SOLD

By: Patricia McCormick

Setting
The events of the story take place in a tiny village in the Himalayas, Nepal. In the building called
“Happiness House” where in Lakshmi were sold to be prostitute.
Characters and Characterization
 Lakshmi- a thirteen-year-old farm girl in danger, the narrator and protagonist of the
novel. When the monsoons come and her family's crops are destroyed, she is sold into
sex slavery by her stepfather.
 Ama- Lakshmi's mother; she is described as a typical village wife. She bears her family's
struggles by being the only working adult in their household, but she still manages to be
beautiful, at least in her daughter's eyes.
 Stepfather- a lazy gambler, and Ama's second husband. He spends his days at the tea
shop gambling and conversing with the old men and sees no value in Lakshmi. Stepfather
is always willing to spend the family's earnings on unnecessary selfish items for himself.
 Gita- Lakshmi's best friend. She went to the city to work for a rich family and send
money back to her own.
 Tali- Lakshmi’s goat. She gives the milk Lakshmi makes cheese with. She follows
Lakshmi around a lot as if it were her child and acts as the young girl's best friend
 Bajai Sita- described as the first who bought Lakshmi.
 Auntie Bimla- described as a modern woman by Lakshmi, whom she takes on a long
journey into the city where the naive farm girl thinks she is going to work as a maid.
 Uncle Husband- described as a “slapping man”, takes Lakshmi across the border to the
place where she is to work. While on their journey, he orders her to call him husband,
probably because he didn't want to attract any negative attention towards them. After he
drops Lakshmi off at her destination, the Happiness House, she never sees him again.
 Mumtaz- the owner of the Happiness House, she is portrayed as a cruel and selfish
woman. She oversees all the girls and “manages” their debts. Mumtaz is known for her
ruthless punishments such as locking girls up for weeks, beating and starving them, as
well as punishing any girls who try to escape or receive gifts from customers by dipping a
stick in a mixture of chili peppers and shoving it up the offending girl's vagina. She
instills fear in every inhabitant of the Happiness House.
 Shahanna- Lakshmi's first friend at the Happiness House, a girl with teardrop eyes and
deep brown skin, like the hide of a nut. Shahanna is from Lakshmi's country and helps
her get accustomed to her new life. In the novel they become best friends, sticking
together to survive Mumtaz's wrath. Shahanna is taken away when the police raid the
Happiness House because Mumtaz was late on her bribes to them.
 Pushpa- a “coughing woman”, she is one of Lakshmi's roommates in the novel. Pushpa
came to work for Mumtaz when her husband died. She has a baby girl and an eight-year-
old son. Her illness gets her and her children kicked out of the house by Mumtaz who
feels Pushpa is a waste of her money.
  Shilpa- the “Aging Bird Girl”, is Mumtaz's spy. Her character is described as having “the
reed-thin body of a girl and the hollow cheeks of an old woman. She is, under the folds of
her yellow dress, frail as a baby bird.” Shilpa is at the Happiness House at her own
volition. Shilpa is also an alcoholic.
 Anita- the “half frowning girl”, is one of Lakshmi's roommates. In the novel, Anita is
also from Lakshmi's and Shahanna's country. Once she ran away but the goonda (men
who work for Mumtaz) caught her, beat her, and returned her to the Happiness House.
They are the reason her face is lopsided. It's hard to read Anita sometimes because of her
aloof manner, but she and Lakshmi become friends towards the end of the novel.
 Harish- the David Beckham boy, is Pushpa's eight-year-old son. He is obsessed with
David Beckham and soccer. He goes to school every day and comes home to the
Happiness House. In the novel Lakshmi is envious of Harish because he gets to live a
semi-normal life and she doesn't. After he catches her looking at his book, Harish offers
to teach Lakshmi English and Hindi. Harish runs errands for the girls and their customers
at night. Sometimes he earns a few rupees. He is “a boy of about eight. He has hair that
sticks up like the tassels on a cornstalk and knees as knobby as a baby goat.
 Street Boy- a tea vendor. He comes to the Happiness House every day to sell tea to the
girls. He flirts with them but doesn't sleep with them. At first, Lakshmi is ashamed to be
seen in the Happiness House by him, but when he starts giving her gifts of food, they
form a bond. Unfortunately, he is given a new route, and they never see each other again.
Lakshmi never learns this character's name.
 Monica- one of the highest earning characters in the Happiness house, has almost paid off
her debt. She also has a very short temper. She has a daughter at her home who she's
paying school fees for. Monica says the people will thank and honor her and Lakshmi
when they get home for sending money. When Monica returns home, she is not greeted
with honor, but run out of her own village and comes back to the Happiness House. After
a while, she is thrown out because she caught the “virus”.
 American Customer #1- he pays for Lakshmi but does not sleep with her. Instead, he
talks to her and tries to see if she wants to leave Happiness House. Lakshmi remains quiet
during the exchange. He gives her a card.
 American Customer #2- he is not a good American nor is interested in trying to rescue
Lakshmi from Happiness House. He arrives drunk and sleeps with Lakshmi.
 American Customer #3- comes and asks Lakshmi questions. He takes a photograph of
Lakshmi. The girl actually converses with him, somewhat. He says he will come back for
Lakshmi, and he does. She leaves with him.
 Habib- Lakshmi's first "customer".
PLOT
Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl living with her family in a small hut in the mountains
of Nepal. Her family is desperately poor, but her life is full of simple pleasures, like raising her
black-and-white speckled goat, and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp.
But now the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops,
Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family.
 He introduces her to a charming stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid
working for a wealthy woman in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long
journey to India and arrives at “Happiness House” full of hope. But she soon learns the horrible
truth: she has been sold into prostitution.
An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells
Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt – then cheats Lakshmi of
her meager earnings so that she can never leave.
Lakshmi's life becomes a nightmare from which she cannot escape. Still, she lives by her
mother's words – “Simply to endure is to triumph” – and gradually, she forms friendships with
the other girls that enable her to survive in this terrifying new life. She also teaches herself to
read and speak in English through listening to the conversations of people around her and books
she manages to take.
Eventually, Lakshmi meets an American man, who arrives and disguises himself as a
client to gather the evidence he needs to prosecute Mumtaz and her associates. Mumtaz is
ultimately arrested, thus freeing Lakshmi and the other girls.

