3rd Blog Post- Carly Silva

In the last third of Sold, the tone that most stood out to me was one of urgency. Lakshmi is eager to escape from the Happiness House and from the wrath of Mumtaz. She has grown accustomed to the daily grind of being a prostitute (no pun intended), and wants badly to return to a normal life. Not even Lakshmi knows just how long she has been working in the Happiness House. "The first one is sitting in Monica's old seat, the second in Shahanna's. The third is sitting where Pushpa used to sit. It occurs to me that, except for Anita, I have been here the longest." (pg. 243). Lakshmi has obviously been there for a long time and by the end of the book, she accepts the American man's offer to free her from the Happiness House. Finally, when police raid the house, she gets the courage to go with them and puts an end to the horrible life that she endured as a prostitute.

Post #3

Like the whole book, there are many tones to the last third of Sold. However, the one that stood out for me the most was a sense of yearning and urgency. By this time in the book Lakshmi has settled into the daly life of the happiness house. She has her language lessons with Harish in the afternoons, and then puts on her makeup and goes to work in the evening with the other girls. Even she doesn't know how long it has been, on page 243 she says "The first one is sitting in Monica's old seat, the second in Shahanna's. The third is sitting where Pushpa used to sit. It occurs to me that, except for Anita, I have been here the longest." Lakshmi has seen friends come and go a long with many different kinds of men. Of course she has always wanted to get out of the Happiness house but once she discovers that Mumtaz really is evil and has no intention of letting her ever go home and is cheating her on her money, Lakshmi wants to get out more than ever. "I will do whatever it takes to get out of here." she says, (pg227). One day an American comes and offers her a way out. She is hesitant at first because of the rumors she has heard about the Americans shaming girls like herself, but after realizing this may be her only possibility at leaving this terrible place, she decides to take the chance. I thought the ending was the perfect relief to the buildup of the last third, "Something inside me breaks open, and I run down the steps. I see Mumtaz, her fat mango face purple with rage, her arms pinned behind her back by two policemen. She lunges in my direction and spits. But the policemen hold her back. I see my American..." (pg263)  I feel like the reader got to know Lakshmi so well that this ending is almost too abrupt. I wish we could have at least gotten to see her leave the happiness house. That being said, this ending does work with the tone of the last third of the book and gives a sense of hope to Lakshmi's sad story.

Sold post #3: Ashley Garriott

      The last third of the book Sold is filled page to page with a vast variety of emotions, this allows the reader to make assumptions for the end and be proven wrong when they actually reach the final pages. There are many mixed feelings I derived from the text due to the content of different scenes. For example one begins to feel hope again as Lakshmi packs her small amount of belongings after she meets the American man whom promises to return and bring her to safety. Conflicting that, in the pages previous to those I felt as if Lakshmi was very detached and entranced almost in the pages before "Forgetting How To Forget" (pg. 254). Here she explained that she had "learned ways to be with men... learned how to forget what was happening to me even as it was happening... I cannot remember those ways." This gives off a very foreshadowing sense of change in Lakshmi's life. That perhaps she will act out or escape in a rebellious way. This feeling progresses until the very final pages of the book. The tone of change is introduced slightly earlier than this scene when Lakshmi finds out that she will have to work at the Happy House for a VERY long time before she can pay all her money off. This results in her doing "Whatever It Takes" (pg. 228) and taking extra money from "a drunken costumer... he fell asleep afterward, I went through his wallet and helped myself to 20 rupees more." or "A deformed man came... I told him I would be with him, for 50 rupees extra." Again these scenes play on the idea of rebellious acts that could lead to change in Lakshmi's life. 
      This scene also is my favorite. It displays a teenage-like-act from Lakshmi and is really the true turning point of her fight to get out of the Happy House. It shows that no matter how good of a person Lakshmi may be she has been changed by the life style of the Happy House. She will literally do "Whatever It Takes" at this point to get back home to her family. After reading this one can almost be assured that things will change for Lakshmi after this point, that there is hope and a real sense of rebellion brewing in the young Lakshmi. 

