Sold

            Reading “Sold” has opened my eyes to a much bigger problem than I had thought. I knew human trafficking was an issue but never have I been so involved in a life of one’s example. In reading this book I have experienced so many emotions at one time that I never thought a book could bring at one time: anger, sadness, hatred, and even hope. Her life in the beginning was that of a child but by the end it was as if she was transformed into such a different person.

            I was not sure what to expect in the beginning. Lakshmi, the main character, just had so much desire for her home and family. She wanted to do all she could to put a roof over her family and to be there to love them. Her hope for a tin roof to be proof of a hard working father, family children, and the home will be warm and livable even for a baby. Lakshmi has so much desire for her family she is willing to go and work in the city for her family in the city. “I see a tin roof” she says when wanting to work.

            Just the view of children is shocking to me. Lakshmi does not see herself as much. She is told that “a son will always be a son, they say. But a girl is like a goat. Good as long as she gives you milk and butter. But not worth crying over when it’s time to make stew.” The loss of a daughter is nothing more. Women in this country are not seen as anything more than a tool to use to their advantage and nothing more. Even her stepfather does not see her as anything more. Her stepfather sends her to “the city to earn her keep as a maid.” All Lakshmi can think about is that she will help her family to get a tin roof.

            She goes through many transitions of people until she gets to her destination and it is not at all what she was told. She is sent to this room to be with a man and runs away. Lakshmi ends up getting tonto trouble but it is not long until she cannot hold out. She ends up having to sleep with a man and once it is all done she looks into a mirror and says “You have become one of them.” She realized that she is no longer her own. And throughout the rest of the book she does not see herself as anything else. It makes me angry and sad to read about this 13 year old girl, gone 14, to lose herself and not have any control of her situation. She no longer has a say. And to know that this is happening to a 13-14 year old girl is sad. The book even brings in about a girl, younger than Lakshmi, who is brought in but gives up and hangs herself. The amount of sadness and anger it takes to feel dead.

            By the end of the book I was ready to be done. It seemed as though there was no hope for this girl until 3 occurrences of Americans arriving. She had lost all of her trust in people an had no idea of what to believe. The men wanting to come and help her, she was so numb to everything she had no idea and the strength she had to run down once they came back for her to state who she was. She had been reminded of the person she was and desired for them to know. She held on to herself and I nearly broke down. I felt as if her life had only just begun.