Sold Compare And Contrast Essay

According to now.org, “For females between fifteen to twenty-four years old who suffer from anorexia nervosa, the mortality rate associated with the illness is twelve times higher than the death rate of all other causes of death.” This is caused by the beauty expectations society has for women. Where women are expected to look a certain way and if they don’t. Then those who have a little bit of weight start starving themselves or working out too much. Which leads to them getting eating disorders or worse getting diseases. These diseases can cause death. The book “Sold” by Patrica McCormick and the short story “Thin” by Joan Bauer, illustrate how society’s expectations can never be met since no one is perfect. Lakshmi, the main character in

Deenie, the main character in “Thin”, is obsessed with not gaining any weight. After her dad left her mom for a thin woman. This causes her to be obsessed with her weight and go to extreme measures to stay away from her fear of gaining weight. "Sold" by Patricia McCormick and “Thin” by Joan Bauer use the social issue of body shaming to show the true face of society or the expectations and stereotypes set for women. Throughout the stories both Deenie and Lakshmi find out the true face of society as the stories progress, which affects them throughout the whole story. In the story “Sold”, we see Lakshmi is sent on a train with a man who claims to be helping her but, is instead escorting her to the prostitution house During her journey she sees a girl who is also on the same train being mistreated by a mad and hurt because she tried to escape. When she found out she was being sold.“The goondas smashed her (Anita's) cheek and jaw. Now one side of her face is dead, she cannot smile even if she had a reason to (McCormick, 156).”This shows the true face of society since Anita tried to sneak out of the brothel and the men broke her jaw. Upon hearing this consequence of what could happen if she tried to leave Lakshmi

In the story “Sold”, we see how Lakshmi is treated poorly and is tricked into believing that she can work as a maid to earn money for her family in the city. Instead, her step-father and a shop worker trick her into going to a prostitution house Where she is forced to be intimate with older men against her will. “She has no hips’, I hear her say. And she's plain as porridge. I'll give you five hundred. I do not understand. I can carry a load of firewood so heavy it would put a man to shame, and my legs are sturdy enough to climb the mountain a dozen times in one day. What does it matter that I have no hips yet? (McCormick, 53)” This shows how Lakshmi’s wroth was deemed by just looking at if her waist was good enough to Auntie Bimla’s expectations. They never considered the fact that how unfair it is for Lakshmi or even the fact that she is only 13. This shows how cruel the standards are set for women from a very young age. In the story “Thin”, we get to see how Deenie’s dad affects her in a way making her so self-conscious and obsessed with her weight. We see in the story that “ Since my dad left us to live with Chloe, this really thin, younger woman he met on an airplane… I don’t have time for all the guilt and all the concern and how my