Each year, over 800,000 women and children are trafficked into sex slavery across international borders, and more are thought to be trafficked within countries. Every day, people are tricked, kidnapped and coerced into trafficking and sex slavery. This is exactly what happened to Lakshmi, in Patricia McCormick novel’s Sold. The novel tells the story of Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl from Nepal who is trafficked and sold into a sex slavery house in India. Although Lakshmi quickly realizes her devastating circumstances, she does not give up hope that one day she will return home to her family. McCormick uses Lakshmi and the women of Nepal and India to show that perseverance, endurance and hope are vital to survive. McCormick first shows the perseverance of the Nepali women is by depicting their everyday lives. In the beginning of the story, readers get to see the lives of people who live in high mountains villages. In these villages, the women are often seen as expendable and unvalued. In Lakshmi’s village specially, the women are very dutiful to their husbands and family members. Often times, the women have to care for their children, do house and field work, and have to serve their husbands. A quote from the novel that fits well with this narrative is from Lakshmi, “On the mountain, wemark time women’s work and women’s woes“ (10). This quote is from a excerpt of when Lakshmi was describing the seasons, and the different hardships the women go through as
From the beginning of the book, Half the Sky, the stories of Srey Rath, the vibrant girl from Cambodia, and Meena Hasina, the courageous mother from India, and other stories like theirs have helped many people understand the tragedies taking place all over the world. Their stories have inspired the authors and many who have read their stories to dive deeper into thought about worldwide issues plaguing many countries, including the United States. The global issues surrounding women’s health in the beginning of this book include the topics of: the three types of abuses, the inaccuracy of the term “sex trafficking”, and the initiatives to stop slavery.
There are many differences between the book, Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick, and the movie, The Mighty, starring Kieran Culkin, Kevin, and Elden Henson, Max. There are many more than the ones I’m about to list but these are just the major ones. Such as the way Max and Kevin meet, when they rescue the purse from the sewer, and Kevin's death.
Even though the book Sold by Patricia McCormick is a fictional story, the misfortunes that happen to Lakshmi and the girls in sex trafficking take place all around the world. In Sold, the girls at the Happiness House are faced with a myriad of traumatizing experiences that happen in real life to sex victims all around the world. To start off, many traffickers often use verbal and physical violence towards girls to intimidate them into following orders, similar to what Lakshmi and the other girls go through everyday by the owner, Mumtaz, when they disobey the orders given to them while living in the Happiness House. Furthermore, to enter the sex trafficking world, the girls are taken from their poor families who are promised great fortune
Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. She suffered unspeakable acts of brutality and witnessed horrors that would haunt her for the rest of her life – until, in her early twenties, she managed to escape. Unable to forget the girls she left behind, Mam became a tenacious and brave leader in the fight against human trafficking, rescuing sex workers – some as young as five and six – offering them
Sex trafficking is essentially systemic rape for profit. Force, fraud and coercion are used to control the victim’s behavior which may secure the appearance of consent to please the buyer (or john). Behind every transaction is violence or the threat of violence (Axtell par. 4). Just a decade ago, only a third of the countries studied by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime had legislation against human trafficking. (Darker Side, par.1) Women, children, and even men are taken from their homes, and off of the streets and are brought into a life that is almost impossible to get out of. This life is not one of choice, it is in most times by force. UNODC estimates that the total international human trafficking is a
Today, we can see the use of literary devices everywhere, from books, to even magazines. Literary devices help the reader, imagine and think critically while they’re reading the book. An important literary device is imagery, which helps the reader picture what's going on in the passage that they read. Many writers rely on imagery, which helps the reader imagine what’s happening in the reading. There are many examples of this literary device being used throughout history.
