As the book, Sold, by Patricia McCormick, comes to an end, the reader gets a feeling of hope for a better future, but at the same time fear that one will not come for Lakshima. Once Lakshima gets taken to the brothel, the tone of the book becomes increasingly hopeless, as she endures more horrendous tragedies. Only does her future start to look brighter after she becomes close to Harish and starts to learn english. It seems that this event planted a seed of hope inside of her, or if nothing else it simply helped her have a cause to live for. The entire third of the book goes back and forth between expressing a feeling of hopefulness and hopelessness, the doubt arising after Lakshima's many setbacks. "without Harish, I am like Anita. I cannot smile, even if there is a reason"(201). Once Harish must leave, it is evident that Lakshima feels a huge loss. Besides missing her friend, she also cannot continue to english studies- something she was relying on to survive. In addition, after Shahanna-Lakshima's best friend- gets taken away, the latter feels an even bigger loss, as well as confusion. This sends Lakshima into a deep depression, that seems like she has given up and will be sent to another brothel to continue this torture- this time on her own. The third and final devastation which comes to Lakshima, is the realization that Mumtaz has never been sending her family money, and Lakshima will be stuck there forever until she is too sick or old or tired to work and she will be left for dead on the streets. After hearing this Lakshima thinks, "everything i've done here, everything that's been done to me, was for nothing"(239). Somehow, however, with this let down comes a rage and bravery from inside Lakshima that she didn't know she had before. She decides at that moment, despite her friends warning her to stay away from the bad American men, that she must leave. At the arrival of the second American man, she is still wary of him in the beginning, " 'Do you want to leave here?' he says. I cannot answer. I am too scared to believe him. I am going to believe that when I open my eyes, he will be gone. I count to 100 again and open my eyes. He is still there...'The clean place,' I say. 'I want to go there'"(247-248). The courage that Lakshima must have had to say those words is unbelievable. And when the Americans arrive and every external being is pleading for her not to show herself, she still does, because her hope and will to survive is too strong to resist. As she stated earlier is the book, "I will do whatever it takes to get out of here" (227). And she does.
My favorite part of the book is Lakshima's relationship with Harish. At the beginning of their friendship, he buys her a pencil with the little money that he has. "A tear is running down my cheek. It quivers for a moment on the tip of my nose, then splashes onto my skirt, leaving a small, dark circe. I have been beaten here, locked away, violated a hundred times and a hundred times more. I have been starved and cheated, tricked and disgraced. How odd it is that I am undone by the simple kindness of a small boy with a yellow pencil" (182-183). While reading this portion of the book, I was overcome with emotion. The happy events which follow sad ones in life are always the best in my eyes because they show the true kindness of human nature. The immense amount of beauty that comes from, as Lakshima stated, the simplest act of kindness in a tough time, is something that I will never take for granted. And, although this was only one small portion of a wonderful book, the author described it so beautifully, that the reader could really feel the compassion that the innocence of children bring.
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