I started reading Sold by Patricia McCormick last Wednesday evening. I read about half of the book in one setting and I was quite impressed. Patricia McCormick also wrote Cut, which is about self abuse and the idea of 'cutting,' so I knew I had a safe bet by returning to read more of McCormick's work.
While I had a tough time getting past the first few pages of Sold because the book is written more as lyric poetry, I quickly found myself swept away with the main character's story. She's a girl- some might even dare to say young woman- named Lakshmi, about 13 years old living in Nepal. Her mother is trying to support the girl, herself, a sickly baby and a crippled and seemingly lazy step-father. The reader gets a rich description of the shack and small village in which the girl and her family are living. The reader also finds out that Lakshmi is already promised to be married to a boy in the village. Her mother, Ama, seems sweet and fragile because of her co-dependence on any man willing to be married to her. The baby is helpless and restless, and the young protagonist merely is naive and optimistic. The step-father has a gambling problem and he considers himself unfit for work because of his crippled arm. While Ama dotes on the baby and her 'big baby' of a husband, Ama is unable to support the family with meager vegetables, especially by the time the drought and the flood hit the vulnerable family garden.
Bad becomes worse. The mother sells her earrings, which were meant to be the young protagonist's dowry, in order to feed the family. While at a local festival, the Lakshmi happens upon a woman who promises to make the girl enough money to pay for nice things, food and enough money to buy her family a new roof (apparently it rains a lot in Nepal). The less-than-sympathetic step-father agrees with the girl's plan to go to the city and work "as a maid."
After the naive Lakshmi eaves for the city with her "Auntie," who is the woman who made the promises of working for money, the girl is then sold to a man who makes the girl call him "her husband." The reader can see the writing on the wall, but the protagonist obviously is too busy trying to figure out the city to see where her fate is leading her. A few days of traveling from one city to the next larger city, Lakshmi finally arrives at "Happiness House." Just as the reader may guess; it is no place of 'happiness.' Instead the protagonist is forced to work as a prostitute, even though the she has never even had sex before. The girl protests once she finds out how the system works and the madame of the House beats and starves Lakshmi into submission.
Finally, another one of the Happiness House girls comes to visit the Lakshmi to explain how to make the best out of the situation. She explains how sex works, how the girls get paid for it, how to hide the 'tips' she makes from the madame, Mumtaz, and how she may even ask her customers to use condoms (but she will get in trouble if the men make a fit about it).
As the story progresses, the Lakshmi begins to form bonds with the other women and with the children living in Happiness House. As well, one night a man comes to her and she refers to him as the one who 'holds her.' She then begins to count the days since this kind man has visited her and she begins to give up hope that he may visit again...
Sold deals with several topics of consequence: sexism, human trafficking, poverty, STDs, and planned pregnancy. Overall, Sold is considered a Young Adult Fiction novel, but it definitely has some mature themes. Is the book pornography? No. Definitely not. But, could some of the topics make parents squeamish? Definitely. Would I teach this book to my classes? That's a hard one, but probably not. This is only because I'm not sure that all parents would appreciate the content and I'm not sure that I'd want to open up that can of worms. Would I recommend it to mature and interested students? Definitely and I already have. And I recommend it to you, too, my mature and interested student. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment