Analysis Of The Book ' Behind The Beautiful Forevers ' By Katherine Boo

It is clear that citizens in impoverished nations are stuck in a poverty trap, where they are unable to escape even with the assistance of aid from well developed nations. Many citizens are contributing money to charities because there is a moral obligation to donate if it does not put us into a state of economic instability. On the other hand, no matter how much aid is being given to nations stuck in poverty, this money is not helping any of the citizens. The money is going directly into the hands of corrupt governments and corporations, who constantly use it improperly. This aspect of money misuse is clearly illustrated in Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Boo focuses the book on the impoverished slum of Annawadi, located in Mumbai, India. Throughout the book, Boo shows examples of how the citizens of Annawadi are stuck in a poverty trap because of the country’s inconsistent and inefficient systems, leading to the failure of sustainable growth and poverty reduction to the nation. India is not the only place falling victim to this problem; many other third world countries grapple with the same issues. Other than helping the nations, aid has made impoverished nations circumstances even worse, pushing it into a further state of poverty. The main components of the failure of aid are due to developing countries not having proper infrastructure and institutions, no efficient government, and a dependence on aid.

Similarly, Denver’s Emerald Closet functions as a holding space that allows Denver to reflect on her trauma and experience her own pleasure. Morrison uses the environment to demonstrate how Denver is able to feel comfort for her trauma. The narrator describes the closet as being, “hidden by post oaks, five boxwood bushes, planted in a ring, had started stretching toward each other four feet off the ground to form a round empty room seven feet high, its walls fifty inches of murmuring leaves” (Morrison 34). While the closet is a part of environment’s natural creation, it is described as being a house, very similar to that of 124 Bluestone. The descriptions of the “round empty room” and “seven feet high walls” demonstrates how the closet

“The Girl Who Loved the Sky” by Anita Endrezze was my chosen poem; A story of a short-friendship among two girls. Imagery is used by Endrezze to illustrate the inside of the second grade classroom both of the girls attend. As well as a simile to compare the main character’s feeling toward numbers, I believe to be mathematics perhaps, “I learned that numbers were fractious beasts with dens like dim zeros”(Endrezze 15). Suggesting an unpleasant or rather difficult feeling towards subjects dealing with numbers.

Katherine Boo’s implicit purpose for writing Behind the Beautiful Forevers was to give the reader an inside look at a day in the life of an individual living within a slum of Mumbai. The residents of the Mumbai slum, Annawadi, live upon piles of waste where there is minimal opportunity to create a better life for themselves. For example, residents within the slums of Mumbai scavenge through “mounds of illegally dumped construction rubble” (73) in hopes of making a profit off recyclable materials so they can provide a source of income for  their families. The vast majority of individuals living within the slums of Mumbai have no choice but to scavenge because at a young age, they are pulled from their education and told they don’t “have a

While reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers, I felt a strong connection to the girl who strived to be Annawadi’s first college graduate. Annawadi is an extremely poor slum located near the Mumbai international airport in India. Manju Waghekar, a teenager living in the slum, had extremely high hopes for her future. She did not want to be stuck living in poverty for her life with her over-ambitious, politically driven mother, Asha. Manju spent her days studying for her college exams, and her nights teaching in a free of charge school for young children.

This quote explains what it’s like to live in the Mumbai slum. The residents of Annawadi could get arrested or in trouble with authorities for doing virtually anything.

The city of Mumbai has seen much growth in the past years. A string of hotels have been set up for travelers and high-class businessmen. An ever growing, top of the line airport has been built for those coming in and out of the country. From the outside, Mumbai seems to enjoy being internationally integrated with the rest of world, otherwise known as globalization. However, this is not the case as seen in Katherine Boo’s novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. This novel is set in a slum right next to the Mumbai International Airport called Annawadi. It focuses mainly on the life and story of the main character, Abdul. Abdul Husain and his family make a living by selling scrap metal tossed out by the upper class of Mumbai. When looking at Abdul’s story, one can see the corruption that made it near impossible for globalization to have a positive effect on Annawadi. Abdul’s relationship with his neighbor, one-legged Fatima, also shows how neighborhood relationships were a barrier to Annawadi’s ability to be a part of Mumbai’s globalization.

How has Behind the Beautiful Forevers challenged my perception of overcoming poverty both in the Annawadi slum and globally?

There will come a Time by Carrie Arcos is a rich, thrilling novel filled with so many different kinds of emotions. A story that was able to develop itself around grief, loss, and friendship. After losing his twin sister Grace in a horrific car accident, seventeen year old Mark must learn to move on and forgive himself. He must learn to deal with his sadness, and anger and rediscover himself without his other half, grace. Grief is something we all deal with in different ways: some lash out, some harm themselves, and then there are some like mark who completely isolate themselves from the world. Mark lets the loss take over his entire life constantly wishing he was the one who'd died instead. The only place where Mark was able to find the

The feeling of hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen by dictionary.com, however our feeling of hope changes with everyone we meet and every experience we encounter. Reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers was a game-changing experience for my perception of hope, it took away my previous feeling of objectiveness and materialism involved in hope and slid in its place an idea that maybe being hopeful doesn’t require a vision of what of hope may lead to instead that being hopeful itself leads to a brighter outcome. If you could gain anything from reading this roller-coaster of a life-defining experience, I wish at least it changes your perception of how you see hope as a vessel to your desired outcome in life.

The city of Mumbai has seen much growth in the past years. A string of elegant hotels have been set up for travelers and high-class business men. An ever growing, top of the line airport has been built for those coming in and out of the country. From the outside, Mumbai seems to have taken a liking to being internationally integrated with the rest of world, otherwise known as globalization. This is not the case, however; as seen in Katherine Boo’s novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. This novel is set in a slum right next to the Mumbai International Airport called

Eavan Boland’s poem “It’s a Woman’s World” illuminates the fact that history has shaped an unfair role for women in today’s society. Boland criticizes the gender bias with regards to the limitations placed on women and their job choices despite their ability to be just as successful in the workplace as men. Regardless of the fact that the bias against women in the workplace is often overlooked, Boland aims to show the shared reaction of women to the gender bias prevalent in our society by using short sentence fragments, repetition, and a fire motif throughout the poem.

Due to corruption in the government, there has been an increase in poverty, which has lead to an

Corruption is a treacherous plague that has a wide range of volatile effects on societies; it undermines democracy and the rule of law, which leads to violations of human rights, distortion of markets, and it erodes the quality of life allowing for organized crime, terrorism, and other threats to human security. Corruption is universal, as it is found in all countries, yet it does the most damage to the developing world. Corruption hurts the poor disproportionately by diverting funds intended for development, undermining a government’s ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice and discouraging foreign aid and investment. Corruption is rampant in India, as it has taken a prevalent role of Indian politics and bureaucracy. Corruption in India has been one of the most interesting and discussed problems in modern political history. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranks the national perception of corruption in India to be 85th in the world out of 175 positions, indicating that India’s governance is corrupt and isn’t accountable to its citizens.

The government also promises to the poor, better schools and hospitals. Balram’s father died because there was improper medical care in their home town, and the life expectancy in India is only 66.8 years. There are nearly 1,189,172,906 people in India and only 61% of the people living in India are literate. In New Delhi, though, the government does fulfill its promises to the rich. They live unaware and uncaring of the slums surrounding their middle class lives. The government makes promises of better livelihoods to its people that are never fulfilled; causing India’s poor to remain in the slums and the government to have little understanding of the problems poor people face.