The book, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo explores the hardships and struggles in the lives of various residents and families living in the informal settlement of Annawadi, found in the Indian city of Mumbai. During chapters five through nine in the book, the Husain family finds themselves in peril as they must deal with the vast corruption which runs rampant in India after a spiteful act by their neighbour Fatima the one legged. Katherine Boo accurately depicts some of the obstacles which the poverty-stricken residents of informal settlements face in their everyday lives in Mumbai. Throughout the book, the author devotes a large amount of time discussing the city of Mumbai and the issues those living in it are up against in …show more content…
One of the biggest social issue that the book tells us is the mass inequality that is present in the city. There is a massive wealth disparity between the different castes in India, at the top of the caste system there is the Brahmins who have plentiful money to buy what they want, while the vast majority at the bottom of the system know as Dalits, can barely scrape up enough money to have food for meals. The massive wealth disparity in Mumbai affects those at the bottom end the most and is seen in the book when it says, “In a 2005 deluge that brought the whole city to a standstill, Fatima’s family had lost most of what they owned, as had the Husains and many other Annawadians.” (pg.73). During the monsoon season in India, the poverty-stricken people living in informal settlements like Annawadi are hit the hardest even though they are the ones with the …show more content…
The book demonstrates the struggles that Mumbai much like the rest of India are facing due to large influx of migrants from the growing rate of urbanization. The resulting lack of jobs for the surplus labour demonstrates why India’s premature de-industrialization has been detrimental to the populace as well as establishing why the country does not adhere to the Lewis Model. In addition to the lack of jobs in Mumbai, the book also explores some of the social issues prevalent in Indian culture which has an immense wealth disparity and perpetuates inequality toward the different castes and religions. One of the biggest things that India as a country can do to combat the social issues is to invest heavily towards their health care and educational systems as these are key components in creating a healthier and more educated population and will offer the best return on
The fourth Chapter of Estella Blackburn’s non fiction novel Broken lives “A Fathers Influence”, exposes readers to Eric Edgar Cooke and John Button’s time of adolescence. The chapter juxtaposes the two main characters too provide the reader with character analyses so later they may make judgment on the verdict. The chapter includes accounts of the crimes and punishments that Cooke contended with from 1948 to 1958. Cooke’s psychiatric assessment that he received during one of his first convictions and his life after conviction, marring Sally Lavin. It also exposes John Button’s crime of truancy, and his move from the UK to Australia.
This frustration acted as a vehicle for her to gain a desire to be more
“Don’t Look Behind you” is filled with suspense as Mike the hetman tries to kill the father. The author use of imagery contributes to the story. Duncan’s story was able to contain many of SOAPSTone elements. Duncan wrote “Don’t Look Behind You” in a teenager perspective as her life changed dramatically. The use of suspense to create the mystery element in the story as the Corrigan goes in hiding to run away from a hit man. Don’t Look Behind You” have a speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject and tone.
mother used to come home late at night and used to get beaten by her
Winifred "Winnie" Foster from Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is a sheltered but curious pre-teen who wants to explore the world outside the gates of her home, but is never allowed to because of her helicopter parents. At the beginning, all she wants to do is run away and make a difference in the world and have an adventure of sorts. But what Winnie doesn't know is that particular summer will be one she will never forget. That summer will change her from a sheltered, shy, and obedient little girl in to a selfless, witty, and fearless hero. She will also have to make one of the hardest decisions of her life; whether or not she will join the Tuck's everlasting lives by drinking from the spring. Specifically, her crucial decisions throughout the novel are what make her character so gallant. Although it appears that Winnie Foster is a shy introvert who only wants to be left alone, she is actually an adventurous character who's personality transforms in to a heroic protagonist at the end of the narrative.
Jane Yolen's use of structure in the novel Briar Rose is very clever. Her use of allegory and the technique of parallel narrative is very effective in conveying her story which she delivers in a superb fashion. Elements of the story are reveled at specific times to tie in with the theme of growth and development both personal and historical.
In the Pulitzer prize-winning novel Evicted, sociologist Matthew Desmond follows eight families as he exposes how the lack of affordable housing perpetuates a state of poverty. He even goes so far as to assert that it is eviction that is a cause of poverty, not the other way around (Desmond 229). While this latter argument is as engrossing and it is striking, analyzing it with justice is simply not possible within the scope of this paper. Nevertheless, it is these two factors—inescapable poverty and eviction—that engender an unrelenting condition of financial, emotional, and communal instability, effectively hindering any chance of upward mobility.
