Sold

Content Warning: This Themes section discusses upsetting topics, including child sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Perhaps the novel’s most prominent theme is how the girls’ innocence is stolen from them much earlier than that of boys. This theme is introduced on the first page, when Lakshmi’s stepfather looks at her the same way he looks at her vegetable garden—as if wondering what sort of price he could get for her. Similarly, Lakshmi considers her friend, Gita, who allegedly went to the city to work as a maid for rich people and has provided her family with lights, clothing, and school fees for her brother. This illustrates how the childhoods of boys are prized and prioritized over girls’ in this culture; families are willing to send their daughters to work at a young age in order to ensure that their sons can stay in school longer. Lakshmi is willing to make this same sacrifice for her own family: go to work as a maid in the city, even though she’s the best in her class, in order to provide a good roof for her mother and enough food and supplies for her baby brother (especially after having lost four other siblings).

The idea that male lives, and therefore the quality of male childhoods, are more valuable than those of females is reinforced in the culture that surrounds Lakshmi. For example, her mother says that if Lakshmi has a son one day, she should breastfeed him for four years, but if she has a daughter, she should only breastfeed her for a few months so she can get pregnant again sooner, hopefully with a son this time. Although Ama loves her daughter, patriarchal ideals are deeply embedded in her mind, and she believes that, as a woman, “simply to endure is to triumph” (16). Lakshmi also overhears her stepfather and other gamblers explaining how they view the difference between sons and daughters: “A son will always be 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” (8). This conversation proves that the willingness to sacrifice the well-being of girls for the betterment of other family members is pervasive. This is not just about gender, but also age. For example, the mothers or sisters of marriageable age are not sent away to work as maids or sold into commercial sexual exploitation; it is the younger girls that are sent away.

The concept of gender and childhood becomes more complex to Lakshmi when she meets Harish at the brothel. At first, she envies him because he has a comparatively normal childhood, does not get raped, and can attend school and leave the brothel’s premises. However, over time she realizes that, although he is a boy and not a direct victim of the sex trafficking industry, he also does not have a normal childhood and has been victimized in his own way by the same system that is harming Lakshmi and other inhabitants of the brothel. For example, he never gets enough sleep and is sometimes abused by the customers, bullied by his peers, and shamed by others. He is unusually observant, empathetic, and responsible for his age, having to take care of others often.

The difference between sacrificing someone’s childhood and sacrificing someone’s entire life is also complicated by the text. Going to the city to work as a maid seems to be a sacrifice of Lakshmi’s childhood privileges that would not necessarily affect her future adult life that much. However, being sold into commercial sexual exploitation of children ruins the potential adult life she had in mind for herself. Although she is not killed and does eventually escape, there is no guarantee that she will find a better life in the long run. Some other girls who get out of the brothel are shunned by their families or have deadly diseases. In their cases, the sacrifice really did ruin their entire lives, not just their childhoods.