Behind The Beautiful Forevers Analysis

The city of Mumbai has seen much growth in the past years. A string of elegant hotels have been set up for travelers and high-class business men. An ever growing, top of the line airport has been built for those coming in and out of the country. From the outside, Mumbai seems to have taken a liking to being internationally integrated with the rest of world, otherwise known as globalization. This is not the case, however; as seen in Katherine Boo’s novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. This novel is set in a slum right next to the Mumbai International Airport called

In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers, author Katherine Boo sheds light on the topic of corruption. Corruption is something that is seen everywhere, but varies in depth. She chooses to focus on India, because she is fascinated with how so many people are impoverished while others prosper. Boo is able to convey both the benefits and downfalls of corruption within a community by deciding to only focus on a sliver of people from a single slum. She chooses to focus on the citizens from a slum called Annawadi due to sense of possibility in the community. Boo decides to watch this community for several years to see who gets ahead, who doesn’t,

For example, one of the slum’s young women, Manju is on track to become the first female graduate from Annawadi. Another can be seen in Abdul’s business of recycling and how it is helping improve his own economic conditions. Or through a number of the younger Annawadi kids going to these prop up free or “bridge” schools, despite them not being of the highest quality. While this may not seem to be rather huge events, or some may view them in isolation of each other, it at least demonstrates a slight trend of upward mobility and a subjective increase in quality of life for a number of Annawadi’s civilians. These smaller trends would perhaps distinguish Annawadi from India’s true poor citizens who were born in to poverty and have seen almost or perhaps no opportunity to escape the situation of which they were born in. This can be related back to the idea of development being a widening of peoples capabilities or opportunities, and that Annawadi may not be considered truly poor in comparison inside India due to a number of it’s people finding or having the smallest openings to exploit scenarios where they have been able to improve their life

Indian serfs have to prove loyalty to their masters and all of them are trapped under what Adiga refers to “The Rooster Coop”. This is the way of how Indian society is structured in which the well-off and the poor cannot amalgamate with each other. And this system ensures complete control for the upper classes, transforming the lives of the employees a prison. The master-servant relationship is established based on this philosophy which permits to maintain the endless servitude of the lower classes and providing wealth for a dominant

In India, if you are not born into privilege, you are struggling somehow. The Gatsby-like guy that he encounters produces big budget movies that no one hardly watches. He also runs a school that is not recognized by the government. He promises future students many things including a trip to Europe and a new laptop for everyone. Rahul tells Deb that in Arindam Chardhuri’s school, the students pay seven lakhs (hundred thousand), and that the operating cost of schools are low. He goes on to say “…you know how much teachers get paid in India. So, the money gets spun off into other businesses (p. 31).” This shows just how much big-business privileged people take advantage of the other working citizens of India. Teachers, who should be the heart of countries are paid such a little wage. Even though they have to have certain qualifications to be able to teach. Its far worse than America, even though it can be seen that the 1% hold

While it may be easier to persuade yourself that Boo’s published stories are works of fiction, her writings of the slums that surround the luxury hotels of Mumbai’s airport are very, very real. Katherine Boo’s book “Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” does not attempt to solve problems or be an expert on social policy; instead, Boo provides the reader with an objective window into the battles between extremities of wealth and poverty. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” then, exposes the paucity and corruption prevalent within India.

The differences between the rich and poor in India are like the opposite sides of a coin. The poor of India are mistreated and abused. Their homes are surrounded by trash and sewage and are very likely to be flooded, deathly hot and severely polluted. Nearly 25% of the population in India is under the poverty line. The families in the slums of India only care about surviving and marriage. Balram describes their relationship with the rich as “The rich are always one step ahead of us-aren’t they?” (Adiga 230). Balram means that he felt that the rich were always taking advantage of him and his family’s ability to work and he wanted to get ahead of the rich. The rich are blissfully unaware of the

There is not much privacy with the thin walls between the homes. Annawadi is also a microcosm of many of the prejudices that play out in the poverty stricken areas of India: Pakistani-Indian, Hindu-Muslim, social hierarchy, economic envy. This is one of the main reasons why Abdul finds it difficult to hide from the police; he fears that a neighbor may see

