Thursday, March 13, 2014
Second post- Paloma Prudhomme
The power education has is simply amazing especially in Sold. As I was reading this book it was quite obvious how an education could mean so much to people in India. Having an education meant that you had opportunity and goals and a purpose. Having an education can also be very dangerous, people can see you as threat. Lakshmi loves learning and on her own time she tries to keep up with her reading and writing even though it is very dangerous. But she soon learns that if Mumtaz found out she would be punished severely. This passage in Sold was a perfect example of that, Shahanna says "If they find out you can read and write, they will think you are planning to escape"(p.171) It amazed me that some people in this world can think of a simple thing such as reading and writing, and see it as threat. It made me realize that we are extremely privileged to be able to have an education handed to us and not worry if someone will kill us because of it. I admire Lakshmi so much for having the courage to keep going on learning her reading and writing, no matter how dangerous it might be.
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ReplyDeleteLike you said, Lakshmi is determined to continue her education and learn as much as she can, even when it puts her greatly at risk. On page 163, the David Beckham boy offers to teach Lakshmi to read and speak in Hindi and English. She knows that this could potentially get her and the boy in serious trouble, but she is committed to further her knowledge.
ReplyDeleteNot educating women is yet another way many cultures have found to suppress them. According to indiaonlinepages.com, in 2011 about 82.14% of males in India were literate and about 65.46% of women were. That leads to about 74.04% of the population who actually know how to read and write. Like you, Paloma, I am amazed at the fact that reading and writing can be seen as a terrible thing. In our culture its a pretty standard skill, but in other cultures like Lakshmi's it holds so much power and threat. Its strange how something as important as reading and writing can be thought of as normal in one place and mean life or death in another place halfway across the world.
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