Character Analysis Of Lakshmi In Sold By Patricia Mccormick

In the book Sold by Patricia McCormick, Lakshmi faces many struggles. She has lived in poverty, she is sold into prostitution, and she is treated differently just because she is a woman. All of these struggles help to define who Lakshmi is.
For example, in the beginning of the book, .Lakshmi lives in poverty with her mother Ama, her newborn little brother, and her stepfather who gambles all of their money away. Lakshmi’s family lives in a mud paddy hut with a failing roof and Ama tells Lakshmi that the next rainy season will destroy it. Lakshmi wants to get a tin roof so that that doesn’t happen. She is willing to work in the city as a maid to get a one. If Lakshmi’s family was better off and had a tin roof, Lakshmi probably wouldn’t have considered working in the city. This is one way that struggle helped define Lakshmi’s character.
Later, when Lakshmi refuses to be with men at Happiness House, Mumtaz locks her in a room and starves her. Lakshmi is used to being hungry so when she still refuses to be with men, Mumtaz drugs …show more content…
When she begins menstruating, Ama tells her about all the ways she is supposed to act around men. Ama tells her things like: bow your head in the presence of men, don’t be with men who are not family, and never look a man in the eye. Later, Lakshmi sees a girl with a shaved head and a group of men throwing things at her. When Lakshmi asks what she did to deserve punishment, Uncle Husband tells her that she tried to run away. This is probably one of the reasons Lakshmi doesn’t run away when she is a Happiness House. Furthermore, when Lakshmi is in Happiness House and Harish catches her reading his storybook, Lakshmi is surprised when he doesn’t rap her knuckles or pull her hair. She is surprised because this is how she expects men to treat her when she misbehaves. These are more great examples of how struggle has helped define Lakshmi’s