Summary
Lakshmi's mother wants a tin roof to survive the rainy season, not for practical reasons, as Nepal is amidst a drought, but because the tin roof is a status symbol. Lakshmi offers to work in the city like her friend Gita in order to help pay for the roof, but her mother emphasizes that Lakshmi must stay in school. Lakshmi does not tell her mother that recently, her stepfather has started regarding her as a financial investment.
In the chapter "Before Gita left," Lakshmi lists the things she and her best friend Gita used to do together, from their inside jokes to games to sharing dreams of the future. Lakshmi then lists the material goods Gita's family has purchased with the money Gita earned in the city working for a rich family as a maid. In the chapter "The new student," Lakshmi explains to her goat, Tali, all the household chores she does. Ama remarks that Tali "thinks she is a person" and even thinks Lakshmi is her mother. When Tali shows up at Lakshmi's school, Lakshmi treats her goat with compassion, promising they will "work on our spelling."
In the chapter "Something beautiful," Lakshmi compares her mother, bent with physical labor, to the goddess who lives in the mountain. In "The difference between a son and a daughter," Lakshmi describes her stepfather, who is ashamed of his deformed arm from a childhood accident. Unable to work, he drinks tea and talks politics with the old men, joking that a son is always a son, but a girl is like a goat: "good as long as she gives you milk and butter. But not worth crying over when it’s time to make a stew." Lakshmi's mother encourages her to be thankful for having a man in their family since her father died.
In the chapter "Beyond the Himalayas," Lakshmi describes her mountain home in poetic detail and explains that during the full moon, she restlessly imagines life beyond the Himalayas. In the following chapter, "Calendar," Lakshmi explains the seasons of the year in terms of "women's work and women's woes," particularly how women are unable to save their children from disease. Lakshmi then explains in "Another calendar" how her mother marks the years on her wedding trunk, meaning that Ama is thirty-one and Lakshmi is thirteen, her brother will be one if he survives another season, and Ama had four other children who died before they reached a year old.
In the chapter "Confession," Lakshmi reveals her youth and imagination. For example, she names all of the cucumbers she grows. This innocence is contrasted with the following chapters, "First blood," when Lakshmi begins her menstrual cycle and has to be ritually confined, and "Everything I need to know," when Ama explains marriage dynamics to Lakshmi, interspersing moral and practical advice with superstitions, such as that looking at crops while on your period will cause them to rot. Ama also explains the importance of bearing a son. When Lakshmi asks why women have to suffer, Ama replies that "simply to endure...is to triumph."
Lakshmi spends her seven-day confinement after her first menstrual period daydreaming about Krishna, her betrothed, whom she describes as having "sleepy cat eyes." She suspects that Krishna has noticed her as well. The dry season continues for fifty days, damaging the crops and the family's health. The village rations water and Ama prays to the local goddess for rain. Lakshmi's stepfather suggests selling the earrings that would be used for Lakshmi's dowry, and, though the idea would have been unthinkable before the drought, Ama agrees. When Lakshmi wakes up the next day, she sees her stepfather has sold her precious cucumbers and gambled away the money. Finally, the rain comes, and the family celebrates. Though each drip of rain through the roof is a " a reminder of the tin roof" the family doesn't have, the baby delights in the sound of the rain, and Ama delights in the baby's laughter. She "sees the roof with new eyes" and plays with the baby. Just as the sound of rain is unfamiliar to the baby, the sound of Ama's laughter is unfamiliar to Lakshmi. When her husband leaves for the night, Ama makes popcorn and smokes a cigarette to enjoy the simple pleasures of life with Lakshmi. Together, they imagine luxuries, like ornate fabric and sweets, that they will never possess. The rains do not abate, and soon the village prays for the monsoon to cease. A mudslide destroys Lakshmi's family rice plot, which Lakshmi's stepfather did not take care to reinforce as he was too busy gambling. Lakshmi's stepfather leaves, and Ama pays off her debts using money she earned by selling her earrings. One day, Lakshmi's stepfather returns, now dressed in "a city coat and a triangle hat." Lakshmi initially assumes he is from the government, coming to the village to sign residents up for a social welfare program. Ama bows to her husband, feeds him, and tells Lakshmi that "Even a man who gambles away what little [they] have on a fancy hat and a new coat...is better than no man at all." During the Festival of Lights, the village honors animals associated with death, like crows and dogs, but Lakshmi's family is too poor to participate. As they have no dog, Lakshmi gives Tali a garland of marigolds, which the goat eats. Ama remarks that "perhaps she is not so silly after all." Convinced that the goddess Lakshmi favors gamblers during the Festival of Lights, Lakshmi's stepfather takes the rest of the family funds to the teahouse, while Ama gives Lakshmi money to buy a sweet cake "like the other children." When Lakshmi insists that she is no longer a child, Ama replies, "tonight...you are a child."
