Genre
Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Setting and Context
Sold is set in a rural Himalayan village and a brothel in an unnamed Indian city. The story likely takes place in the late 1990s.
Narrator and Point of View
Sold is narrated from a first-person point-of-view by thirteen-year-old Lakshmi, a Nepalese girl sold into the sex trade.
Tone and Mood
Lakshmi recounts her experiences through haunting, poetic vignettes. The mood alternates from pastoral and romantic to horrific and depressing.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Lakshmi is the protagonist. Lakshmi’s stepfather and Mumtaz, the owner of the Happiness House, are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The central conflict is Lakshmi's attempt to escape Happiness House and return home. She struggles against her debt to Mumtaz, the threat of violence, and her internalized shame.
Climax
The story reaches its climax when the American returns to Happiness House to rescue Lakshmi. Lakshmi hesitates before leaving her hiding spot and announcing her presence.
Foreshadowing
Ama's statement that "simply to endure...is to triumph" foreshadows Lakshmi's struggle against hopelessness.
During the festival, Ama gives Lakshmi money, saying "tonight...you are a child." This statement foreshadows Lakshmi's imminent loss of innocence.
When Aunty Bimla says there is “no sense in looking back,” she foreshadows Lakshmi’s fight to remember her family and find the will to escape Happiness House.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
The story alludes to the American soap opera "The Bold and the Beautiful," Michael Jackson, and David Beckham.
Imagery
Lakshmi describes her experiences and the people and the environments she encounters in rich sensory detail. For example, when meeting Bimla for the first time, Lakshmi identifies her by her scent of "amber and jasmine and possibility." She describes Mumtaz's body as having "folds of flesh like roti dough at her waist, and a face as plump as an overripe mango.”
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
The two chapters "Everything I need to know" and "Everything I need to know now" are structurally identical to highlight how Lakshmi's understanding of her future shifts from becoming a wife and living on the mountain to working in the brothel indefinitely.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
"Her family has a tiny glass sun." This is an example of metonymy. The glass sun represents an electric light.
"There will be one less mouth to feed." This is an example of synecdoche. The mouth stands in for Lakshmi and the economic strain that having to feed her puts on the family.
Personification
"…the neighbours’ tin roofs winking cruelly back to her." (page 1)
"In the evening, the brilliant yellow pumpkin blossoms will close, drunk on sunshine, while the milky-white jasmine flowers will open their slender throats and sip the chill Himalayan air." (page 9)
"‘Loo,’ it wails, announcing itself all over the land. ‘Looooooo . . .’ (page 20)
"the plants hang their heads a little lower." (24)
"But all I see is a stem, looking surprised, lonely." (25)
"The rain is so fierce, so relentless, so merciless, it finds every crack in our roof." (page 35)
"...then tighten my waistcloth so my own hungry stomach will think it is full (page 51)
"My feet silently thank her while I sit by the side of the road and wait for a bullock cart to appear." (65)
