Content Warning: This Essay Topics section refers to child sex trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation of children, which feature in the plot of Sold.

Compare and contrast Lakshmi with Harish. How do their similarities and differences reflect the different treatment of girls versus boys in this setting?

How does Patricia McCormick’s use of poetry to tell this story make the realities of Lakshmi’s experience more vivid? Does the use of poetry rather than prose also obscure the realities of her experience in some ways? Use examples from the text to support your analysis.

Analyze the passages where Lakshmi examines her reflection in the mirror at the Happiness House. What does her reflection suggest about how Lakshmi has changed, and how she views herself now? Choose three specific quotations that describe how her reflection conveys the ways in which Lakshmi has changed and analyze the tone, diction, and syntax (sentence structure) of those quotations.