Behind The Beautiful Forevers Essay

How far would you go in order to survive? In times of desperation and need people will do things that can be looked at as unacceptable by society in order to survive. In the book Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo explores the life of the people in Annawadi and shows us the very defined line between the rich and the poor in this community in India. Annawadi is a “Slum” in India made up of lower class people who live in shacks that sell trash as their main source of income. Boo shows us how this line of work does not generate enough money for the people of Annawadi to be able to survive. The only other people besides the rich who are able to somewhat survive in these conditions are the people who work jobs in the rich side of town which consists of luxury hotels, and other facilities in which mostly tourist go to. In order to get these jobs you must know of someone who is already situated inside that facility, and in the case of most Annawadians they do not have connections with the people who work these higher end jobs. In order to compensate lots of Boo shows how Annawadians turn to corrupt practices in order to be able to make money in order to survive in such a harsh environment. In an environment like Annawadi the fruits of corruption are sweet and bitter at the same time. Even though corrupt practices can bring you more money than your regular jobs in Annawadi they push forward failed social structures, more poverty, and the downfall of future generations. In order for a society to function properly it must have some sort of social structure. Social structure being, how people in their communities cohesively coincide with each other. …show more content…
Some key components of a good social structures include having a fair justice system, government that represents its people, and a government that provides basic necessities to it’s people. When a society does not have this type of social structure it can very easily spiral into chaos, and lead people to use corrupt practices in order to get the necessities they need to live. In Behind the Beautiful Forevers Boo shows us how the use of corrupt practices pushes the social structures in Annawadi down a negative path. One of the social structures that is damaged by corrupt practices in the legal system in Annawadi. The police in Annawadi use their social status to take advantage of the poor people, by charging them money if they want their help. In Behind the Beautiful Forevers we see Abdul (the main character of BTBF) and his family get into a very unfortunate situation where they are accused of physically harming their neighbor Fatima by dousing her in kerosene and lighting her on fire. When in reality Fatima was the one who set herself on fire, and there were many eyewitnesses who saw as well. Fatima did this as a way to frame Abdul, and his family of a crime they had not committed since she was mad at them from previous negative confrontations they had. When the police did their report on the situation they found out that Fatima had actually lit herself on fire in hopes of framing Abdul and his family. Fatimas own daughter had told the police that her mom’s story was false “But by the next morning, the Sahar police had learned that Fatima’s statement was