Beginning | Happiness House | Characters | Concepts |
---|---|---|---|
the dress is yellow
What color dress does the woman wear that purchases Lakshmi at Bajai Sita's store in "A Trade"? |
Mumtaz assures her that if anyone sees her with a shaved head, they will bring her right back to the Happiness House.
What happens when Mumtaz shaves Lakshmi's head?
|
Shilpa
Who is Mumtaz’s spy at Happiness House? |
What sad truth does Lakshmi learn from Shilpa in the counting room when she goes to borrow money for the tea boy?
What sad truth does Lakshmi learn from Shilpa in the counting room when she goes to borrow money for the tea boy? |
gambling at the tea shop.
Any time Lakshmi’s stepfather is able to acquire a little money, he uses it for |
Monica returns to the Happiness House because her family begged her not to return and disgrace them, even though the money she sent paid for her father's operation. Her family told her daughter that Monica was dead.
Why does Monica return?
|
One side of her face is in a perpetual frown.
One side of her face is in a perpetual frown.
What is unusual about Anita? |
The man gives her a small white card with some American words and a bird in flight on it
What symbol is on the card that the American gives to Lakshmi in "A Strange Customer"? |
so they do not get stopped/questioned by officers while passing the borders.
Why does Lakshmi call the man who buys her from “Auntie Bimla” to call him “Uncle Husband” |
Lakshmi studies the card the stranger left for her and hides it because she knows that she will be beaten for having it.
What does she do with the American's card?
|
He pays for a prostitute, but all he wants to do is talk to her. He asks if she would like to go someplace clean where she will be given new clothes and good food and she will not have to be with men.
What is unusual about Lakshmi’s first American customer? |
Mumtaz
Who lies to Anita about the nature of Americans? |
thirteen
How old was Lakshmi when her stepfather first sold her to Aunti Bimla? |
The second one that came to visit, but was drunk.
Who is the American man that makes her question people in America again? |
Nothing is unusual about this American customer. He is just another drunk, and he is there for her services.
What is unusual about Lakshmi’s second American customer? |
Power is tied closely to manipulation, social values, control, and violence.
What other themes is power tied closely to in the novel? |
She is proud to do something to help her family.
She is proud to do something to help her family.
Why does Lakshmi feel proud when her stepfather takes her to Bajai Sita’s store to be sold? |
Why does Lakshmi count her money so carefully?
So she can give money to her family, and so she can pay Mumtaz's debt.
|
For trying to leave Happiness House, she was beaten with a metal pipe by Mumtaz’s goondas.
What event caused Anita’s deformity? |
Slavery is integrally tied to force, fear, manipulation, abuse, and—most of all—the removal of choice from one's life.
What other themes is slavery tied to? |