The Message Behind Behind the Beautiful Forevers

    My choice summer reading book was Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. One of the many messages in this book is that there are different levels of poverty. Not all poor people are the same. There is no set mold for poor, and if there was, no one would fit.

    The Husains and Sunil are on different levels of poverty, as the Husains are richer than Sunil and more fortunate as well. Both the Husains and Sunil are in the garbage business. However, Sunil is a scavenger and a thief and the Husains own a garbage trading business. For instance, whenever Sunil is with Abdul Husain like on the last page, itis almost like Abdul is looking down on him. For a living, Sunil goes and walks around the airport digging through dumpsters for trash that’s “valuable” to trade and make a living. Who does he trade them to? Abdul. Even their housing is not equal. The Husains live in a nice hut with stone walls while Sunil is on the streets. All of this goes to show that even those in the same business are poor in different ways. Different jobs might have more or less money paid for doing it. Abdul Husain makes more money for his family than Sunil does for his, so the Husains have much better, nicer things than Sunil and his sister. This may not seem fair, but it’s life. Both families work equally as hard, but the Husains are just on the better end of the business than Sunil. The Husains in the beginning of the story can even afford to renovate their house. This is because their end of the business is more lucrative than Sunil’s even though Sunil works just as hard.

    Another group of people that are on different levels of poverty are Asha and Manju as compared to Fatima the One Leg. Fatima is widely scorned across the slum for her raucous behavior. She is a nuisance for slumlord Asha and her daughter Manju, a college student. When Fatima accuses the Husains of beating her after they get in a fight about the Husains’ because they were getting sand in her rice and “making too much noise,” Asha only sighs and shakes her head. Only out of courtesy does she offer the Husains to give Fatima a bribe to keep quiet.  Still set on revenge, Fatima dumps kerosene on herself and sets herself on fire. Both Asha and Manju are unbothered by this and very annoyed. Fatima is the exact opposite of Asha and Manju. While Fatima is a one legged prostitute married to a drunk, Asha works for several charities, is a member of an affluent political party, and is slowly making her way into the middle class. Manju might even become the slum’s first female college graduate! These women are as different as they come no only when it comes to their level of poverty, but how desperate for recognition they are as well.

    To conclude, there are different levels of poor. There is no poor mold and all poor people are different. Even in the same business or the same gender there are differences. When today’s society thinks of poor, people think living on the streets begging for change, while in reality, it’s so much more.