Vignette Character Analysis

Verisimilitude achieved through series of Vignette- a Socio-Realistic study on Sold by Patricia McCormick

From the time immemorial literature imitates the society and social issues. In the well-developed technological era gadgets are costlier than human because slavery and human violation are still excising in the form of modern sexual slavery, human trafficking and physical abuse. Blue cross is there to save animals but no cross is there to stop the people who cross the borders and violate human rights. Sold written by Patricia McCormick is a rare realistic fiction, which depicts the sufferings of girls and women, who are forced into prostitution. The series of Vignettes delineates the Socio- Realism, and that makes the work a compulsively

In the novel, action speaks louder than characters. Each character in the novel represents the dark reality of the society. Locution and the composition of provocative verses leave gaps, which should be filled up by the readers. The character of Lakshmi is the epitome for many unknown and unnoticed Lakshmies, who are the victims of Trafficking and Sexual Slavery world-wide. Through Lakshmi’s stream of Consciousness the readers get conscious about the atrocities done to poor children and women for the sake of money.

Vignette is an evocative brief description of incidents, characters and objects in a rhythmic sequence. Incorporation of symbolism, imagery and allegory marks the uniqueness of the novel. Social Realism is basically an art movement. The artist brings the portraiture of striking social issues in literature, painting, and photography. The novel is an exemplification of suppressed victims in the contemporary world.

Lakshmi, the thirteen year old protagonist is sold by her heartless gamble-loving Step-Father for Eight Hundred rupees. A local woman sends Lakshmi with the city woman, Bimala. She takes the journey to the darkness with a belief that she is going to work as a maid under a rich woman in the city like her friend

She becomes one among the other girls in that place; she shares a room with five members; Anitha, the half-frowning girl, Pushpa, the coughing woman, her two children Harish and Sahanna. Lakshmi’s thirst for education purges her to steal Pushpa’s son Harish, the David Beckam boy’s books and later he becomes her teacher. Pushpa is a widow and she develops disease, so Mumtaz asks her to sell her daughter Jeena, but she refuses, so Mumtaz throws her out without humanity. Anitha, once tried to escape from the place she was caught and the gundas broke her face, that incident left her face frown forever. Lakshmi happens to develop feeling for a street boy who sells tea and magazins for the girls. One day he gives a bottle of coca-cola to her as a gift and his master beats him and sends him out of that place. She scares for two girls in the house; Shilpa, mumtaz’s helper and Monica, the best earning girl in the house and soon she is going to leave the place. They are rude to everyone, but later she learns that Shilpa is there of her own choice because from her childhood she is there. Whereas, Monica leaves the place but her own family refuses to accept her. So, she comes back but she develops a disease so she is thrown out of the house. Lakshmi’s friendship and compassion with other girls gives a soothing feeling for her to endure.