CLIMAX
Lakshmi has her first encounter with a man. The man is old and his lips are wet and taste like
onion. He lies on top of her and unzips his pants, while pushing himself between her legs and
French kissing her. Lakshmi then bites his lip and runs back to her room.
CONFLICT
Lakshmi went head on with her “auntie” Mumtaz until she couldn’t fight anymore. Mumtaz was
a strong-willed woman who knew how to drag whatever she wanted out of people. If Lakshmi
refused to be with men she was starved and beaten by Mumtaz. Mumtaz made sure Lakshmi
knew that she was going to be staying at “Happiness House” for a while and that she had no
choice but to submit. Mumtaz wanted to break her spirits and make her feel totally worthless.
Everything that Mumtaz would say towards Lakshmi degraded her. Mumtaz was physically,
emotionally, and psychologically abusive towards her and the rest of the girls.
RESULOTION
Lakshmi meets two Americans who offer to help her leave the house. The first she refuses to
speak to out of fear of Mumtaz and of being shamed. The second she speaks to in broken English
and asks the American for help in leaving.
ENDING
Lakshmi meets two Americans who offer to help her leave the house. The first she refuses to
speak to out of fear of Mumtaz and of being shamed. The second she speaks to in broken English
and asks the American for help in leaving.
POINT OF VIEW
Patricia McCormick tells her novel “Sold” in the first-person limited-omniscient narrative mode
from the point of view of main character and narrator Lakshmi.