Boo’s story begins in Annawadi, a trash-strewn slum located by the Mumbai International Airport. This “sumpy plug of slum” had a population of three thousand people living within 335 huts (Boo, 2011, xi). The land owned by the Airport Authority of India and was surrounded by five hotels that Abdul’s younger brother described as “roses” versus their slum, “the shit in between” (Boo, 2011, xi). Abdul is a Muslim teenage who buys garbage of the rich and sells it to recyclers to support his family. Abdul’s family, Muslim, is a religious minority in the slum of Hindus; in fact a major element of tension within the book can be distilled to these Hindu-Muslim tensions. This difference in religion makes Abdul fearful of his neighbors for two reasons: (1) they would attempt to steal the family’s wealth, and (2) if Abdul were caught, he would not be able to support his family. The other major character was Fatima, a woman who burned herself by attempting suicide through self-immolation. She accused Abdul, his father, and sister of beating and threatening her; in India, it is against the law to convince someone else to kill him or herself. With a corruption-ridden legal sys...
The poverty that Lakshmi and her family face is inconceivable. The thought of not having money to fix their roof, sufficient food supplies, or enough money to enjoy simple luxuries is made clear in the beginning of the story. Lakshmi sees the possibility of her going to the city for a job as an opportunity to help her family and to earn wages to aid in their financial struggle, as well as self-confidence and to prove that she is a hard worker. Ama, her mother, is subordinate to her husband and follows all directions. When Lakshmi and Ama are enjoying popcorn and a cigarette, respectively, Ama says that with that year’s crop, they may be able to afford some new things. All Lakshmi thinks of is the tin roof. The realization of not getting a new roof sets in when they think of all of the payments and expenses that need to occur before ...
Lisa Genova, the author of Still Alice, a heartbreaking book about a 50-year-old woman's sudden diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy, Support Network International and Dementia USA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer's Association. Genova's work with Alzheimer's patients has given her an understanding of the disorder and its affect not only on the patient, but on their friends and family as well (Simon and Schuster, n.d.).
For as long as man has walked the earth, so has evil. There may be conflicting moral beliefs in this world, but one thing is universally considered wrong: serial killers. Although some people may try to use insanity as an explanation for these wicked people, they cannot explain away the heartlessness that resides in them. As shown in The Stranger Beside Me, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy is no exception to this. Even though books about true crimes may be considered insensitive to those involved, the commonly positively reviewed book The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule handles the somber issue of Ted Bundy’s emotionally destructive early life and the brutal crimes he committed that made people more fearful and aware of the evil that can exist in seemingly normal people well.
The story that Jess Walter tells, much like any other novel, is one of joy and sorrow. Lives intersect and separate, people fall into and out of love, and dreams are made and broken. What Walter does with his plot though is quite different. He writes it in a way where the whole book itself relies on the reader’s ability to realize that though some people meet for only a brief amount of time, their dreams and hopes, can hinge on even the briefest moments. Sometimes the characters in the novel have their stories intersect, some in very interesting ways, and other times you see their story as it is and was, just them. Walter does a wonderful job of bringing together many different lives, many stories, and showing how just because you feel alone, does not mean you are, your life and story can at any moment intersect with another and create a whole different story. Perhaps, Alvis Bender puts the idea that Walter is trying to convey into the best words, “Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story . . . your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”
For all Annawadians except Asha, corruption ingrained in society prevents the impoverished citizens of a Mumbai slum from being able to become successful in life. Despite working hard, saving money, and only wanting to better the life of their family, the Husains’s story is demonstrative of the fact that an unintentional entanglement in the “great web of corruption” “in which the most wretched tried to punish the slightly less wretched” could easily lead to near ruin (Boo 115). Over the course of her narrative, Boo shows that Annawadians recognize the issues of corruption present in their society, and the fact that they lack the power to change the system. For Annawadians, the courage and aspiration to become more successful in life meant taking a gamble, and Boo shows that their gamble could only be made in a system where the odds were forced against their
This is necessary as the vast majority of individuals migrating from rural to urban centers has been steadily increasing with the level of economic growth seen within the past twenty years as mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, this situation has further shown the structural issues and inequalities of cities, as most migrants end up having a poor quality of life living in informal settlements as highlight substantially by Boo. As a means of tackling this, however, the Indian government has turned its focus on investing rural regions, developing the agricultural sector. Specifically, Boo mentions that “the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, had come down from Delhi to express his concern for the farmers’ hardships, and the central government’s determination to relieve it” (p. 138). While this is definitely important funds are not being divided justly. For starters, between rural and urban areas almost all investments are being targeting towards rural regions, which is only addressing issues of inequality in one section of the country. Furthermore, across rural areas inequalities of investment are quite often overlooked. Although, “one of the governments hopes was to stop villagers from abandoning their farms and further inundating cities like Mumbai, but Asha’s relatives knew nothing of these celebrated relief programs” (p. 138). Therefore, even though
Ever since human settlements came into existence, the issue of equal distribution of various resources among human beings has caused graved concern. The relationship between master and servant, husband and wife, parents and children, have assumed several shades. The strong exercise their power over the weak in terms of money and social status. In a country like India where the caste-system is still very strong, the issues of untouchability, child labour, exploitation of factory and tea-garden workers form a very prominent thematic pattern in Mulk Raj Anand's novels.