Sold

This book really opened my eyes about the kind of world we live in today and that there are still many tragedies and disturbing events that we don’t think about because we’re not always hearing about it.  The main character in this book is a young girl who is very brave and endures many hardships throughout this book.  There was a great culture shock for me as I read this story and I cringed quite a few times throughout this novel.  I definitely saw a great deal of different gender roles that were present throughout this book.  In the beginning, we see that women have different roles in their homes than men.  Women are expected to do all of the chores and do anything and everything they can to please their husband.  The man of the household comes first and everybody else kind of falls to the side.  In our society, there is still a notion that the man is the head of the house, but women are not expected to bow down to them and cater to their every need.  I’m sure this does happen, but it is not the norm for our society.  Women have quite a bit more power in this culture and can be seen as CEO’s of corporations.  In the book we also see that male babies are much more valuable than female babies because once again men are far more superior.  We also see a great deal of poverty throughout this book.  Lakshmi’s family struggles constantly to make ends meet and they are so grateful for even the smallest things such a sweet cake or a little bit of food.  There is a great deal of self-sacrifice in this book because the mother sacrifices her own well-being for that of her husband and children.  Then Lakshmi sacrifices herself into slavery, although she didn’t know it at the time, for the well-being of her entire family and to make sure that they could survive.  Lakshmi’s mother is very kind and gentle towards her children, but also very submissive to her husband’s needs and can’t show any objection to him gambling their money away and spending what money they do have left on frivolous things.  Unfortunately, Lakshmi has a dose of even harder reality when she is sold into slavery.  It’s amazing to me how much prostitution still occurs around the world and even in our own country.  It’s quite sickening to read about the struggles these girls have to go through and how they almost become immune to what is happening to them and they have to accept these circumstances because they’ve gotten used to them.  It’s almost as if their emotions harden because they can’t let themselves feel the sadness and grief of being in that type of place.  Lakshmi does meet people that become a part of her while she is there.  She finds small pieces of warmth and gratitude through a couple of the other girls and Harish.  These people seem to shine a small light for her in a world of darkness.  And it’s amazing to me that the people who work for Mumtaz  have no problem with the kind of business that she is running and even the law enforcement is corrupt because is able to pay off a police officer so that he doesn’t shut her down.  Corruption and greed is a huge part of this book and the culture.  But greed is a common issue all throughout the world in many cultures.  It’s important to remember the things in this world that happen behind closed doors.