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

Setting
The Things They Carried is primarily set in the country of Vietnam, during the Vietnam War.
Character and Characterization
Tim O’Brien - The narrator and protagonist of the collection of stories. O’Brien is a pacifist who
rationalizes his participation in Vietnam by concluding that his feelings of obligation toward his
family and country are stronger influences than his own politics.
Jimmy Cross - The lieutenant of the Alpha Company, who is responsible for the entire group of
men.
Mitchell Sanders - One of the most likable soldiers in the war. Sanders strongly influences the
narrator, O’Brien. He is kind and devoted, and he has a strong sense of justice.
Kiowa - O’Brien’s closest friend and a model of quiet, rational morality amid the atrocities of
war.
Norman Bowker - A man who embodies the damage that the war can do to a soldier long after
the war is over.
Henry Dobbins - The platoon’s machine gunner and resident gentle giant. Dobbins’s profound
decency, despite his simplicity, contrasts with his bearish frame. He is a perfect example of the
incongruities in Vietnam.
Bob “Rat” Kiley - The platoon’s medic. Kiley previously served in the mountains of Chu Lai, the
setting of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong.”
Curt Lemon - A childish and careless member of the Alpha Company who is killed when he
steps on a rigged mortar round.
Ted Lavender - A young, scared soldier in the Alpha Company. Lavender is the first to die in the
work. He makes only a brief appearance in the narrative, popping tranquilizers to calm himself
while the company is outside Than Khe.
Lee Strunk - Another soldier in the platoon and a minor character.
Dave Jensen - A minor character whose guilt over his injury of Lee Strunk causes him to break
his own nose.
Azar - A soldier in the Alpha Company and one of the few unsympathetic characters in the work.
Every time Azar appears, he is mean-spirited and cruel, torturing Vietnamese civilians and
poking fun both at the corpses of the enemy and the deaths of his own fellow soldiers.
Bobby Jorgenson - The medic who replaces Rat Kiley. The second time O’Brien is shot,
Jorgenson’s incompetence inspires O’Brien’s desire for irrational revenge.
Elroy Berdahl - The proprietor of the Tip Top Lodge on the Rainy River near the Canadian
border.
Kathleen - O’Brien’s daughter and a symbol of the naïve outsider.
Mary Anne Bell - Mark Fossie’s high school sweetheart.
Mark Fossie - A medic in Rat Kiley’s previous assignment. Fossie loses his innocence in the
realization that his girlfriend, Mary Anne, would rather be out on ambush with Green Berets than
planning her postwar wedding to Fossie in Cleveland.
Linda - O’Brien’s first love, whose death of a brain tumor in the fifth grade is O’Brien’s first
experience with mortality.
Plot
Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, the leader of a platoon of soldiers in Vietnam, carries physical
reminders of Martha, the object of his unrequited love. Thoughts of Martha often distract
Lieutenant Cross from his team's objectives. A death in the squad under his supervision causes
Cross to reconsider his priorities, as he was heartbroken, he burns and throws away all reminders
of Martha in order to focus on the mission and avoid distractions.
Climax
During their tour of duty, the men of the Alpha Company must cope with the loss of their own
men and the guilt that comes from killing and watching others die. O'Brien and his fellow troops
must deal with a death very close to their hearts. O'Brien's best friend has died and he must try to
move past the pain and hurt of the tragedy. Now he has to start a new beginning of his life in
Kiowa's honor.
Conflict
The men of the Alpha Company, especially Tim O’Brien, grapple with the effects—both
immediate and long-term—of the Vietnam War.
Resolution
When the war ends Tim has a reflection over his life and wonders how different it would have
been if he never went into the war. Nevertheless, he honors all his fallen soldiers as well as his
fallen friends.
Ending
The Things They Carried ends with the narrator revealing the fates of characters like Kiowa and
Dave Jensen, both of whom died during the war. The deaths of his fellow soldiers continue to
haunt the narrator, especially since they died in violent and senseless ways. Tim’s last story
resolves the conflict of how to create meaning from the war and how to make sense of the
soldiers’ experiences. In “The Lives of the Dead” Tim writes “stories can save us,” before telling
the story of his childhood friend, Linda, who died when she was young. By memorializing Linda
in writing, and by remembering all of his friends from Vietnam by writing about them, Tim
concludes, he can keep them alive in some way. He recognizes that he’s been writing the book to
save his own life, and he has succeeded, ending this attempt to find meaning for his time in
Vietnam.

Point of View
The Things They Carried is written from two points of view. The title story and several others
are written in first person, from the perspective of the character of Tim. Tim narrates all the
stories but is not the main character in of all of them. In several stories, Tim seeks to
memorialize his friends from the platoon by telling their stories, while trying to understand how
his experiences in Vietnam changed him. The other point of view is third person omniscient, as
in the title story, which allows O’Brien to share the thoughts of many of the characters in the
novel, including Kiowa, Lt. Cross, and Rat. Making use of the third person allows O’Brien to
include stories that the character of Tim would not have first-hand knowledge of. The
combination of the two points of view makes the book a personal account of a collective
experience.

