Symbolism is a poetic and literary element that interacts with readers and engages their feelings and emotions. In Sold, thirteen-year-old Nepali girl, Lakshmi, is forced to take a job to help support her family. Involuntarily, she ends up in prostitution via the Happiness House; this sex trafficking battle forces Lakshmi to envision her future and possibility of never returning home. The very first vignette of the novel speaks of a tin roof that her family desperately needs, especially for monsoon season. At the brothel, Lakshmi works to pay off her debt to the head mistress, Mumtaz, but cannot seem to get any sort of financial gain in her time there. Both the tin roof and the debt symbolize unforeseen and improbable ambitions, yet she finds the power within herself to believe. How does Lakshmi believe in herself despite her unfathomable living conditions and occupation?
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 ...
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...stepfather received when he sold Lakshmi is all her family gained from the sexual enslavement. For me, the physical tin roof needed for an improvement of shelter disappeared amidst the struggle for freedom, but Lakshmi showed compassion and effort in order to return home. Reclaiming her life involved risking everything, yet her willpower and purpose proved to be enough after one year of forced prostitution. The symbolic relationship between the tin roof and her debt is consistent throughout every vignette. In the end, both objects dissipated leaving only one completed goal: personal triumph. Her suffrage was inspired by Ama’s words: “Simply to endure … is to triumph” (McCormick, p. 16). The tin roof and debt symbolize her struggle as a woman and having the power to fight for freedom.
Works Cited
McCormick, P. (2006). Sold. New York: Hyperion Books.
Symbolism shows the reader that there is a deeper message within the diction. “The Lottery” addresses the theme more successfully than “The Ones Who Walked Away from the Omelas” with the greater use of religious and traditional symbolism. The symbolisms in “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” are various, but “The Lottery” uses symbolism for personal appeal and also makes a deeper connection between the symbols and the theme, making the short story more successful.
Innocence ripped away and replaced by premature struggling through life is what outlines Sold by Patricia McCormick. This historical fiction novel follows the story of Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old girl living in Nepal. Desperately poor, Lakshmi can only enjoy simple pleasures, such as raising her speckled goat named Tali, and having her mother Ama brush and braid her hair. When the violent Himalayan rains tear away all that remains of their cucumber crops, Lakshmi’s maimed stepfather says she must take up a job, for he cannot get work. Lakshmi is introduced to the charming Bajai Sita who promises her a job as a maid in a wealthy area of India. Excited and full of hope to help her family, Lakshmi endures the long trek to India where her journey ends at the “Happiness House.” Soon she learns the frightening truth: she has been sold into prostitution. She is betrayed, broken, and yet still manages to come through her ordeal with her soul intact. Sold depicts a story meant to teach and inspire, making the novel a piece that is highly important for all to see and read.
The short stories in the novel Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat demonstrate the struggles that individuals face and how they react to them. The characters in the stories come from all different backgrounds and experiences but they all seem to share the same sense of suffering and pain. Danticat uses the women in the collections to display the struggles and unhappiness that the people of Haiti faced in the 1960’s. The women, all from different parts of Haiti and also New York, are faced with issues in the work place, in their social lives but most prominently, within their families. Each woman resolves or works to resolve her problems in a complete egotistical and unique way. In Krik? Krak! Danticat uses characterization to display the suffering of the families in Haiti and individualizes every situation to make it of more emphasis. Danticat also uses a large amount of symbolism while trying to portray the significance of the issues being faced. The major theme in Krik? Krak! centers around the diversity of suffering and that even when put in similar situations, every person suffers differently.
Women all around Esperanza, such as Minerva and Sally, are held hostage, within their own acceptance of an unjust cultural fate. For example, Minerva is a young girl who constantly prays for better luck, and a happier life, but enables her husband to take advantage of her, and therefore sets the path for her unsatisfactory life. “ One day she is through and lets him know enough is enough. Out the door he goes. Clothes, records, shoes. Out the window and the door locked. However, that night he comes back and sends a big rock through the window. Then he is sorry and she opens the door again. Minerva finds herself forgiving without truly seeing that her husband is sorry. She used marriage as a way out from her undesirable life, yet her married life still carries the same characteristics. And so, without fighting for a satisfactory life she settles with the hand she is dealt.
One of the key components of literature is the usage of elements, these elements of literature provide readers with underlying themes that authors put into their story. Without these elements of literature, the author would have no way to convey their true messages into their works. In Zora Neale Hurston’s story “Sweat”, Hurston uses many elements of literature to convey the seriousness and true relationship of couples that have a history of domestic violence. However, a specific element of literature that Hurston uses are symbols which give readers a clearer understanding of domestic abuse and most importantly, the characteristics of the victim and perpetrator of an abusive relationship. The symbols that Hurston uses in her story are what fortifies her plot and characters in “Sweat”.
Through the use of symbolism, and characterization that involves an instance of imagery, the author advocates this notion through the newlywed’s decision of neglecting her personal feminine taste to make her husband’s preferences her own, and embracing her title of submissive partner by kissing the hand. Also, the choice of words to describe each partner differs tremendously, as the author seems to give more importance to the man by making him appear handsome, and particularly strong. On the contrary, the young woman appears to be weak and minor, which supports this idea of submissive women in a couple through the perception of the woman being way behind her husband. This story demonstrates a great symbolic significance when it comes to the hand, which can lead to other important ideas surrounding the message the author is trying to
This work documented the human experience in a light that I would not have seen it had I only read the books assigned to me in class. The themes in this book and how they were portrayed helped me to be able learn symbolism a bit better and also to understand my own life more clearly.
