The word sold has a simple meaning. Yet, this simple word can cause complex and horrifying actions to take place that would make any human feel a sense of empathy. Human trafficking is one of many issues inside the United States but the effects are visibly more profound in third world countries. Innocent males and females, such as Lakshmi, are sold into prostitution, slavery and other traffic-related activities. Sold, written by Patricia McCormick, brings to light the horrors of human trafficking in India. Intellectual empathy, the process of placing your imaginative self in the shoes of another person, is used creatively and efficiently in this novel to carry out a point of view. The main character in this novel is a young girl from Nepal …show more content…
named Lakshmi. She begins in the small villages of Nepal where money is scarce and poverty is abundant. Her stepfather is an ugly man, which accurately describes both his personality and physical being, who gambles away their next-to-nothing, yet desperately needed, earnings. She is knowingly sold by her stepfather into prostitution and makes her own mysterious trip to India with the brothel representative. Lakshmi arrives and slowly realizes what her role is in this building. The life of the brothel is not a comfortable lifestyle and she soon understands she can’t live this life for an extended period of time. She must learn how to survive and escape in order to live a life outside of the brothel. The character decisions in the novel are semi-based off true factual evidence from Lakshmi’s real life story. This essay will review and, based off of personal decisions, will decide whether or not these character decisions were correct or incorrect. Intellectual empathy changes a reader’s point of view to one that is not objective and doesn’t judge, but readers must overcome this empathy to understand the severity and awareness brought to light in this novel. Characters in this novel do not make correct decisions to protect Lakshmi and prevent this prostitution from occuring.
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 …show more content…
realized what the exchange truly had in tale she most likely would have stopped the deal. However, because of the inferior position of women compared to the men in their village, she is not informed enough to understand and stop this exchange. Ama may have been more knowledgeable if she had asked questions to understand what was going to happen. Lakshmi’s family transitions from the one at her village to a family in the brothel. The readers must decide which family treated her better in the given situations. Lakshmi’s fellow inmates at the brothel were supportive of her and without this she may have not lived to tell her tale. The viewers of the movie can see Lakshmi almost attempt suicide early on in her placement of the brothel. She stands on the roof and contemplates jumping off to end her own life. However, due to the support of one girl at the brothel, she is stopped and her life is saved in a display of empathy. She first begins speaking to Shahanna after her traumatic experiences of being drugged and forced into actions with men. Shahanna says, “ask the men to use it, so that you do not get a disease. Most of them will say no; they will threaten to go somewhere else if you insist.” (McCormick 182). The reader is once again placed into the shoes of these innocent girls forced into terrifying situations such as this. They must worry about condoms at this age to prevent from receiving diseases. At this age no girl should have to worry about any problems that are severe as what they must deal with. The readers must see past the empathy to understand the novel as a whole and how these events lead to their freedom. Directly before Lakshmi escaped to freedom she is almost sold to another brothel but a fellow girl, named Anita, prevents that from happening. The novel says, “Anita says Mumtaz is going to sell me to another brothel. Her crooked face is wet with tears. She says that if I don’t get up and join the other girls, I will be gone by nightfall. “Please.” she begs. (McCormick 220). Anita prevents Lakshmi from being sold to another brothel. This simple act of kindness leads to the freedom of Lakshmi and the American being able to talk to her for a final time. The reader doesn’t know that this act of kindness leads to her freedom until later in the novel, but by looking back at this event they understand how important it was that Anita saved Lakshmi. The fellow girls at the brothel lead to Lakshmi’s freedom but the main influencers of her freedom are the Americans who met with her at the brothel. The kind-hearted Americans who freed Lakshmi directly influenced her release and her life.
