1. How did you see power being used and/or abused in this book? How would you feel if you were the main character?
Lakshmi’s stepfather abused power in Sold. He gambled their money away and had no love for Ama (Lakshmi’s Mother) or Lakshmi. If he won some money through gambling, he would spend it on coats, motorcycles, hats, cigars and other stuff for himself. He knew that he was selling her into prostitution since Auntie said “She has no hips … And she’s plain as porridge”. Mumtaz was the person that abused power the most in Sold. She was a cruel, fat woman described as having a “mango face”. She was the owner of the Happiness House (brothel) and ran it with an iron fist. She beat and withheld rations from Lakshmi for not lying with the old man with the
…show more content…
How did you see rights being abused or violated in this book? How would you have responded if your rights were being abused? Would you have done the same things as the character? Why or why not? The major theme of this book and one of the rights that were being abused was the girls being forced to be a prostitute. Another right that was being abused was the treatment of women in general. Eat the remains after your husband, never look a man in the eye, If he turns to you in the night, you must give yourself to him. If he asks you to wash his feet, you must do so, then put a bit of the water in your mouth. How I would have responded to my rights being abused would depend on what knowledge I had going into this. If I knew that Americans wouldn’t shame me and make me walk on the street naked, then I would have run the first chance I got to an American embassy or some American tourists. Then I would have explained my situation and hope that Mumtaz’s goons wouldn't find me. If however, I didn’t know about any of that I would have probably followed a closer path of action as what Lakshmi did. Knowledge really is power in this scenario.
3. What do you know now that you didn’t know before?