Sold By Patricia Mccormick: Summary And Analysis

In a touching novel about the horrific life of a thirteen year-old Nepalese girl, Lakshmi, Patricia McCormick uses a fictional story to portray the lives of real girls. McCormick introduces the reader to the harsh truth about the existence of sex slavery. She paints a vivid picture in the reader’s mind of the brothel, where deceitful adults take an unknowing Lakshmi, called the Happiness House. Sold tells the struggles and perseverance of young girls to make the reader consider what life is like for the women living in brothels or with pimps, and how it affects them after their release or rescue. Having an optimistic outlook can get one far in life, but when considering something as horrible as human trafficking, finding something cheerful

If victims of human trafficking had the option to help themselves, friends and family would not accept them due to societal shaming. In Sold, Mumtaz introduces Lakshmi to an outgoing and bold long-term worker at the Happiness House, Monica. The other girls in the brothel look up to her because of the fact that she earns the most money. When the girls pay back all the money that Mumtaz has scammed them out of, she tells them they may leave. A few days after Monica gets to leave the brothel and go back home to her family, she returns unexpectedly and discloses to Lakshmi, "When they heard I was coming… they met me outside the village and begged me not to come back and disgrace them” (130). Lakshmi questions Monica about her daughter, and Monica solemnly replies, “They told her I was dead” (130). Even though Monica was only a part of human trafficking so she could help her father pay for his surgery, no one in her family or any of her friends welcomed her back after she came home. Before traveling back to her village only for her family to turn her away, Monica had unrealistically high hopes for how life would be after she leaves the brothel. She declares to Lakshmi,

Many men come to brothels for young girls, but when the girls get out of the brothel, the same people who pay for their services are the ones who reject them from the community. Also, people who know about what is going on do nothing to help the unfortunate situation in which many young girls are in. The hypocritical state of today’s society makes it challenging for these girls to eventually become ordinary citizens in the community. “A Human Security Crisis of Global Proportions” explains how “... victims are typically very young, most ranging in age from eight to eighteen years old.” Shunning a child is immoral. Parents, and even older siblings, are the ones who shape the person who the child will grow to be. Without the support and love from relatives, children have nowhere else to go, and no one to define who they will become in the future. All these girls have known are their abhorrent past lives. Having the ability to become a part of society after enduring such hardships can be strenuous without aid from the rest of the community and, most importantly, friends and relatives. Family should be there for each other, no matter what, and, in cases like this, it is obvious some families are not fulfilling that duty. In pursuit to scare the girls away from trying to escape the Happiness House, Mumtaz