Summary Of Patricia Mccormick's Sold

Patricia McCormick’s book Sold concerns the life of thirteen year old Lakshmi. At the beginning of the book we see Lakshmi in Nepal with her family, who are incredibly poor. To help support her family, Lakshmi grows cucumbers and tends to rice paddies. However, Lakshmi’s village is without rain for more than sixty days, causing Lakshmi and her mom, Ama, to bring “water up to the rice paddy” (McCormick 20). When the rain finally arrives, it is in the form of a monsoon and it washes away all hope by flooding the rice paddy. To acquire money Lakshmi’s stepfather, a selfish and lazy man, sells Lakshmi to a woman who she is supposed to call Auntie Bimla. Bimla transports Lakshmi to India where she begins her life in a place called the Happiness

There is no specific date stated in which this book takes place. However, I believe this adds to its ability to relate to today and the years to come. Sold seems completely realistic to the reader. In fact, to make her story was as realistic as possible, McCormick traveled to the places that Sold is set in. There the author interviewed “girls who had been rescued from the sex trade” (“SOLD FAQ”). It is evident from reading the book that McCormick’s main purpose for writing it is to educate people about the seriousness of the sex trade and human trafficking. The message that she wants to convey is that human rights are violated every day and if we are educated about this problem, we can help resolve it. In displaying this message, McCormick is extremely effective. The tale of Lakshmi is very depressing when you look at the main points. Lakshmi is a child. She is only thirteen when she is plunged into horrific circumstances and her story is told from her own point of view. The reader cringes every time Lakshmi suffers and her sufferings are real. The reader can almost see what is going on before Lakshmi realizes it herself. Through the entire beginning of the story, the reader sees Lakshmi as a hardworking, innocent young girl who is eager to help support her family. The reader falls in love with her and feels for her as if she were their child or younger sibling. An example of this innocence is when Lakshmi arrives at Happiness

In this book, the rights of many women are stripped away because they were sold into the modern day slave trade. When Americans think of slavery, they usually think it is a thing of the past that ended with the Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the 13th Amendment of the Constitution (“Slavery in America”). However, history usually tends to repeat itself. Modern day slavery is not like that of the 1800s and centuries before it. In the past, slavery was open and legal, but in today’s society it is covert and illegal. Human trafficking today is a billion dollar industry and is “based on the principles of supply and demand” (“Human Trafficking”). There are usually three different types of people that are trafficked. These types include children who are under 18 and sold into commercial sex, adults who are forced into commercial sex, and those who are forced to provide labor or services (“Human Trafficking”). There are even a lot of very current examples of human trafficking. One example made its way into the New York Times on September 15, 2014. According to the article, a boat filled with migrants that were being smuggled was hit by the human traffickers “making it sink in open sea and drowning hundreds of migrants” (Cumming-Bruce). Another event made its way into the New York Times occurred on October 21st where “300 people, trying to reach Europe, are estimated to have died” (Yardley) in the