Each year between 14,500 and 17,500 people are victims of human trafficking. The book Sold by Patricia McCormick touches on the horrors of human trafficking. In this novel, Lakshmi finds comfort in kindness and is conflicted by human trafficking, her defining moment was choosing to overcome while she tried to find her way by attempting to get out of the happiness house; this is similar to what other human trafficking victims could have to go through.
Lakshmi is conflicted through the novel, she is at war with human trafficking, but finds comfort in even the smallest acts of kindness. The main source of conflict in this book is human trafficking. When Lakshmi is 13 her father sells her to a woman to be a maid in the city, this woman takes her to a city and sells her to a pimp to be a sex slave. She is told she has a debt to pay off and she must work for this woman or bad things happen. “‘You belong to me,’ she says. ‘And I paid a pretty sum for you too.’” (McCormick 106).
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“The woman looks me over head to toe, then addresses my stepfather. ‘How much do you want for her?’” (McCormick 53) This quote shows when Lakshmi is sold into human trafficking in this novel. The author very obviously is trying to raise awareness to this issue, her author’s note explains how she studied human trafficking in nepal, she also dedicated the book to victims of these horrible crimes. This is still a relevant issue because people are still sold into human trafficking and kept as slaves or worse. One article I found relating to this issue was called Hundreds of Human Trafficking Victims Freed in 13 Countries after Interpol Operation by Kalhan Rosenblatt. This article explains how almost 350 human trafficking victims were saved from over 13 different countries. I am really glad we still continue to fund operations like this one, I believe human trafficking is a very relevant issue that is not talked about as much as it should