in human trafficking is similar to the ostracization of teenage girls who are pregnant. Neither the victims of human trafficking nor pregnant teens affect anyone else besides themselves yet people who are outsiders in either situation judge them and push them away from the rest of society.
Though most people would like to think otherwise, girls who escape human trafficking face many obstacles in place for them by society. Sadly, some of these difficulties can be as bad for them as it was while living as a victim of sex slavery. Society needs to show a certain level of empathy for these girls and accept them back into the community as an ordinary citizen. These victims have no control over the torture their captors forced them to endure against their will. Neglecting the fact that sex slavery is real and rejecting the people involved is no way to help the cause. However, inviting the survivors of human trafficking back into the community after their liberation instead of ostracizing them as an outsider is a step in the right direction to correcting our double standard society in which we live today.