Post # 3- Hopeless

The tone of the last third of the book is desperate and hopeless. Lakshmi's little bubbles of hope are continuously popped by Mumtaz and Shilpa, leaving her feeling distraught. The author uses very intense images to show the pain Lakshmi is going through when she thinks the American man is not coming to save her. "I clench the sheets in my hands, for fear that I will pound them to death with my fists. I grit my teeth, for fear that I will bit through their skin to their very bones. I squeeze my eyes shut, for fear that I will see what is actually happening to me"(254). These images are striking and show exactly how Lakshmi feels- That she has been lied to yet again by the American, and nothing left to hope for, though she is desperate for something good. The very language used in the above sentences (clench, grit, squeeze) all practically scream desperation to the reader. The author also uses syntax to show this. Lakshmi narrates in very short, choppy sentences, like the voice of one who has given up. "How stupid I was to believe in him and his digital magic. How stupid I am to keep believing" (253).  Although the majority of the final part book is hopeless, in the end, Lakshmi's desperation for freedom pulls through, and she escapes.

My favorite part of the book was when Lakshmi hears the grinding of the chili peppers and thinks she is going to be punished. In the "Happiness House", if you really anger Mumtaz, she puts a stick of hot chili's inside you (which is an AWFUL thing to do). Lakshmi hears the sound that means this punishment will be inflicted upon someone, and thinks it is her. I love this part of the book because the author made me believe it was Lakshmi too, and the words she used made me feel like I was guilty, also. I felt the same anticipation of pain that Lakshmi did. When we find out it was Kimari, I breathed the same sigh of relief that I am sure Lakshmi did. I really enjoyed being drawn that far into the story.

Post #3 - Sofia Wildvine

Lakshmi is very persistent in the last third of Sold,  creating a tone of determination. Although Lakshmi knew somewhere inside her subconscious that she would most likely never go home, she kept trying her hardest. She continues to do calculations in her books in hopes of determining when she will be released. When Lakshmi talks to Mumtaz about her calculations, Mumtaz tells her she will be there for at least five more years. She says to poor Lakshmi, "Who do you think pays for the comfort I provide? The fans? The music? The TV you girls love so much? Do you think that is free?" (226). Yet even with this horrible lie, Lakshmi is still persistent, determined, to get back home. She says, "I will be with them all. Any man, every man. I will become Monica. I will do whatever it takes to get out of here." (227).  It's unbelievable that this tragic thing happens more times in real life then the world would like to admit.

There is no way I can pick my favorite part of the book, but some parts I enjoyed quite a lot was the descriptions of things that are new to Lakshmi. One example of this is when she is describing how the remote for the TV works. Shahanna explains to her, "If she pushes one button, the people inside get louder, if she pushed another, they get quiet...The most important button is the red one. This one can make the TV people appear. Or disappear." (157). I like this scene in particular because your mind instantly knows what she is talking about. We take advantage of the simple things in everyday life in America, such as the common knowledge of working a TV remote control. Reading this short scene opened my eyes to the sorrowful fact that such a simple thing, such as a TV remote, can create so much wonder and curiosity when placed in the presence of a girl like Lakshmi.

Post #3

I loved this story. Obviously, I didn't enjoy reading it from her point of view because this incident was so awful. However, I loved how brave she was just to tell her story. I think that throughout the whole book she was a pretty naive girl. However, the quote I decided to use was one that didn't occur in the last third, but in the middle somewhere. It is just when she is meeting Mumtaz and she has her first experience with the old man. She runs away from him. "'There is a mistake,' I tell her. 'I'm here to work as a maid for a rich lady.'
'Is that what you were told?'" (51%).

Of course, without proper education, it would be hard to know what was really going on here. The grunting noises she heard earlier were sex noises that I am sure many of us Drake students could identify that noise. Naive could even be the wrong word for her because she is just uneducated. However, it does appear that she is a little naive.

My favorite part of the book was to see her transformation. In the beginning of the book, she refused to do "this disgraceful thing" but by the end,  she was not the new girl anymore and was determined to pay off Mumtaz's debt.