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.
Ashley, I totally and completely agree with you. If you read my third post, you would see that i also used the deformed man scene as an example of her doing "whatever it takes" to pay off her debt. Another example is on the next page where she disrespects Shilpa after Shilpa demands she stay away from her regular customers (p. 229). Shilpa, who she used to fear, means nothing to her now as long as she can earn more rupees. All she wants at that point is to be rid of that place.
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