Behind The Beautiful Forevers By Katherine Boo

Every account, every story, mentioned in the book is unequivocally true. “Boo learned about the residents' social distinctions, their struggles to escape poverty, and conflicts that sometimes threw them into the clutches of corrupt government officials…the characters are real” (NPR). As Boo learned about the culture of Annawandi, she began writing a book, unbiased, about what she saw. She shared what she saw with the world, trying to make a difference.

The townspeople thought Boo was an evil man who caused trouble around the neighborhood because of his past experiences as a child. Boo opens up to Jem and Scout throughout the novel and they see he is really a lonely, caring man in need of a friend. Boo was known as the towns troublemaker and had a bad reputation, many people were scared of him. " Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom people said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him. People say he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped and windows.

Hair for Mama, written by Kelly Tinkham and illustrated by Amy June Bates, tells the heart-wrenching story of Marcus, a boy whose mother recently discovered she had cancer. As she began chemotherapy, physical effects began to take a toll on her body, leaving her without the hair she cherished. Mama was devastated as she believed that hair was an essential aspect to her family’s picture day. Seeing her visibly upset, Marcus exclaimed that he would get her hair and developed a plan to give his hair to her. However, after getting his haircut, Marcus became so shocked at his appearance that he hadn’t noticed that his hair had been thrown away.

The book quickly introduces Abdul Husain with a police chase with his father. “Midnight was closing in, the one-legged woman was grievously

Ela Essay A family is forced to evolve due to a life-changing event, The Vietnam War, in the novel, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanha Lai. One of these characters is Há, a ten year old girl who is forced to leave everything behind and move to America. Há evolves throughout the novel by learning English. When Há first moves to America, Há doesn’t understand the language and is confused and frustrated. By the end of the novel, Há isn’t fluent in the language, but she has greatly improved.

This is evident in the book through the Annawadi resident Asha Waghekar, a kindergarten teacher that possesses extensive influence in the settlement, and aims to be the first female slumlord of Annawadi. Asha aims to do this with the help of Subhash Sawant, a member of the Shiv Sena party, a predominantly Hindu party that is highly prejudiced against migrants from northern Indian states, and is the highly corrupted Corporator of Ward 76 in which Annawadi resides. In the book, the clever and corrupt Asha, uses her political connections to position herself to be a minor player in a scam where “Asha, having befriended the bank manager, was helping him select the Annawadians who would get loans—for her own cut of the loan money, she hoped.” (pg.25). This corruption demonstrates a flaw in the Indian political infrastructure because the loans she influences are part of an anti poverty scheme created by the central government with the intention of ushering in growth for entrepreneurial citizens stuck in poverty.

Boo was not liked by the town and was seen as its main target for strangeness causing him to stay inside often. However Boo was an incredible guardian of the children and always wanted to protect them, so the night Mr. Ewell attacked Boo heard/saw the dire need of help from the children so he went to save them. Despite the fact that Boo stayed inside most of the time and was very unliked by the town Boo risked himself to help the children. In the 1930’s anyone who was seen strage was usually the topic for gossip and most of the time these individuals isolated themselves from the town and avoided any human contact. Boo however, broke this stereotype showing his courage because he gave up isolation to save two children.

In the beginning of the book we know Boo as the weird person that stabbed his father, but Mrs. Stephanie says “Boo wasn’t crazy, he was high-strung at times.” (11). As the story of Boo progresses, the children keep interacting with Boo without knowing it. His innocence is shown when he brings a blanket for Scout in the event of Mrs. Maudie’s house burning down, and when he saved Jem and Scout from Bob. His loss of innocence is shown earlier in his life when he was in a “gang” that did not always do the right things.

Boo was victim to injustice that was created by the rumors surrounding him about untrue inhumane acts that he’s allegedly done, painting him to be a monster by the town. Many people got their information about him through gossip, the main culprit being Miss Stephanie Crawford, who told Scout and her brother, “Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.” (p. 12). These

In the novel Inside Out & Back Again, By Thanha Lai, the main character Ha and her family live in Saigon during the Vietnam war and its described how their lives turned Inside Out & Back Again. During their time in Saigon they are constantly reminded that the war is coming closer and they must leave, And on the journey away from Saigon they experience immense suffering and pain, Finally once they escape and make it to the US they experience pain that comes from racism, and buried emotions that emerge while they try to fit in and not be considered outcast. While Ha and her family are in Saigon everything around them is about the upcoming war and how it's getting closer and must leave, For example “Maybe soldiers will no longer patrol our

The skepticism of Aanakwad led the father to believe that he “saw Aanakwad swing the girl lightly out over the side of the wagon” (Erdrich 393). Louise Erdrich plays with the reader’s assumptions to prove a point; there is more to a story than stated. “The Shawl” portrays traumatic family issues originating from the narrator’s grandparents. Erdrich shows the parting by describing the lasting and detrimental effects on the family each generation.

Lastly is when the children were attacked, Boo protected them. These are all examples of how Boo helped the kids. Towards the end of the novel, after the kids realize all the nice things Boo has been doing for them, they start to change their opinions. They realize he is not a crazy man, he is just a person. A person that has helped them.

In the non-fiction book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo chronicles the life in the Mumbai Slum of Annawadi in India and focuses on the character Abdul Husain. She describes the harsh living conditions of the slum, how the citizens of these areas live and try to survive and the actions of the corrupted government. The book tells the readers that the author traveled to these areas and conducted research and interviews with certain individuals and studied the history of the place in order to obtain knowledge and insight on how people in the slums in poverty go through. The book also contains messages of “survival of the fittest”, corrupted government and law systems, family life in a place with limited resources and help, and facing

Finding Peace in Terror “If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest.” A quote by Corrie ten Boom, this is an important lesson learned in the Hiding Place.

In order to raise awareness of the staggering injustices, oppression and mass poverty that plague many Indian informal settlements (referred to as slum), Katherine Boo’s novel, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, unveils stories of typical life in a Mumbai slum. There are discussions on topics surrounding gender relations, environmental issues, corruption, religion, and class hierarchies, as well as demonstrating India’s level of socioeconomic development. Encompassing this, the following paper will argue that Boo’s novel successfully depicts the mass social inequality within India. With Indian cities amongst the fastest growing economies in South East Asia, it is difficult to see evidence of this in the individual well-being of the vast majority of the nation. With high unemployment rates, the expansion of informal settlements and the neglect of basic human rights, one of India’s megacities, Mumbai, is a good representation of these social divisions.