Domestic violence can come in various forms such as physical, mental, and verbal abuse. In the novel the most vulnerable victims to go through this experience was the women and children. The mother, Beatrice, first- hand experience this abuse from her husband and endures it in silence. In this type of culture the women become part of their husbands, their identities in society are their husbands (Fwangyil, 262). Beatrice undergoes several miscarriages at the hands of her husband. For example, one evening the children witnessed their mother hanging over their father’s shoulders and “trickle[s] of blood, which trailed away” (Adichie, 33). Even through all the abuse and miscarriage’s, she continues to defend her husband to the end. Women during
“Sold” by Patricia McCormick is about a 13 year old young girl named Lakshmi that lived in Nepal. She lived with her mom, little sister and stepfather. Lakshmi’s stepfather gambles what very little money they have for their family to survive. Her stepfather said she now had to take a job in order to support her family, he introduced her to a well-looking stranger who tells her that she will be a maid in the city. Lakshmi gladly accepts only to later find out that she has been sold into prostitution. She was only 13 years old when her stepfather sold her to a brothel to help earn money. Mumtaz, an old woman, goes around ruling the brothel with cruelty. The old woman tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she pays off her family’s debt, but Mumtaz steals Lakshmi’s earning so that she can never leave. Then one day, as Lakshmi was getting ready to begin another day waiting for the American, she hears a banging on the door and a voice shouts, “Police!”. She and her friend, Anita, get scared and hide in a closet. Lakshmi recognizes the voice of the American and runs towards him, while her friend stays behind, and gives them her name and age.
‘For a women on this street, I must not lose,’ says Keiko to herself after suffering a chain of setbacks. As Russell points out in The Cinema of Naruse Mikio, the transition of modern city structure provide more women with more space and opportunity to survive, however, the level of female autonomy is tightly linked with the level of pecuniary status. From my perspective, this relationship resembles the shape of an hourglass, i.e., the more economically unprovided or self-sufficient you are, the larger extent of freedom you are given. Apparently, Keiko is currently stuck at the bottleneck, but Naruse dose not limit his focus merely on dwelling upon the dilemma of the heroine. Instead, he provides his audience other ‘potential’ identities or parallels of Keiko by observing other hostesses’ experiences. These female hostesses seem to flow with the tide of mizushōbai, but meanwhile they displays a gesture of strong adaptability generated from a modern subjectivity. For example,
If Lakshmi’s stepfather had been a better man, or had her mother possibly stood up for her, this may have all been prevented. Decisions before her arrival at the brothel led directly to her placement at this horrifying place. The exchange between Bajai Sita and her stepfather occurs and she is then sold off in a few words such as these, “My stepfather says he knows the going rate for a young girl like me. “Noe less than eight hundred.” (McCormick 52). The reader is thrown into a sense of empathy for Lakshmi due to her situation in the current part of the novel. Her uncaring stepfather has just sold her for a handful of rupees, which he will most likely gamble away, and didn’t seem to care one bit. She has no control over this situation due to the culture she lives within. The women in the village must obey the man of their household to avoid exile or a beating. Before the exchange occurs Ama doesn’t try to defy her husband or prevent Lakshmi from going away because she has no idea why she is truly going away. Ama says, “You will make us proud as the first member of our family to leave the mountain. And perhaps at festival time next year, your mistress will let you come back to visit. Then you can tell us all about the world beyond this one.” (McCormick 51). Ama doesn’t realize what is happening to her daughter and where she is going away. If she had
Like the soldiers in the Chinese folktale, the women figures in The House on Mango Street are in a plight. Their condition is horrifying, filled with “restrictive gender roles, and domestic
Before her father was taken away, Parvana’s life was no different than any other Afghan girl. She went to the market with her father and fetched water for her family. She grumbled about having to do her chores and squabbled with her sister. But then her father was taken away, and it left her family in a very fragile condition. Since her father is gone, her family turns to her to support the family.
Early in her life Sonia felt the love and affection of a role model who did nothing but love her. In her book Sonia touches on the topics of how her grandmother helped guide her through her childhood and was the role model that she needed. Sonia said “I have come to believe that in order to thrive, a child must have at least one adult in her life who shows her unconditional love, respect, and confidence. For me it was Abuelita (her grandmother)” (pg ). When Sonia said this it showed how her grandmother shaped her and helped make her into the person that she is today. Sonia’s grandmother was someone that Sonia inspired to be like because she was very close with her grandmother. Another role model that Sonia had was her mother because of how hard she worked to support her family. Sonia’s mother always wanted the best for her family, this shows when Sonia said “She was the one who moved us to the projects. Unlike my aunt, she chose to work. She was the one who insisted we go to Catholic school” (pg 16). With these two role models in her life Sonia was greatly helped on her path to being successful later in
Growing up in a rural society negativity seems to be the common language used, and well positivity, not so much. There’s not much laughter in the city, but it is perhaps laughter on the farm. It’s a small town and not so big as the city. There’s always that “small town girl” that gets caught into the uncommon situations or what we like to call it “big mistakes”. Well, the story of Sold, gives us the history of it all starting with Lakshmi.