Patricia Mccormick's Sold Summary

The novel Sold, by Patricia McCormick, follows a young girl, Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl, and her family living in a small village in Nepal struggling to make ends meet. Lakshmi’s biological father has died so her mother remarries an alcoholic but it is considered that any man is better than no man at all. When the Himalayan monsoons destroy her family's crops, Lakshmi’s step-father meets a woman who claims she will take Lakshmi to be a maid in the city, and he sends her away. After what seemed like days of walking with her “auntie,” they finally arrive at the Happiness House, the name of the brothel Lakshmi has been sold to. The woman who rules the brothel, Mumtaz, makes it virtually impossible for the girls to ever leave by cheating them out of their already minuscule earnings. Through the help of the unbreakable bonds she forms, Lakshmi is able to go against the odds and continue fighting in hopes to reclaim her freedom. Lakshmi is growing up in a small village in Nepal, her family is extremely poor, but she still, somehow, is able to find pleasure in things like rubbing the nose of her pet goat, Tali. Her growing up in small rural town did not allow her to play with her friends or do any sort of extra curricular activities but instead she had to stay home and help around the house while her alcoholic …show more content…
Lakshmi starts off as an innocent, little, thirteen year old girl from Nepal who has no idea about how cruel the world really is. Throughout her time at the Happiness House although she learns many things that could be useful in her life such as reading in English and Hindi that in no way trumps the great pain and suffering she endured while at the Happiness House. She leaves the Happiness House as a strong, independent, young girl who knows great pain and suffering but also has also gained tremendous knowledge of