Behind The Beautiful Forevers Character Analysis

Like many people in Behind the Beautiful Forevers, the developing world Manju grew up in is a society in which only the the most powerful, influential and corrupt survive. As she became educated about the outside world what's really going on in her own community, she saw just how much she didn’t know, and with this knowledge came an important transformation for Manju. To Manju, poverty is something only the educated can overcome, which is why she becomes and teacher and get a formal education for herself. Manju lives in an isolated world with limited views, but the growing influence of the modern outside world calls into Manju’s beliefs about her way of life.
The isolation of Annawadi can lead the people that live there feel trapped in an
The cultural norms of modern world and that of the developing world, such as Annawadi, can cause conflict to the inhabitants of each society. As an outsider looking in on a poverty stricken neighborhood one might be quick to judge the choices and somewhat horrible acts the commit within their daily lives just to survive. The same goes for a slum dweller observing the life of an upper class citizen, as their character, what they do and who they are defined by the people who are around them. This effect impacts Manju as her mother, Asha, becomes more and more part of the outside world and less a part of Manju’s. Asha’s actions and then beliefs impact Manju and change her way of thinking to a more modern way, a more corrupt way. The modernity of India’s corrupt government leaks its way into Annawadi and its people, impacting many into thinking differently about the system that they have tried to change. One of those people being Manju, “‘She was fed up with what the world had to offer,’ the Tamil women concluded. Meena's family, upon consideration, decided that Manju's modern influence was to blame.”(p.189), as Manju shows Meena the modern world and the foundation of which it is founded on, corruption, Meena takes her life in hope that she will leave some mark on the world. Manju’s modern influence and new outlook on the world and poverty caused Meena to take her own life, and
The characters go through their lives and experience situations that impact the way they think, act and understand the world around them. Modern influence or corruption from the outside world in Annawadi has affected its population across all its faction from the road boys to the Shiv Sena party and its leaders. Manju is in an interesting situation as her mother is an upcoming slumlord who denounces the corrupt of the world but then becomes a part of it “‘Of course it’s corrupt,’ Asha told the deferential new secretary of the nonprofit. ‘But is it my corruption? How can anyone say I am doing the wrong when the big people did all the papers—when the big people say that it’s right?’”(p.228). This puts Manju in a dilemma, does she support her mother and rise above with her, or stand by her beliefs to overcome the corrupt modern world. Asha wants the best for Manju, for her to get an education and become something for this world, however; as live goes on for Manju she is conflicted in Asha’s path is really the one she wants to take. Modernity has corrupted Asha, Manju realizes this but can’t refused the opportunities it