Behind The Beautiful Forevers Essay

For my IOP, I will be studying the novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. Through the her book, Katherine Boo uses many themes like the oppression of women. This occurs the most through a character named Asha. Asha is a mother of three who had to raise them almost as a single parent because her husband was an alcoholic, and she also is a part of a political party called Shiv Sena. Asha plans to break social norms by becoming the first female slumlord and her daughter Manju plans on being the first female to graduate from college. Through this information alone it is clear to see that the Annawadi society in BTBF considers men to be superior, which is a common idea in India itself. In this presentation, I will explore sexism,

The first aspect I will cover is sexism. Sexism is where the oppression of women begins. Female infanticide is the act of aborting a fetus because it's female. Female infanticide itself is a sexist action. Domestic labour also has shown to play a central role within a family with children (1). As parents raise their children, boys are allowed more access to education whereas girls are encouraged more to learn the roles of a wife such as cooking or cleaning.We see this in BTBF when Mirchi states, “Mother, I want a wife just like you—she’ll do all the work, and I’ll do nothing” (Boo 191). Here, we see that even as young boys the attitude of men against women is to count on them for doing things for them. This also supports the fact that society causes boys from a young age to see the work women do as a reason to want to marry them. This goes hand in hand with the illiteracy of women in India. As of 1991 less than 40 percent of women in India over the age of women were literate (3). Although as years pass more women are going to college and making careers, some women continue to be illiterate, especially in the lower