Sold By Patricia Mccormick Analysis

The book I read this quarter was Sold by Patricia McCormick. The story is first-person and is narrated by thirteen year-old Lakshmi from Nepal. This book has over 170 chapters, each one only a few pages in length. This adds to the narrative as Lakshmi is thinking in small thoughts and does not think into many things due to her young age. Lakshmi’s family was poor, but managed to make it by on most days, on other days Lakshmi and her mother would starve while her step-father gambled. One day, Himalayan monsoons washed away all the crops the family had grown. Lakshmi’s step-father forces her to go with a stranger for what she thought was a job as a maid for a family in the city. When she arrives to her destination, she soon realizes that she has been sold into prostitution and it is practically impossible to earn enough money to get out. She realizes that per man in her bed, she makes Lakshmi makes some acquaintances within the brothel, like Harish and Anita. Harish is the son of a woman held captive in the house, and he teaches Lakshmi Hindu which gives her hope and happiness until he
ends up leaving the home with his mother. Anita was one of Lakshmi’s friends in the brothel, but did not leave when Lakshmi tried to convince her to. Lakshmi ends up getting in contact with an American who comes into the brothel with a non-corrupt policeman who helps Lakshmi leave one day which is how the story ends. This book is not a biography, but instead a combination of many stories told by young woman held captive in brothels. Patricia McCormick traveled to India and Nepal to interview women sold into the sex trade and later rescued into safety. Patricia McCormick is very knowledgeable on the topic of prostitution in less developed countries like Nepal and India, and the story of Lakshmi summarizes many stories other woman have had to go through after being sold to brothels. I enjoyed the story Sold by Patricia McCormick for many reasons.
One of those reasons was how it was told in very short chapters. Most chapters were four pages long at most and only told what Lakshmi saw and knew, which was not much due to her age. Another reason I enjoyed the book was because of the deep topic it took on. I have never read a book from the narrative of a person like Lakshmi, so this book kept me interested throughout the story. Lakshmi’s descriptions of other characters made it confusing to keep track of them because she frequently used descriptions of others instead of learning their names. Although it was occasionally hard to keep track of the characters the story was very interesting to read. In conclusion, The book Sold by Patricia McCormick was very captivating as it gave an amazing insight to the illegal sex trade in other countries and I enjoyed it very
much.