Throughout this essay the different perspectives of Mumbai will be explored by looking into the thoughts of those who live there. In the ‘Beautiful foreverers’ Katherine Boo introduces three main characters: Abdul, Asha and Sunil. The protagonists, though living in the same slum (Annawadi), have incredibly different perspectives on what life can provide for them. Abdul is prudent with what he says and tends to keep his head down in his work, as the owner of a rubbish collecting service. Asha is a slumlord (an unofficial position) which has led her to the ideology that money is what makes the world go round. Sunil, a young scavenger, who has seen that people are deceitful and only want what others can give to them, even if it means using those less fortunate than you to get it. Seeing these different perspectives, this essay will cover how Katherine Boo presents this by analysing language and language techniques.
We are firstly introduced to Abdul, a boy who has lived all of his life in Annawadi, who has recently taken over the family business as a trade who appraises what the scavengers bring to him. You are given the impression that Abdul is focused on his work and only cares about trying to provide for his family. His views on the world sink through into his perspective of Annawadi as his ‘work-focused’ ideology means that he prefers to arise in the morning “with minimal whining” as he understands how this would only cause more problems than solutions. Furthermore, he prefers this “gentle-going hour” of Annawadi as it projects this feeling of the “intimate and familial” as everyone arises to their daily jobs.
Katherine Boo illustrates this by personifying the morning. What this creates is a feeling of Annawadi coming alive and create a moment of ‘together-ness’ in which everyone is getting ready for another day of work, an almost endless cycle of the people of Annawadi. On top of this, we are also introduced to the idea of that the morning is “gentle-going” giving the reader to the impression that the morning is slower and more relaxed than the rest of the hectic, work-filled day.
After Katherine Boo presents Abdul, the reader is introduced to Asha, the Annawadi slum-lord. Though an unofficial position, the people of Annawadi know who has been chosen as the slum-lord by the local authorities and police officers that patrol the slum. Keeping this in mind, Asha is expected to do what is favourable for the people who keep her in this position. However, she has learnt many ways in which she can turn this opportunity into a window of business. She has also learnt hate, is the main root of economic power, the power that fuels big cities (like Mumbai) which pushes forward the development and privatization of the cities resources. Asha’s views on the world make her feel that “everyone, everywhere hates their neighbours” because they feel that they are being robbed of their chance at wealth as the others take the opportunities that they could have had. Furthermore she felt that group identities were becoming “attenuated” as the “anger” they felt and they “hope” they tried to reclaim were becoming “privatized… like so much in Mumbai”. What Asha is trying to communicate to the reader is this idea of human emotion and identity being destroyed and captured to try and take out as much money out of it as possible. It is almost a commentary on how capitalism has absorb human emotion for this “hope” of becoming wealthy, yet we forget those around us and the way they have to try and prevail the same way we do. In addition to this, society has almost programmed us to exemplify this selfishness by causing us to hate anything we feel has stumped and prevented what ‘we deserve’. In this case, Asha points this out by making the statement that “everyone…hates their neighbours”, further proving my point of how Asha feels everyone this they should succeed, but think that they can’t because others take what is theirs.
Boo helped prevent these ideas by, firstly, personifying the idea of human identity and them creating a hyperbole of this idea of wide spread hatred. We see this idea of personification by the use of the word “attenuated”, a word which means ‘thin’ as is usually used to refer to a person. She uses this word as a way of expressing that these ideas of identity are what makes us human, and by them becoming thinner and harder to differentiate as we all fight each for this idea of ‘wealth’ that we are becoming less human every day and turning into this unrecognisable figure which only cares about becoming richer instead of helping others. Secondly, by using a hyperbole, we are introduced to an idea that not only transcends class but also culture, an idea that can be translated into any situation to explore these ideas of hatred, instead of peace and love, for personal economic sustainability.
Finally we are introduced to Sunil, a young scavenger boy, who was orphaned as his dad was an alcoholic and their mother died. Sunil has had to live through the deceit and lies, many of the ‘adults’ in his life have told to be able to use him and others in the same situation for economical gain. He has been kicked out of the orphanage as he can no longer grab the attention of the foreign that came to donate money to the orphanage. Sunil does “not get mad” when he finds out why the sisters at the orphanage used phrases like “AID’s child”. He felt that by knowing, it gave him a “shield” that many other children did not have. With Sunil, we are given this feeling of his innocence being destroyed step-by-step as he has to watch how others do not care about him, but only see him as another ‘street-child’.
Katherine Boo present these ideas by creating this feeling of innocence and not knowing by using phrases like “he understood” which presents this image of him understanding this concept but maybe not understanding other concepts which may have the same effects.
In conclusion, the ideas of perception change a lot from person to person. We see that Abdul’s ideology pushes forward these ideas of the “intimate” and the way people try and focus on their work, almost trying to block the outside world and provide for their family. This loosely ties in with Asha’s ideology as it encourages this idea of solitude and the way people fight for ‘what is theirs’. It also helps understand why some many people feel that money is the way forward and their reasons to blame others for their misfortune. And finally, Sunil, his perspective on the world shows the reader how innocence can be lost in a moment and the effect it can have on a young mind. It illustrates how people hope to be different and hope the world to treat them differently, but instead see that the lies people tell actually help them, instead of hindering them.
Katherine Boo has done all of this using personification to communicate ideas that are seen as human, yet generalise or exaggerate the ideas that seem to have no place in our society yet are still found in everyday life. Overall, what this has done is present Mumbai in such a light that it is not possible to find one answer but instead we are shown many with which present contradicting statements if read unknowingly but if looked through further we are introduced to this idea that Mumbai, and society in general, is trying to make everyone strive for the same thing, telling us that it is our duty to do so, yet kicks us down when we try. It also turns us against each other even though everyone is trying to acquire the same thing and makes us turn a blind eye those who need help or abuse of what little they have to offer to us.
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