The Americans who were brave enough to enter the brothel in order to talk to Lakshmi deserve recognition for their efforts. They were able to manipulate their own intellectual empathy to realize how terrible the lives of these girls were. They then used that empathy to save Lakshmi, and most likely many other girls, from the life of a brothel. Before the final American comes to see Lakshmi the readers see the emotion Lakshmi produces and that she is finally ready to leave this nasty place. She thinks to herself, “Today I will ask him if it is really true that he knows everyone in this town. And today I will show him the small white American card with the flying bird on it.” (McCormick 240). If the reader is experiencing intellectual empathy through the novel they will most likely feel a hint of hope and happiness from this sentence. They begin to realize that there is hope for Lakshmi’s freedom and she is ready to admit herself to the Americans. The work of the Americans would be futile without the cooperation of Lakshmi. She is now ready for her attempt at freedom and her removal from the brothel. The final American comes with promises of hope and dreams for a new life. He tells Lakshmi, “I can take you to a clean place. Look. Pictures. Of the Shelter. Other girls.” (McCormick 247). This American is attempting to convince Lakshmi to escape this place and come live a life that a young
girl should be living. She is very frightful and suspicious of him due to the lies and stories told by the women at the brothel. However, she is desperate enough and wishes to be rid of this place. This desperate need to leave the brothel is a main factor in her calling out to the Americans during the final raid and her ultimate freedom. Lakshmi was a brave girl who wished to be free and would do anything in an attempt to leave the brothel. The contribution of all characters in the novel lead to the freedom of Lakshmi. Intellectual empathy was correctly used by the author to place the reader in the shoes of Lakshmi. They felt her emotions and physical pain she experienced throughout each day. Those around Lakshmi could have prevented the sale of her personal freedom to the brothel. However, due to the tragic events that occured that wasn’t possible. She was then given freedom through the support of those around her such as the women in the brothel and the Americans who came to help her. Intellectual empathy is a powerful tool to create a novel with. The depiction of problems in India, such as human trafficking and prostitution, was depicted correctly and without flaw. It moves readers to gain more knowledge on the topic and proceed to make a change in the world.
Pulse by Josephine Birdsell utilizes imagery to illustrate culture within the LGBT community by describing theme, characters, setting, and mood while providing foreshadowing throughout the narrative.
I agree with the quote "A work of literature must provide more than factual accuracy or vivid physical reality... it must tell us more than we already know.". I feel like when reading a book it shouldn't be all about facts or just story lines. A book should should mix things up so it makes us want to read them and not focus on one thing. The Book Sold tells us facts about sex trafficking but it also provides us with something else, how a life of young girl is sold into sex trafficking by her step father so she can help the family with money. The second book "Eleanor and Park" talks about vivid details and also has a story line about relationships.
The professor, Deborah Brandt, believes that one becomes literate by their surroundings and not by themselves. In the first paragraph it claims that literacy is not simply about reading and writing, but also how you can use all the knowledge you acquired into real life situations such as solving problems. Brandt claims that sponsors do help out individuals, she also thinks that sponsors have their own goals they are striving for. Although, sponsors are supposed to help out individuals it seems like they pretend to be the protagonist, but are hiding their self-interest at the same time. This makes me question if whether or not my English teacher would actually preparing us for our AP exam or just making us write over and over?
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...
Lakshmi understands that her family has no money, a bad roof, and little food that weighs heavily on her young soul. She tries very hard to keep it inside and not show Ama how this makes her sad. Even with all of this, Lakshmi still finds a way to daydream, and Ama finds themselves daydreaming a lot. “Instead, we linger over a luxury that costs nothing.” Imagine what may be,” for Ama and her daughter, it is all they have (29).
