Sold

   
    I am reading Sold by Patricia McCormick, a book about a young girl named Lakshmi who is sold as a sex slave to pay for her family's roof to be fixed. Lakshmi learns many things along her journey. She learns that the world is not the place she ever though it could be. She looses her innocence and accepts it, but still wishes she could be a normal child again.

    One lesson that Lakshmi learns is that everyone isn't always the person that they say they are. She learns that the world is a cruel place. When Lakshmi sees a cop come into the "Happy House" (where the enslaved women are kept) she wonders why he wouldn't let them all go. She sees that the owner of the Happy House bribes the cop to turn his head on what he sees, and not tell anyone that the house is there.
"I don't understand this city. It is full of so many bad people. Even the people that are supposed to be good."
Lakshmi learned that once she left her town everything was different. People weren't friendly or nice. Everyone isn't who they say they are.

    Another lesson that she learned was that in rough times, you must keep on going. If you give up it will show your weakness. If you keep on going you will gain from it. The things she gets through will just make her stronger. When Mumtaz (the woman who runs the Happy House) starves and beats Lakshmi, she gets frustrated because Lakshmi doesn't complain. She doesn't give in.
"Mumtaz, with her doughy waist and fat mango face,
doesn't know the match she's met in me."
She gains knowledge that people might not always be nice, but when you give into them it is just letting them win.

Lakshmi learns many things from her experiences. She had to get used to a new world. She lost her innocence and was forced to grow up fast. She wants to be a normal child, but knows that it is practically impossible. She has hope that she might be able to get out of the house and back to her home. After all the hardships, she is still able to have hope, and this is what helps her mature. She looses her innocence but keeps her integrity by never giving up.