TUESDAY’S WITH MORRIE

By: Mitch Albom
Setting
The novel takes place during 1995, in Morrie’s study, in West Newton, Massachusetts. Mitch
and Morrie meet every Tuesday to discuss the meaning of life.
Character and Characterization
Morrie Schwartz - The novel is centered around him; Morrie is Mitch’s former college professor
who was diagnosed with ALS; he meets with Mitch in his home every Tuesday to teach him
about the meaning of life.
Mitch Albom – He is the narrator and Morrie's former student; he has since become a journalist
and leads a very fast paced life; finds Morrie after hearing he is sick on "ABC's Nightline" and
visits him every Tuesday.
Charlotte - Morrie’s wife, who is also a college professor; she keeps her job as a professor even
while Morrie is sick because it is what he wished for her.
Janine - Mitch’s wife; she takes a phone call from Morrie, whom she had never met, and
accompanies Mitch to his next visit with Morrie. As a professional singer, she never sings upon
request; however, when Morrie asked her to sing she did without hesitation and moved him to
tears.
Peter - Mitch’s younger brother who lives in Spain; he has pancreatic cancer and refuses any
help from his family. He seems reluctant to rekindle his relationship with Mitch, but by the end
of the novel, we see that he has warmed up and may be letting his brother back into his life.
Charlie - Morrie’s father who came to America from Russia. He neglects Morrie and his brother;
he even insists that Morrie keeps the death of their mother a secret from his younger brother. He
dies after escaping muggers.
Eva - Morrie’s stepmother who came into his life when he was about nine years old. She
provided much love to Morrie and his brother, David. She highly valued education and served as
a great motivation for Morrie to work hard at his education. Morrie’s love for education stemmed
from Eva, which later lead to his career as a professor.
David - Morrie’s younger brother who developed polio at a young age.
Connie - Morrie’s at-home health care aide; she assists Morrie in going to the bathroom, getting
up and into his chair and also with his meals.
Ted Koppel - A famous television newsman/personality; he interviews Morrie three times for the
“ABC's Nightline” show; he eventually describes Morrie as his friend and is almost in tears
during his last interview with Morrie.
Plot
It begins with Mitch graduated college at Brandeis University. He introduces his favorite
professor (Morrie) to his parents and brother, and them to him. Morrie asks if he will stay in
touch, and Mitch immediately promises he will. But there is only one problem. Mitch did not
stay in touch. He got so wrapped up in his work, that he lost all contact with his college friends
and professors. Over the years, Morrie develops ALS, a horrible and deadly disease. Morrie
sends letters to Mitch, but because they are sent from Brandeis University, he thinks they are just
asking for money. Mitch only learned about his professor's disease when he saw him being
interviewed on Nightline. When Mitch found out about Morrie having ALS, he decided to go see
him. When he first saw Morrie, he slumped down in his seat to finish his work. HE should've just
run up to greet him. But he didn't. Morrie and Mitch decide to meet weekly on Tuesdays, so
Morrie can teach Mitch the "meaning of life" before the disease complete destroys Morrie's
ability to communicate. During the lesson's, Mitch learns that he needs to focus on love and
other people, not making as much money as he can. Morrie convinces Mitch to write the book
"Tuesdays with Morrie", so Morrie can share his virtues with the whole world. When Morrie
dies at the end of the book, Mitch realizes he can still communicate and learn from him, even
when he's dead.
Climax
Mitch discovered that his former instructor or the person he called as a coach was ill and suffered
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Mitch visits Morrie for the last time, when he is very close
to his death.
Conflict
Morrie vs. ALS, he must accept his illness and accept his coming death from Amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS) disease. Mitch vs. himself, he struggles to find meaning with his life and
to change the person he has become in the sixteen years since he had last seen Morrie.
Resolution
Morrie taught Mitch about the meaning of life every Tuesday. During one of the Tuesday
lessons, Morrie says to Mitch, “you talk I’ll listen”. He wants Mitch to talk to him even though
he is already dead.
Ending
When Mitch is at Morrie’s funeral, he remembered Morrie telling him to talk to him, so he tried
talking with Morrie and was surprised at how natural it was. Mitch will probably continue to find
these conversations with Morrie helpful. He has a new perspective on life now, and Mitch also
tries contacting his sick brother in Spain. For the first time, Mitch tells his brother how much he
wants to be closer and how much he loves him. By the end of their conversation, Mitch and his
brother are going to stay in touch.
Point of view
Albom's Tuesday's with Morrie is a true story told mostly in a first-person narrative by Albom,
the author is one of the two main characters. Mitch is the narrator and part of the story as well.
He’s not only telling us the story, but telling us his story as it actually happened to him. There
are several flashbacks to Albom's college days, but they are still related in Albom's first person
voice. The style of this work, told as conversations between a teacher and student.

Based on the stories, write a family story that is similar to any of the incidents mentioned in the
stories.

There was a family living in the city of Manila. Mrs. Leona is a housewife and his husband
doesn’t have a regular job. They have 5 children and their daughter named Janice is the eldest.
Janice didn’t finish college because she decided to work and provide the needs of her siblings.
She wants to help her parents in raising his brothers and sisters. She’s working in a fast food
chain located 8 kilometers far from their home. The amount that she’s earning every month is not
enough for her family, bills and for the house rent payment. Mark, her brother who is next to her,
graduated in high school and an incoming first year college. She is thinking that she will be
needing a lot of income for her brother and working with a low salary is not enough. She can’t
focus on her job for the reason that she was thinking about it the whole day. Her co-worker
Shaina noticed it and immediately asked about what her problem is. They had a conversation
about her problem and she was asked “why not work abroad to get a higher salary?”.

She was scheduled for her flight the next day and the only way to make her family know that
she’s leaving is to write a letter for them. While on the plane, she cried thinking that her family
would be so sad after reading the letter that she wrote. She was destined to work as a Domestic
Helper at UAE.