Sold: A Touching Story of a Girl Who Goes Through the Unbearable
An average American girl may spend her days dazzled by a device that allows people to speak to each other from far distances, enjoying the lovely aroma from the pretzel shop in the mall, or even just meeting up with her friends to grab some burgers and milkshakes, but that is not the case for a Nepali girl named Lakshmi. In Patricia McCormick's book, Sold, a young girl, Lakshmi, who is thirteen years old lives with her mother, recently born brother, and step-father in a rural, poor community in Nepal. After not experiencing rain for months and then an extensive, unexpectant downpour of rain, their crops were all washed away along with any profit they could have made from it …show more content…
The Nepali culture is majorly different from what is considered normal to Americans. The average cost of an American home is $250,000 and while it may not be a palace, it is a solid roof over one's head and a safe place to stay. Lakshmi finds herself mesmerized over the thought of just having a tin roof. Lakshmi points out that in her community "a tin roof means that the family has a father who [does not] gamble away the landlord's money playing cards in the tea shop... [and] a tin roof means that when rains come, the fire stays lit and the baby stays healthy" (McCormick 1). This taught me that not every family is as fortunate as mine, and not all families have hard working parents. This quote was only the beginning of when I started to feel sympathy for this character McCormick created. In Lakshmi's culture, a woman must obey the man she lives with and do all that he says regardless of what the task is. Despite her bitter feelings towards her step father she "[brings] him his tea in the morning and [rubs] his feet at night" (McCormick 7). Personally, I could not imagine rubbing my father's feet once, forget every single night. Lakshmi's mother, Ama, explains the guidelines women must abide by to her one day and says she must "bow [her] head in the presence of men...never look a man in the eye...never allow [herself] to be alone with a man who is not family...[she] must only eat her meal after …show more content…
I learned that a little bit of kindness can make a major impact on someone and affect their faith in humanity. One day, Lakshimi found herself dreaming of America, she believes "everyone there is a rich as a king" (McCormick 174). I never realized how someone who does not live here sees America. While not everyone in America is as rich as a king, everyone here has more freedom of choice and they may design their own future. In Nepal, some of these people do not have the opportunity to experience such freedom and to them America seems similar to some sort of magical place of perfection. Later, Lakshimi tears up not because of a punishment or form of torture, but because for once something nice was done for her. In her journal she wrote, "I have been beaten here, locked away, violated a hundred and a hundred times more... I have been starved and cheated, tricked and disgraced... how odd is it that I am undone by the simple kindness of a small boy with a yellow pencil"(McCormick 183). The pencil she is referring to is a gift that a little boy who secretly taught her words from a different language gave her, and she was so touched that it moved her. It was a simple act of kindness, just giving her a pencil, that made her glad for the first time while she was there. I supose the lesson to be learned here is to just share kindness wherever the road may lead because it could end up giving someone the
An average American girl may spend her days dazzled by a device that allows people to speak to each other from far distances, enjoying the lovely aroma from the pretzel shop in the mall, or even just meeting up with her friends to grab some burgers and milkshakes, but that is not the case for a Nepali girl named Lakshmi. In Patricia McCormick's book, Sold, a young girl, Lakshmi, who is thirteen years old lives with her mother, recently born brother, and step-father in a rural, poor community in Nepal. After not experiencing rain for months and then an extensive, unexpectant downpour of rain, their crops were all washed away along with any profit they could have made from it …show more content…
The Nepali culture is majorly different from what is considered normal to Americans. The average cost of an American home is $250,000 and while it may not be a palace, it is a solid roof over one's head and a safe place to stay. Lakshmi finds herself mesmerized over the thought of just having a tin roof. Lakshmi points out that in her community "a tin roof means that the family has a father who [does not] gamble away the landlord's money playing cards in the tea shop... [and] a tin roof means that when rains come, the fire stays lit and the baby stays healthy" (McCormick 1). This taught me that not every family is as fortunate as mine, and not all families have hard working parents. This quote was only the beginning of when I started to feel sympathy for this character McCormick created. In Lakshmi's culture, a woman must obey the man she lives with and do all that he says regardless of what the task is. Despite her bitter feelings towards her step father she "[brings] him his tea in the morning and [rubs] his feet at night" (McCormick 7). Personally, I could not imagine rubbing my father's feet once, forget every single night. Lakshmi's mother, Ama, explains the guidelines women must abide by to her one day and says she must "bow [her] head in the presence of men...never look a man in the eye...never allow [herself] to be alone with a man who is not family...[she] must only eat her meal after …show more content…
I learned that a little bit of kindness can make a major impact on someone and affect their faith in humanity. One day, Lakshimi found herself dreaming of America, she believes "everyone there is a rich as a king" (McCormick 174). I never realized how someone who does not live here sees America. While not everyone in America is as rich as a king, everyone here has more freedom of choice and they may design their own future. In Nepal, some of these people do not have the opportunity to experience such freedom and to them America seems similar to some sort of magical place of perfection. Later, Lakshimi tears up not because of a punishment or form of torture, but because for once something nice was done for her. In her journal she wrote, "I have been beaten here, locked away, violated a hundred and a hundred times more... I have been starved and cheated, tricked and disgraced... how odd is it that I am undone by the simple kindness of a small boy with a yellow pencil"(McCormick 183). The pencil she is referring to is a gift that a little boy who secretly taught her words from a different language gave her, and she was so touched that it moved her. It was a simple act of kindness, just giving her a pencil, that made her glad for the first time while she was there. I supose the lesson to be learned here is to just share kindness wherever the road may lead because it could end up giving someone the