Entry Two:

Who does not have power in the novel? What evidence is present of this lack of power? Provide specific examples?  

I believe there are three different ways to have power over someone, mentally, emotionally and physically. In this novel Lakshmi's elders and "owners" have physical power over her. She can not physically leave.

"'Leaving,' I say. 'I'm going home.'

Mumtaz laughs. 'Home?' she says. 'And how would you get there?'
I don't know.

'Do you know the way home?' she says.

'Do you have money for the train? Do you speak the language here? Do you even have any idea where you are?'" (McCormick 105)

Lakshmi has mental power at the beginning of the novel but as her desperation to get home grows, she starts to do more and more of what Mumtaz asks. She loses her will to be who she is. Her constant reminders of her name and her age seem to disapear.

"'Lakshmi,' I say to myself. 'My name is Lakshmi.'" (McCormick 200)

Lakshmi, who once looked forward to the day she could return to her mother and her mountain, lets fear control her, giving Mumtaz and the brothel the power.

"'I am afraid. Afraid that Mumtaz will beat us senseless. And I am afraid that the Americans will shame us and abandon us in the streets. But most of all, I am afraid to imagine a life outside this place." (McCormick 208)

The person who has power in this novel changes. Mumtaz and the brothel have physical power over everyone. Though Lakshmi is tried mentally and emotionally, for the majority of the book she has the power in those areas, which how she keeps up her hope for escape.