In
the novel, Sold by Patricia McCormick, it talks about Lakshmi, a thirteen year
old girl, who is being sold to a prostitution house, because the rain washed
all their rice away, and their house roof collapsed. Since they’re very poor
because their lazy father gamble all their money away. Because of this, her
father decided that Lakshmi will work for a stranger named Aunty Bimla. From
there, Bimla and Lakshmi travels to the city to get to the prostitution house, but
Lakshmi doesn’t know where she is going, she thinks she is going to be a maid
for the rich. She later finds out that the place is called Happiness House, and
there she meets other teenage girls that are sold there as well, and she is not
working as a maid, but a prostitute.
There
are many difficult or complex things in the text. Such as writing out what is
happening to her body, like her period. Many younger or male readers might not understand
the concept of what is happening. They try to make it obvious but very hidden
at the same time. Another is how most of the time in the text, the show sexism.
Her mother stays home and tends for her husband, she does all the chores in the
house, and her husband just gambles. When Lakshmi questions her mother why
women is treated so poorly, she replies with "Simply to endure, is to
triumph” this creates an image that women do this to gain themselves back. Near
the beginning of the book, it shows how Bimla is a very sexist character as
well. When she is putting makeup on Lakshmi before her first customer, she said
how you must please men, and they’re always the right one. This shows that
Bimla also thinks that women are worthless because we are just objects to
pleasure men and live life to the men’s perspective of perfect. Another example
is how Harish, a male teen, is free to do whatever he wants, and not get judged
by it. Harish gets to go to school, gets more rights than a girl, and the best
is he isn’t stuck in one place, he gets to go anywhere he wishes.
In
the book there is a missing perspective, which is Lakshmi’s. Without her
perspective, we can’t figure out how she is feeling throughout the story. We don’t
know what is going through her head when she was trying escape the horrid place
that they call it Happiness House. With her perspective in the story, it wouldn’t
be as interesting of a story, because it would be easier to infer what would
happen next in her journey of child prostitution. But without Lakshmi’s point
of view, it portrays an image of her journey, not a memoir.
For the third question, is justice served? I think that
their justice was not served, and they lost it to the men they were forced to
be with. In the end, they do get freed for the prostitute house, but there is
one thing that is lost forever, their innocence. The men that paid to be with
the young teens were not brought to jail and to be punished for what they did,
but instead, they get away with it.
