In Sold, Patricia McCormick writes in is a tranquil, somber tone. However, the whole book is not in an extremely somber tone, like it is towards the middle and end. In the beginning, the tone is more playful, but still calm. Throughout the book the main character is optimistic, and attempts to look at things on the bright side. Even in times of distress and freight when you would imagine someone freak out, Laksmi keeps calm. When the owner of the Happiness House, Mumtaz tells Lakshmi that “You can go home… as soon as you’ve worked off the twenty thousand rupees I paid for you (132).” Previously Mumtaz had told Lakshmi that the price was 10,000 rupees, but Lakshmi doesn’t argue even though she knows that she has “seen her record book, with its entry of 10,000 rupees (132).” Instead of saying that or standing up for herself, Lakshmi keeps tranquil about it and gets more somber than before.
The language that the author uses to describe what is happening in the book is small, not very educated words. This is because the narrator is not the most educated and she is trying to capture that through her small vocabulary due to lack of education. The author does a wonderful job of this, I knew every word in the entire book and didn’t have to look for context clues like I do in other books.
The syntax that the author uses are short and simple sentences, mostly for emphasis and emotional support. This is what helps the tone be somber. They show the emotion and sadness that Lakshmi is experiencing. Very rarely there are long sentences, which could also be a way to show the lack of education that Lakshmi has experienced.
The images that the author uses are both gross disgusting images, and happy images. Some of the gross images are when Lakshmi is with the men and describing what she feels and what the man is saying. Some of the happy images are when Lakshmi is working on learning a new language with the boy.
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