Entry One:

When reading this novel, how are you reminded of your own human rights as a citizen of the United States? Do you feel you deserve those human rights? How are they protected?  

Often, seeing people who aren't as fortunate as us reminds us how blessed we are. This is the case in Sold by Patricia McCormick. Lakshmi starts her life in a place where no one has what they need. It is a constant struggle from dry season to monsoon season. Her family is unstable and most income they receive has to be collected to pay their debts or Lakshmi's stepfather gambles it away. The terrible conditions make it very difficult for a child to survive to adulthood.

"According to the number of notches in Ama's wedding trunk, she is thirty-one and I am thirteen.If my baby brother lives through the festival season, Ama will carve a notch for him. Four other babies were born between me and my brother. There are no notches for them."

One way I am reminded of my rights in the united states is the opportunity I have to attend school and get a good, well-rounded education. Lakshmi is fortunate that she gets to attend school but her school is not as good as ours is. She has one teacher and one pencil, and she even loses that:

"That the first thing we must do is pay the landlord. And Gita's uncle who sold us last season's seed. And the headman's wife, who would not trade cooking oil for work. And my teacher, who gave me her pencil when she saw I had none."

Another way my rights as an United States citizen are clear is my access to food and shelter. Although many--even in the U.S.-- do not have this gift, the majority do, and it is one of the things we all take for granted.

U.S. citizens also have access to health care and even if they don't have insurance, there are free clinics and government provided funds to pay for their medical care. The people of Lakshmi's village never have access to this kind of medical care. The only way they can help themselves or their children is to get them to the doctor across the river, which is difficult. This greatly lowers the survival rate to adulthood.

" On the mountain we mark time by women’s work and women’s woes...

This is the season when the women bury the children who die of fever...

This is the season when they bury the children who die from the coughing disease...

This is the season when they bury the children who cannot be carried to the doctor on the other side of that river...

They teach the children who have survived the seasons to make back-to-school ink from the blue-black juice of the marking nut tree...

This is also the season when the women drink the blue-black juice of the marking nut tree
to do away with the babies in their wombs—the ones who would be born only to be buried next season..."
I believe I deserve these rights as a human because it is my opinion that all people who have not committed a crime against humanity deserve them. Once you have taken away the basic human rights of another person, you forfeit those rights for yourself.

The rights of United States citizens were first defined in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. It is those documents, as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that fuel our country's continuing mission to protect and defend these rights. We not only defend the rights of our own citizens, but the rights of people all over the world who are not being treated justly and fairly. I believe in basic human rights for everyone, which is why I think the most important thing for the U.S. to do as a country is defend those for ourselves and other people. If we use our resources wisely we can do great things.