In a small village consumed by poverty a man in a business suit shows up. He goes from family to family offering to buy children for a year’s worth of pay. He gets to one family with a young girl whose father sells her to feed his addiction for heroine. Scared and confused the girl is now forced into a brothel, sexually pleasing more than 20 men a day. Nearly five years later she is rescued only to lose her life to AIDS from unprotected sex. The human trafficking industry in Thailand has long been overlooked both internally and externally. Corruption, greed, foreign relations, economic pressure, and overall demand have fueled the trafficking industry in Thailand. Until the world and the Thai government make serious changes to the way they
The novel, “Sold” by Patricia McCormick in 2006 is a non-fiction novel, based on the story of Lakshmi, a 13 year old girl who has been sold into the system of ‘sexual slavery’ by her stepfather. Lakshmi’s life was full of hardship. She believes she is going to work in the city, as the breadwinner, but her step-father is in it for the money. The psychological and physical torment the girls endure, which integrally tattered their lives and innocence. The story is set at a faraway village in the country of Nepal & a red light area in Kolkata. The novel is written in the chain of small, vignette verse chapters from the point of view of the protagonist,
Human trafficking doesn’t happen in third world countries only. It doesn’t just happen to poor people and it certainly doesn’t solely happen to women. It is present here in the USA but it is hidden, and even worse, so are their victims. They are everywhere yet invisible. They are silently crying for our help through their eyes and smiles. According to Polaris, “…the prevalence of sex trafficking in the United States is still unknown, we do know that women, children, and men are being sold for sex against their will in cities and towns in all 50 states”. Human trafficking can happen to anyone even to Theresa Flores, the author of “The slave across the street”(“Sex trafficking” 2015). An average 15 year old American girl, coming from a privileged background and a respected family became a victim of sex trafficking and through her book, she convinces us that human trafficking doesn’t have a specific demographic.
The Vista 8th grade spaghetti dinner fundraiser is this Thursday March 30 from 5-8 in the Vista Cafeteria. Dinner tickets are $7.00 each or of 4 for $20.00. There will also be opportunity drawings for baskets of your choice. Tickets are a dollar each or an arm length for $20.00. We look forward to seeing all of you come out and support our 8th grade
Imagine a four year old girl growing up in contemporary Cambodia. Each morning she wakes up miles from home, homesick and scared. She is forced to beg for money for the brothel that she belongs to, and all of her earnings go straight to her master. Then, that night, about seven men come to the brothel. These men, some as old as fifty, often pay as little as two dollars to partake in sexual intercourse with these school-aged children. The toddlers enslaved in the horrific sex trade are forever stripped of their purity, making human trafficking a major issue in present day Cambodia. Over 30,000 children are sexually exploited annually (“Children for Sale”), and millions have been forced into human trafficking
Siri’s story illustrates the complicated dynamics of sex trafficking. Prostitution and sex work in general has become part of the global economy (Truong 1996). Some women choose to go into the sex industry while others are deceived or forced into it. Human trafficking networks usually use deception, coercion, or force to push women into sexual slavery. Some women migrate with the knowledge that they wil l be doing sex
An article released by the BBC entitled “Horrors of India’s Brothels Documented” brought this shocking global issue to my attention. The article provides information about a young Indian girl who was only 11 when she was sold into sex slavery by her neighbor (who had persuaded her family to let her go with him to Mumbai); she was taken from her impoverished village in West Bangel. Brutally raped the first night she arrived in a brothel, Guddi is only one of 20,000 sex workers in that specific area [Kamathipura] (2013). The article elaborates on the history of sex slavery in India. It points out that laws have recently been put into place against human trafficking. However, the laws are not being strongly enforced due to the sheer number of
The enormously high poverty rate, coupled with the crackdown on pedophilia in the western world makes Cambodia particularly vulnerable and child sex trafficking has become a lucrative way to exploit the country’s natural resources. One of the young girls featured in the film, Da-Lin, tells her story - “I sold my virginity to an old man for $500, I did it to help my family, my parents were sick and my brothers and sisters are young and had to go to school, my virginity was the only thing of value we had” (2:15). Another young girl explains how she suffered a stroke due to the abuse she endured. The stories go on and on, young children sold as child sex workers by their husbands, boyfriends, friends and family members. They cannot seek help from the authorities for fear of imprisonment, and they face exile from their villages due to shame.
She’s the girl who’s running away from her abusive past, the one who is impoverished and looking for a way to make ends meet, or perhaps, she’s the girl who naively fell in love with the wrong man. Regardless of the reasons, there are nearly 30 million victims of human trafficking globally. There are more slaves now than ever before. Trafficking of persons is not a subject that should be ignored or taken lightly. In order to fully understand the enormity of this crisis, we will examine the root causes, facts, and the impact of human trafficking throughout the world.