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New York City
Callie cut herself because of feelings of guilt and anger that she couldn’t express verbally. She was unable to speak, I think, because she was afraid of being misunderstood and afraid of letting out a secret that could have troubling consequences for the rest of her family.
Fifteen-year-
The main theme of “Sold” by Patricia McCormick is the triumph over adversity. Lakshmi never gives up the hope of escaping her captors and returning home to her family. Without that determination a person can’t overcome their hurdles.
She lives in a poor hut with her mother, Ama, her stepfather, and her baby half-brother. Because it is sinful to live without a man in the family, Lakshmi’s mother, Ama, quickly remarried a crippled man, and had a son with him.
Tali is a young, female, goat and is the pet of Lakshmi. Tali is a cute, loud, goat who loves attention. Lakshmi is Tali’s favorite person.
Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old farm girl in danger, the narrator and protagonist of the novel. When the monsoons come and her family’s crops are destroyed, she is sold into sex slavery by her stepfather.
Uncle Husband. One of the people who transport Lakshmi to India, Uncle Husband is the person who gets Lakshmi over the border between Nepal and India. He meets Lakshmi and Bimla at the building where Lakshmi gets her new clothes.
How has this influenced the life he lives? “”My stepfather’s arm is a withered and useless thing. Broken as a child when there was no money for a doctor, his poor mangled limb pains him during the rainy months and gives him great shame. This is the season when they bury the children who die from the coughing disease.”
Happiness House
Ama’s earrings is described as the joyful noise of tinkling gold. It signifies Ama’s pride. The family hoped it would serve as Lakshmi’s dowry, but they decide to sell it when things become really difficult. This means that Lakshmi’s dowry would not be paid.
Mumtaz orders Pushpa to leave Happiness House.
What conditions caused Lakshmi’s family to “sell” her? While Lakshmi and her mother were starving at home, Lakshmi’s stepfather… How does Mumtaz try to force Lakshmi to be with men?
Why does Lakshmi feel proud when her stepfather takes her to Bajai Sita’s store to be sold? She is proud to get a job in the store ringing up customers. She is not proud. She is ashamed to be seen with her lazy stepfather.
A pencil costs money and Lakshmi needs money to pay down her debt. A pencil indicates the hopelessness of Lakshmi’s situation—she is stuck in the brothel while Harish can go to school. A pencil symbolizes everything that is beyond Lakshmi’s reach—language and freedom.
What does Lakshmi mean when she says, ” I am already buried alive”? She finds out that there is no way she can get enough money.
A tin roof represents security for the villagers in the Himalayas. As Lakshmi states in “A Tin Roof,” “A tin roof means that the family has a father who doesn’t gamble away the landlord’s money playing cards in the tea shop.” Lakshmi’s family has a weaker thatch roof which leaks and causes illness.
What I Learned Today
She gives an American’s business card to a street boy who has always been kind to her, and waits for another American to appear. When one does show up at the brothel, the two make plans for Lakshmi’s escape. After Lakshmi waits for days, the American comes with non-corrupt policemen.
Lakshmi flees back to her room, where Mumtaz meets her and explains that Lakshmi is now a brothel worker in Happiness House who must have sex with men to pay off the money Mumtaz used to buy her. Eventually Mumtaz drugs Lakshmi so that she becomes unable to resist as a man rapes her.