Social justice issues in SOLD

Imagine that you are poor.  So poor that you can't even afford a tin roof to keep the rain out, or even a bottle of coca-cola.  What would you do?  How could you get enough money to pay off your debts? To support your family?  I am sure that the last thing that you would say is to sell your family member.

That is basically what Lakshmi's stepfather did.  I am in the book club that is reading SOLD by Patricia McCormick.  This book is packed full with social justice issues, but the one that I chose is poverty.  Lakshmi, a thirteen year old girl living in extreme poverty in a small village in Nepal.  In order to make more money, Lakshmi's greedy stepfather sells her for ₨800, about $11.25 in U.S. dollars, to be a maid in the city.  Her pay would be sent home to her family,  only the stepfather would probably spend it on silly things hats and or use it for gambling.

But what disgusts me the most is the fact that Lakshmi is willing to do this in order to support her family.  she is willing to go away with a strange person that she doesn't know and not see her family for a very long time just to get money for her family.  People will do ridiculous things to help loved ones, but some people will do even worse in order to get money.  The thing with Lakshmi is that she, by being sold to be a "maid", is really causing a lot more issues for herself that she doesn't know yet (I wont mention that issue because, one, it would spoil it for some people, two, it's not what this post is about so it would be a distraction, and three, I just don't want to talk about it). 

This worries me about our current population of people living in poverty in New York.  I would say that the average New Yorker sees about two poor or homeless per day, if not more.  I just wonder, what do they do in order to stay alive?  How do they make money or get food?  Begging is most certainly not enough.  Do they do things as cruel as Lakshmi's stepfather?  Or things as naïve as Lakshmi? Do they know how many things that they might do can lead to many more problems?  Unfortunately, It is a hopeless situation that they cannot solve themselves.  They need help from others.

Lakshmi is faced with a hopeless poverty that she attempts to fix by selling herself, but this only leads to more problems.  The situation on our streets may be no different, for all we know.  Poverty is a long chain of problems that can only be broken by others.  It can be broken by us.  It can be broken by you.

Suspicion

Sometimes paranoid people have a point.  Sometimes suspicion can be good.  If everyone trusted everyone, the world would be a whole big mess.  Nothing would get accomplished and nothing would get solved if people weren't suspicious.  The only problem is, many people trust others out of passion.

God do I wish that Andromeda could be a little less trustful.  At the moment, I am reading Andromeda Klein by Frank Portman.  The main character, Andromeda, hasn't seen her old boy friend, "st. Steve" for a very long time.  Her "friend", Rosalie, has been hacking into her mothers online role playing game (Andromeda is aware of this).  Suddenly, she is getting text messages from  st. Steve.  Hmmmmm…

Now, I may be wrong, but the first thing that I thought when she got the first text was Rosalie was doing it.  I have no proof, but I have an idea.  St. Steve is not acting (texting wise) how he used to before, and even Andromeda is noticing that.  He didn't remember the things that they used to text to each other, and he text much more often then he used to (he used to text about once  day, now much more then that.). On top of that, He wont even send a photo of himself to her after she asked.  But she still thinks it is him. She doesn't have the faintest idea that there is a possibility its not .

 It's possible that it is good, her being so sure that it is him.  she is only getting joy out of it, and nothing bad is happening, yet.  But if she finds out that it isn't him, which I am not sure of, that would break her heart and end her friendship with Rosalie once and for all.  Hope and love are making Andromeda blind to things that would make most suspicious.  Rosalie knows that Andromeda really loves st. Steve, so it would be horrible for her to do this to Andromeda.  If it is Rosalie like I think, I would cal her a sadist, no doubt about it.  who would do that to some one they consider a friend?

There are lots of people in this world who are blinded by love.  Hope fogs there eyes until all they can see is is false kindness.  if a friend tries to tell them to not trust that person, they just ignore them.  But when they do find out, their heart breaks.   I truly hope that this doesn't happen to Andromeda.  If I could go into the book right now, I would tell her to be cautious and less trust worthy of people she knows are not always great people.  Before her heart is stabbed like in the three of swords on the cover of the book.

when do you not care anymore?

Anorexic. Man-dromeda. Freak (or weak or geek,or something along those lines).  All common names for andromeda.  But she doesn't care anymore.

I am reading Andromeda Klein, by Frank Portman.  This book is about a teenage occultist named (of course) Andromeda Klein.  Her only friend, Daisy, is dead and andromeda has no real friends.  She is insulted and called names twenty-four seven.  But she seems to handle this very calmly.  It is possible that after years of disrespect. As if she has become immune to it. 

But my question is, how long before you become immune? How many years must pass before you are okay with people calling you names?  Is it possible that this just becomes something that you expect to happen?  It reminds me of that comercial, I think it's for "Orbitz ®", with the man who knows what to expect and whats going to happen a few seconds before it does, so he isn't really affected by what happens.  Andromeda knows that someone is going to insult her, so she isn't really affected either. 

But something that I realize about both andromeda and the man in the commercial is that even though they both have the ability to stop it, knowing that it is going to happen,  but they don't prevent it.  In the Commercial, the man knows that the little girl on the bike is going to go through a puddle and splash him with water, but he doesn't step back before she goes through the water.  Andromeda could change her appearance before someone calls her anorexic, but she still remains skinny.  Of course Andromeda's case is a bit more serious and would take more time and effort to resolve, but  she can still prevent it.

All in all, Andromeda seems immune to the insults of others.  From this I infered that she expects these things to happen.  Like the man in the orbitz commercial, she is able to prevent these bad things from happening to her, but she does not.  but really, how long does it take for the heart to form a shell that doesn't let in insults?



By the way, if I find the commercial on youtube, i'll try to atach it. :)

Mrs whatsit, the high priestess

 "Now Meg walked slowly around the great table to where Mrs Whatsit was still poised between the columns."  A seemingly pointless sentence. I glance over at my bookmark on the table. The High Priestess from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck.   On the card was a woman between two columns. Like Mrs Whatsit. What a funny coincidence, I thought, not realising the meaning of that card. 

After a little reasearch, I found a few more connections.  The High Priestess represents a wise but mysterious woman.  She has the knowledge that you need, but that doesn't meen she can give it to you.  Mrs whatsit knows about the Black thing and fighting it, but she seems unable to tell the children about it.   She is very mysterious, and never quite clear with what she is saying.  the High Priestess also indicates thet you will learnn something very strange, and I'm not sure that I know anyone who would classify the 'tesseract' as normal.

But is Meg had to be a Tarot card, there is no doubt that she would be the fool.  The fool not only means foolishness (of course),  but also the begining of a journey.  megs journey is complicated and long, but she wont give up.  her task is to find her father, but she is so passionate about this that she is blind to everything else, like the possibility that her father isn't omnipotent like she thinks.  this makes her naïve and foolish.

To conclude, characters in "a Wrinkle in Time" can be related to the tarot cards, not only the pictures, but the meanings too.  from the fool meg, to the high priestess Mrs Whatsit.