The tone in which Patricia McCormick uses for the voice of Lakshmi shows the now detached and isolated life and feelings of the protagonist. In Sold, Lakshmi is at first very lively and whimsical however as the story progresses McCormick shows her reversion into a more somber view of the world by changing the tone of Lakshmi’s language and her attention to detail. After Lakshmi suffers so greatly at the Happiness House she becomes numb to the abuse she is receiving. “After awhile, I don’t know how long, another sound interrupts the rhythmic thud of the headboard. I know this noise from somewhere. I work hard to make it out. Finally, I identify it. It is the muffled sound of sobbing. Habib rolls off me. Then I understand: I was the person crying” (212). The description of this awful experience that would, under any normal circumstance, be full of images and detail about Lakshmi’s specific feelings in the moment, is instead diluted. McCormick does a good job of proving this change in emotion by her change in tone, not only through change in syntax and diction but in images and details as well.
Kyla,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the author shows how isolated and detached Lakshmi feels through out this whole experience she is going through. I especially like your description of how she becomes numb to the abuse, and we definitely see this when she explains "In between men come. They crush my bones with their weight. They split me open. Then they disappear (123)." Normally, someone going through this horrible process would explain in vivid detail how painful it is, how difficult it is to deal with, how often it happens, how they were feeling at the time, what the men looked like, and what they physically did to her, yet Lakshmi gets right to the point, feeling number and number after every visit.