At the festival, Lakshmi meets a mysterious city woman, dressed in fine clothing and jewelry, who smells like "amber and jasmine and possibility." She describes the easy life of a city girl and invites Lakshmi to join her in the city. When Lakshmi asks if the woman is a maid, she laughs but does not reply. Later, Lakshmi's stepfather shows off a motorcycle he won gambling, which Ama explains she will trade for household essentials and some luxuries. However, he quickly loses the motorcycle and his fancy clothes gambling the next night. The morning after Lakshmi's stepfather loses everything, Ama is depressed. She tearfully informs Lakshmi that she must go into the city to work as a maid. Lakshmi is strong for her mother, optimistically pointing out that she will be able to earn more in the city, Ama will be burdened with one less mouth to feed, and the family will be able to save enough money for a tin roof.
Analysis
Sold is divided into short chapters, some of which are only a few sentences long. Each chapter is given an explanatory title and serves as a vignette, representing how Lakshmi understands her life. For example, during difficult times, the chapters are shorter, in quick succession, to simulate the feeling of Lakshmi's life passing by quickly or when nothing seems to happen in her life. During the period of drought and then monsoon, each chapter is no more than a few sentences long. This creates a sense of monotony and dread as the village waits for the dry season to end.
The text uses rural imagery, similes, and metaphors to set the scene of an impoverished town. For example, Lakshmi comments on her mother's "work-worn hand as rough as the tongue of a newborn goat." Not only does this simile describe the physical labor required to survive on a farm, but illustrates this idea using a comparison to livestock.
The opening chapter also establishes the tin roof as an important symbol. In Lakshmi's community, the tin roof not only symbolizes wealth and success but also, not having a tin roof symbolizes a family's failures. Since Lakshmi's stepfather is a chronic gambler, and Lakshmi's mother was unable to birth a son to support the family, they make do with a conspicuous thatch roof.
Sold frequently uses repeated phrases and parallel sentence structure to build tension, heighten the impact of dramatic moments, and create a sense of irony. For example, when Lakshmi lists the childlike activities she and her friend Gita did before Gita moved to the city, the list ends with the two girls spying on Krishna, Lakshmi's betrothed. Since the revelation that Lakshmi is already engaged comes at the end of a series of girlish games, the shock of the information is heightened, as the reader has characterized Lakshmi as a young child, and hearing that she is to be wed feels incongruous.
Lakshmi frequently expresses her emotions by using poetic descriptions, similes, and metaphors. For example, to explain her loneliness after Gita's departure, Lakshmi first describes the light fixture Gita's family purchased using the money Gita earned in the city. To emphasize the novelty of this item in their rural village, Lakshmi says that "inside Gita’s family’s hut, it is daytime at night," a hyperbolic statement. Lakshmi then uses the inverse of this statement to emphasize her own despondency, saying that "it feels like night-time even in the brightest sun without my friend." Thus, Lakshmi explains that though Gita's work helps her family achieve light during the night, a feat that was once impossible, Lakshmi suffers the consequences.
