Selling of Innocence

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     "But no matter how often I wash and scrub and wash and scrub, I cannot seem to rinse the men from my body" (McCormick 87).


      This book was heartbreaking, to say the least. I found it really hard at times for me to get through it without tearing up or getting angry. No one should ever have to go through what Lakshmi had to go through, but unfortunately this is a real problem in the world. I think what broke my heart more than anything was seeing Lakshmi lose her innocence. When she gets her period, that is like the beginning of her becoming a woman, but she still has her innocent spirit. We sadly have to read about her forcibly and brutally losing her sexual innocence. The quote that I used in the first line is also a huge reference to Lakshmi's innocence. She is trying "wash the men from her body" and does not understand that this will not reverse what has happened to her.


    "Simply to endure... is to triumph" (McCormick 11).

    We also see Lakshmi's incredible sense of perseverance many times throughout this novel. She has to endure unspeakable torture, but she never loses hope. Lakshmi hopes to be free of Happiness House, she hopes to return home, she hopes and believes that there is something more for her. Even on the mountaintop, she has goals that she wants to see realized. But without her hopes and goals, Lakshmi might not endure her struggles with the same determination. So she decides to make plans to achieve her hopes, and these plans allow her to persevere despite odds that seem impossible. Without her hope and plans, Lakshmi's ability to endure her captivity as a sex worker and everything she had to endure might come to a much different end.

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