Opposite Sides

In my(our) current book, "Sold' by Patricia McCormick, Lakshmi is a 13-year Nepali old girl. Her family is poor; her stepfather , a gambler who only cares for himself. He has gambled away all their riches(which is very little because of him) and after the monsoon, which is a rainstorm, passed, they're left with very little.Their crops are lost and nothing is left for their survival. Obviously, her stepfather is looking for some way to earn money to help himself. He sells Lakshmi's cucumbers to get more money and things for himself. On the other hand, Lakshmi has trying to help out her family from the beginning. She tried to offer her mother a hand and go to the city. Her mother wanting the best for her daughter, says no. So when this monsoon passes, and all their crops are gone, there are two main perspectives of this situation.

One of them is Lakshmi's.Lakshmi is very selfless and cares for family. She is willing to go to the city and work to send wages home. For example, on page 3-4, it states, " 'Let me go to the city'...'I can work  for a rich family like Gita does, and send my wages home to you.' 'Lakshmi, my child,'...'You must stay in school, no matter what your stepfather says.'" This is where Lakshmi offers to go to an unknown place and work there. It shows that she is willing to do anything to help her family out especially her mother and her baby brother. In the real world, many people do give up many things to give their friends the best of their life. For example, in a movie I love,"Once Upon a Time," the main character's mother-in-law, she pretended to drink a potion that was suppose to heal her and let her live. But she let wanted the best for Snow(the main character) and her son. Instead she secretly put the potion in Snow's drink. She says that she puts her children before her and I understand why. She wanted her son and Snow to have a great life and possibly with a child. This relates to the book because Lakshmi and Snow's mother are both willing to do things that will have a loss in their family's life.

The second is Lakshmi's stepfather. As you have read, he is very selfish and only thinks of himself. When he looks at something that might give her some fortune, he sees riches for himself. For example, in the book it says, "Lately, I want to tell her, my stepfather looks at me the same way he looks at the cucumbers I'm growing in front of out hut... When he looks, he sees cigarettes and rice beer, a new vest for himself. I see a tin roof." This shows that he is inconsiderate of his family. When good fortune comes their way, he takes every thing for himself. He takes what will make him seem rich, but not what's best for his family. He only thinks of what will help him in the short term, not long term. This relates to the real world, but I'm not sure if this is sure. You know how like their are street people and it's rumored that they are on drugs. So I'm going to take that. You know how they ask for money ans say it's for good things, but actually it's for drugs. So that's kind of related to how Lakshmi's stepfather is. They don't help themselves, they help themselves to look nice in front of other people.

Concluding, I think that on every situation there is in this book, Lakshmi and Lakshmi's stepfather are going to have very different perspectives on it. They are the opposites of each other. Lakshmi, her mother and her brother deserve better than this crummy stepfather, who is supposedly better than no man at all. I think they're better off with no man supporting them because then they'll have one less mouth to feed. Also, it's not like getting rid of the stepfather is going to alter their economy spending. Comment, post :)