Poverty and oppression is a serious condition that is prevalent even in today’s modern society. Women and children are exposed to poverty and subjected to a life of injustice. One of the countries where such problems still occur is in India. Despite the country’s modernization, there lies an undercity where the disparity of wealth is transparent. These social problems are thoroughly described in movies and literature such as Slumdog Millionaire and Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Catherine Boo, the author describes slum life for a set of individuals and the hardship that their social conditions confined them to. Another movie that gave insight to slum life in India is Slumdog Millionaire

Katherine Boo, a staff writer at The New Yorker and former reporter and editor at The Washington Post, has worked for over two decades “reporting within poor communities, considering how societies distribute opportunity and how individuals get out of poverty” (Boo 257). In November 2007, she and her husband, an Indian citizen, moved from the United States to India to study a group of slum dwellers in Annawadi, Mumbai (Boo 249). While studying this group of individuals in India from 2007 to 2011, Boo’s goal was to learn why the individuals within this slum have not banded together against a common enemy in order to gain upward mobility. She illustrates several common issues of developing nations including: corruption, education, the mismanagement of foreign aid, and the possibility for social mobility in her book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers. In this literary work, Boo accurately portrays the acts of corruption and as well as how corruption has entered the sphere of education, which is typically an individual’s only avenue to social mobility and success in that area. She argues that instead of rising up against a higher power, the individuals within the slum fight against one another to get a leg up on their competition, even if it keeps them in the same social class.

Traditionally, an Indian woman had only four roles and those were; Her role as a daughter, wife, sister, and lastly, a mother. The women in today’s time however are experiencing far reaching changes and are entering into new fields that were unknown to them. They are actively participating in social, economic and political activities. Unlike the older times, women today have received higher education.

Indian culture before the transformation of globalization was a male dominated society with very little respect or regard for females. According to India’s constitution, women are legal citizens of the country and have equal rights with men (Indian Parliament), however due to lack of acceptance from the male dominated society; Indian women have suffered immensely prior to globalization (Tripod, n.d.). Indian culture after the transformation of globalization has had an innervation of mass media, most prominent being satellite television bringing images and dialogue from countless other cultures. This global influence has started to turn the tables in the marked sexist roles in Indian culture prior to globalization.

For instance a shift in the values of the Malayali middle-classes can be partially attributed to the implementation of colonial legislation instigating the abolition of polygamous practices such as the Marumakkathayam system of inheritance amongst Nayar communities, whilst increasing nationalist sentiment contributed to the diminishing importance of unique matrilineal forms in Kerala in favour of the patrilineal inheritance that prevailed as a middle class norm in the rest of India. (Arunima, 2003). Note that I have made no distinction between “Nayar castes” and “a Malayali middle class”, necessitating the clarification of two dimensions: reconciling class with the alternative hierarchical structure of caste; and related to this how the concept of a middle class has changed over time. From this I will discuss how shifting values in India have created an affirmatively dynamic middle class.

The short film entitled “The Most Beautiful Thing” is about a smart and lonely boy in high school who falls for a girl who is also lonely and has special needs. This film came out in 2012 and Cameron Covell is the director, writer, and producer of the film. It is only about 11 minutes long, but it conveys a very powerful message about love. This short film is a great movie to watch because many people can relate to the struggles of the boy (Brandon), it is amazing to see who he falls in love with (Emily) and how she changes his world, and the courage displayed by both Brandon and Emily at the end of the film is astounding and encouraging.

Abstract— In the study of history of human civilization it is found that there was a continuous trend of torturing the weak by more powerful individuals or groups, exploitation of the poor by the rich and landed people, neglect of the illiterate by the educated people, socially overpowering women by men and as such injustices. Such social injustices are a constant source of discontent giving rise to conflicts. Instead of solving those conflicts they were always suppressed. In the progress of civilization and development of humanistic attitude, people are now gradually getting more and more concerned with Human Rights that demand social justice to all sections of the society. Extreme poverty and illiteracy among a major section of the population is the greatest tragedy for India. Also, in the global context a reasonable economic order through equitable distribution of wealth among different nations and more particularly among the people of the same country is very much needed to avoid conflicts and clashes.