Summary Of Behind The Beautiful Forevers By Katherine Boo

Gianna Buonopane
Mrs. Gillespie
World Cultures
20 January 2015
Behind the Beautiful Forevers Behind the Beautiful Forevers, a novel written by Katherine Boo is a nonfiction journalistic account of the lives of several people who live in the Annawadi slum. In the book Boo brings her audience to a front row seat of the lives of many slum dwellers suffer from in the city of Mumbai. She is able to represent the theme of the amount of complications there can be to keep hope while being stuck in poverty. The author is able to sculpt this theme to the readers through many tragic breath taking life events that many people now a days would take for granted not having to suffer and fight through them. These events include police beatings, political

Overcoming great odds is one major part of the book and also the contrast of rich, shiny and new environments against , poor, lower, and less fortunate. Slum life is explored and also the role that crime plays in that environment. The story is set in a slum town near Mumbai Airport and this is a contrast to the luxurious hotels around the facility. Many of the people who live there have menial jobs for example rubbish recyclers, building workers and piece-work migrants, and they all hope that one day India's business future will rub off on them. A crime shocks the slum-dwellers and then global recession starts to slow the world economy down. In addition many people live in fear of terrorist attacks. Religion, resentment intimidation and the caste system all threaten fresh conflicts, But there is a theme of hope as well. Some slum dwellers are resilient and persevere against the odds, winning through against discrimination, corrupt practices and unfairness. The book shows that there are things of hope and value even in a slum. "He saw nothing but his own bottomless grief, because he knew miracles were possible in the new India and that he couldn't have one" (Boo

Those who do not learn how to navigate the slum and play by its rules face starvation. Everyone in Annawadi is trying to elevate themselves from their situation and get out of the slum. The nearby international airport is a source of some options for success in waste and recyclable scavenging, in metal thievery, and, for a lucky few, regular service jobs in the hotels. A wall plastered with the words of an Italian tile company ‘beautiful forever beautiful forever’ separates the affluent area near the airport from its surrounding slums. Annawadi is a society that subsists on the leftovers and cast offs from this affluence, and a society where corruption runs rampant. Residents must make payments to police officers and even to each other, as a sort of Annawadi insurance policy. The Hussains, a migrant Muslim family that has risen to a level of success through the hard work of their son, Abdul, who has built a successful recycling business. Although they live next door to each other and celebrate holidays together, tension between Fatima and the Husains continues to grow. One day while the family is improving their modest home, Fatima starts a verbal argument with them that eventually ends up with her committing suicide and 3 people are imprisoned, Abdul, his older sister Kehkashan, and his father Karam. It seemed to him that in Annawadi. fortunes derived not just from what people