Anabelle Swezy Post #4

Imagine sitting, and observing a worldwide problem. You know it's wrong, negatively affecting people's lives, yet you continue to stare without taking action to help. Does this make you part of the problem? The problem can't have a solution unless there is an action to do something about it. If one does nothing, they aren't necessarily part of the problem, but they aren't helping to find the solution, leaving the problem unimproved.

In Patricia McCormick's Sold, Lakshmi is a victim of the problem. She wants a solution, but people do nothing about it, thus making the problem worse. The solution is to be free, to go back to her family with the money she has rightfully earned from selling her body, but Mumtaz makes it so she will never be able to have her freedom. She is trapped in the "Happiness House", working hard to be a part of the solution to her own problem, but each step she takes forward, she takes two steps back. She is standing in the problem, falling through it's floors. An American man comes to Lakshmi, to save her, to be a part of the solution, which gives her hope. But once the man leaves, she waits for him to come back to take her to America, yet he never returns, making Lakshmi lose hope in finding the solution to her problem.