Lakshmi compares her Ama to the village goddess in appearance and personality; to Lakshmi, her mother is beautiful, regal, dignified, and strong. However, unlike the goddess, Ama is subservient to her good-for-nothing husband; she even "kneels at his feet" when serving him dinner. Though women shoulder the majority of labor and emotional pain, most parents desire a son. Lakshmi's stepfather says that "a girl is like a goat. Good as long as she gives you milk and butter. But not worth crying over when it’s time to make a stew." This quotation illustrates Lakshmi's stepfather's belief that his daughter is valuable for what she can give him; Lakshmi remarks that her stepfather looks at her like a crop to be sold or another form of income generation. Even when Lakshmi's mother explains marriage dynamics, she emphasizes the importance of having a son. This mindset is ironic, as Ama cherishes her relationship with Lakshmi and treats her daughter with kindness and respect while simultaneously affirming through her advice that daughters are inherently less valuable than sons.
Lakshmi further explains the poor fate of women by expressing that her village marks time with "women’s work and women’s woes." Going chronologically through the seasons, Lakshmi relates the seasonal chores women perform and the seasonal illnesses that kill their children. The text uses parallel sentence structures to emphasize the monotony and unending horror of women's lives. This repetition heightens the impact of the final paragraph, where Lakshmi explains that mothers teach the few children who survive to make ink for school and then use that same ink to induce abortions so that the mothers will not have to endure the deaths of more children "who would be born only to be buried next season."
When Lakshmi questions her mother about women's ill fate and the inherent unfairness of life, Ama replies that "simply to endure...is to triumph." This quotation establishes an integral theme of the text. Lakshmi faces unimaginable horrors with no end or justice in sight. However, the ability to survive and to live another day is Lakshmi's source of pride and dignity.
During the drought, Lakshmi ironically describes the sky as "deadly blue." Usually, blue skies connote optimism and good fortune, but in the case of Lakshmi's village, blue skies represent death as the drought drags on. When the rain does come, Lakshmi feels "the air grow heavy like roti dough." This simile compares the onset of rain to roti dough, a food staple in Nepal, as both food and rain are interconnected and life-giving in Lakshmi's story.
When the rain leaks through the thatch roof, Lakshmi uses onomatopoeia to compare the sound of rain hitting the pots to music. Her brother, unaccustomed to the sound of rain, delights in the noises as though they were music. Repeating the motif of unusual noises sounding like music, Lakshmi calls her mother's laughter musical.
When Lakshmi and Ama enjoy their popcorn and cigarette, they share their dreams for the future, repeating the word "maybe," followed by a simple luxury they have no hope of attaining. This list of dreams is contrasted with a list of all the debts the family has to pay, demonstrating just how desolate their financial situation is. Lakshmi and her mother enjoy the one free luxury, "imagining what may be." This statement foreshadows Lakshmi's survival tactics in the brothel.
The monsoon is an ironic event that parallels the drought. The family prays for a change in weather, the baby grows sick, and their crops are damaged in both the drought and the monsoon.
When the monsoon destroys the family's rice plot, Lakshmi remarks that her hands are "aching with emptiness." This poetic statement recalls the symbol of the tin roof, which is defined in the negative; not having a tin roof says more about a family than having one. Lakshmi wonders "what will be lost next," which foreshadows her future; ultimately, the family will lose Lakshmi.
Ama sells her earrings, which represent her dignity and pride; she is ashamed when walking home without them. Initially, Ama would have never sold her earrings, but her husband's behavior and gambling slowly stripped her of her dignity. The earrings were for Lakshmi's dowry, which is also destroyed when her stepfather sells her into sex slavery. Selling the earrings represents compromising integrity.
Many people in the village come to the family's ruined house to collect debts. Each debt collection is relayed using a parallel sentence structure to emphasize the ceaselessness of the family's poverty; it builds a sense of burdens piling on Lakshmi and her mother.
