Books

So let's clear something up first: does Lakshmi's notebook count as a book? They're both bound, they both have pages… but their purposes are completely different, which is why we're treating them as two different symbols. Lakshmi's notebook is a place to record what is important to her—and the books that she reads serve a different function entirely in the novel.

Let's start by looking at a key passage:

But sometimes I find myself hating him. I hate him for having schoolbooks and playmates. (100.AnOrdinaryBoy.4)

Here Lakshmi is watching the David Beckham boy (Harish), hating him for having books and friends. In fact, she's so jealous that when he is out and about in the afternoon, she steals the storybook he has and pretends that it's hers:

I do not understand the words inside, and the pictures are queer and otherworldly.

But at least for a few minutes, I pretend I am in school with Gita and my soft, moonfaced teacher, and I am the number one girl in class again. (102.StealingfromtheDavidBeckhamBoy.7-8)

Okay—so first we see Lakshmi hating Harish for having schoolbooks, and then we see her stealing his schoolbooks to pretend to be back in school, valued for her intelligence and hard work instead of used for her body. It seems like books symbolize the life Lakshmi left behind, right? And also the longing she feels to be a kid—she envies Harish for his schoolbooks and friends, after all. So when Harish catches her with his book and offers to teach Lakshmi the words in it, we suspect right away that this might be the beginning of a friendship.

Books are also a way for the first and third Americans to communicate with Lakshmi. When the first American arrives, he needs to refer to a little book for the right questions to ask Lakshmi. And the third American, though more fluent in the language than his partner, also uses a book to communicate with Lakshmi. We think books in this instances represent the vast differences between the world the Americans come from and the world Lakshmi is trapped in. What do you think?

Another book enters the novel; this one is an American storybook that Harish received from an American woman who works at his school. And when Harish and his mother and sister leave the brothel, he gives the storybook to Lakshmi. It promptly becomes a lifeline for her.

When Shahanna is taken in the raid, all Lakshmi can do "is lie in bed and read Harish's beautiful American storybook over and over again" (146.Immobile.2). In fact, she just wants to say the words "over and over until one blends into the other, a chant that keeps all other thoughts away" (148.AllIHaveLeft.3). The book has become a way to check out of the awful world of Happiness House, to disappear and keep the awful reality away.

The American storybook has two more important appearances: Lakshmi uses it to keep the third American with her for a while longer, and it is the first thing she decides that she wants to take with her when she leaves Happiness House. Clearly the book has come to represent a whole lot to Lakshmi—a safe place to mentally disappear to, her friendship with Harish and the unlikely bit of happiness and hope that provided her during dark days, and an investment in her brain while her body was being abused. What else do you think it symbolizes?