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Patrick McCormick’s simple and innocent wording in Sold can truly disguise the tone of the book. In the first few chapters, the novel begins with a somewhat playful childish tone. Slowly, the reader begins to recognize that the main character Lakshmi is slowly entering a situation that is quite serious and suddenly the tone shifts to more somber and at times flashes to violent.

She leaves her family in the mountains and is unknowingly brought to a city where her lifestyle completely changes. As she travels across the border from what she thought was the city to an even bigger city, she is forced to travel with a man that instructs her to say she is his husband. Naturally, the reader would understand that the man is unsafe, however considering Lakshmi tells the story, the underlying tone simply becomes somber; the reason simply being that the reader knows that Lakshmi will be put into a situation will she will be unhappy.

In the chapter “Old Man” the tone is somber and disturbing. Lakshmi is put into a situation where she is forced to sleep with an old man in all her innocence. “And then he is on top of me, holding me down with the strength of ten men.” (103). This scene obviously is disturbing to the reader, however it is the syntax really brings out the true tone of somberness. The sentences are short, to the point, and often unexplained. The chapters in the whole novel even are short, almost like they are unfinished, and this lack of description often contributes to more melancholy thought within the reader’s imagination.