As victim count continues to rise, its difficult to see how such great numbers of men, women and children are bought and sold every year. Trafficking can be found in many forms, including: prostitution, slavery, or forced labor (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). It wasn’t until the 1980’s that international human trafficking became globally noticed. With the lack of government intervention and control in several nations, and the free trade market, slavery once again became a profitable industry (Harf and Lombardi, 2014). As previously mentioned, easier movement across nations borders is one of the outcomes of globalization. It is also what makes human trafficking so easy today. It is estimated that about 20.9 million people are victims across the entire globe (United Nations Publications, 2012); trafficking accounts for 32 billion dollars in generated profit globally (Brewer, n.d). 58 percent of all human trafficking was for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and of this 55-60 percent are women (United Nations Publications,
She begins talking about her childhood and who raised her until she was three years old. The woman who raised her was Thrupkaew’s “auntie”, a distant relative of the family. The speaker remembers “the thick, straight hair, and how it would come around [her] like a curtain when she bent to pick [her] up” (Thrupkaew). She remembers her soft Thai accent, the way she would cling to her auntie even if she just needed to go to the bathroom. But she also remembers that her auntie would be “beaten and slapped by another member of my family. [She] remembers screaming hysterically and wanting it to stop, as [she] did every single time it happened, for things as minor as…being a little late” (Thrupkaew). She couldn’t bear to see her beloved family member in so much pain, so she fought with the only tool she had: her voice. Instead of ceasing, her auntie was just beaten behind closed doors. It’s so heart-breaking for experiencing this as a little girl, her innocence stolen at such a young age. For those who have close family, how would it make you feel if someone you loved was beaten right in front of you? By sharing her story, Thrupkaew uses emotion to convey her feelings about human
“When we got the letter in the post, my mother was ecstatic.”(Cass 1). This the first line of the book that I read called The Selection by Kiera Cass, which is the perfect way to start this dramatic story of America Singer. America Singer lives in a world built with castes, in which she and her family are fives out of eight castes. She gets a letter to enter The Selection, a competition for Prince Maxon’s heart. America’s name gets pulled and the next thing she knows, she is in the palace with 34 other girls. She goes on an emotional journey trying to decide if she wants to stay or go back home. I can easily evaluate that America has a lot of different thoughts running through her head right now. I found myself asking many questions such as
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
Sripathi’s intolerance of spending money on anything but himself leads to the disgust of his wife. During the planning of Maya’s engagement, he worries about “how much that [would] cost” (102) and even calls his wife a “foolish woman” (102). This is significant because it shows that Sripathi cannot bear the thought of splurging on his daughter’s engagement. This shows that he does not care about pleasing other people who are invited to ceremony; rather, he cares about his own financial future. Through the exchange between him and his wife, Sripathi is portrayed as a selfish person who only cares about his own opinions. He even belittles his wife for not accepting his opinion as the best idea. However, after Maya’s death, Sripathi copes by becoming more empathetic. He recalls what he has done to Maya and wonders how he will be able to face his grandchild with the knowledge that he is responsible for her mother’s death (245). This is significant because Sripathi begins to reflect and consider how others feel. Through this personal thought, this reveals how much his character has changed since the death of Maya. He now understands that he will not be able to face his grandchild because of how disowning Maya contributed to her death. Sripathi now tries to atone for what he has done to Maya by attempting to get closer to Nandana. This helps him to
Kara, Siddharth. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New York: Columbia UP, 2009. 5. Print.
Behnke, Alison Marie. "Sex Sells." Up for Sale: Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 30-42. Print.
to America with grace and compassion. This story by Jhumpa Lahiri, is an allegory establishing an identity with using symbolic meaning between two cultures that intersect. The themes throughout the story refer to immigrant experiences, the conflict of cultures, the contrast of assimilation and the connection between generations. The Namesake, opens the worlds of emotions Ashima experiences, while straddling her two worlds. This story of identity allows readers to travel with Ashima on an intimate journey through her life as an immigrant.
In today’s era of technological advancement and scientific discovery, Man’s greed for power and fame has grown exponentially. We live in a world where we have accepted man’s absolute control over each and everything. The unjustified trade and enslavement of human beings in the current age represents a fallen civilisation. A civilisation that is advanced in technology and science, but backward in ethical values. So much so that personal greed comes before the value of a person’s life. Human trafficking is one of the most significant problems faced by the world today. It portrays a picture of inequality among equals with no regard for the right of every individual. Human trafficking is basically the use of human deception to exploit the vulnerable and the needy. According to Koettl (2009), “Human trafficking, as it is defined by international law, subsumes all forms of non-consensual
Human trafficking, or the selling and buying of people, is a well-hidden yet prominent issue within today’s society. It is both an immoral and horrific topic that needs brought to attention and dealt with. When human beings are manipulated into work, sexual servitude, or economic hardship, human trafficking is occurring. In the year of 2006, only one individual is convicted of human trafficking per 800 victims (UNGIFT). By looking at straight statistics, reasons human trafficking happens, and the toll it has on people, it is very clear that this is a major issue that is happening in our world.