Behind The Beautiful Forevers Analysis
Thomas Friedman and Katherine Boo:
The Effects of Globalization and India’s Economic Growth
By: Gabriela Roque
PSC 100 Understanding Politics
Professor Genevieve Kehoe
13 November 204 Globalization and India’s economic growth has constructed two seemingly contradictory narratives of the effects of this phenomenon. Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, both exemplify the disparity between these two realities. Friedman frames globalization as a “world flattener” that will create new possibilities, opportunities, and equalize people across the globe. He uses India as an example of a nation that has successfully adapted to the new needs of globalization and thus experienced an …show more content…
The worst effect of this vitality is best illustrated in the character of Abdul who from a young age began working to support his family. Abdul lost his humanity, as the only concern to his parents was his ability to support and provide, “To his family, Abdul’s physical capability had been the mattering thing. He was the work horse, his moral judgments irrelevant” (Boo 132). Abdul was able to pull his family to a higher standard of living by his guiding principle of avoiding trouble, “Avoid trouble. This was the operating principle of Abdul Hakim Husain, an idea so fiercely held that it seemed imprinted on his physical form” (Boo xiii). In order to avoid trouble Abdul isolated himself to the point where he began to question if he even had a heart. The other residents considered him quiet and Sunil thought of him as having an old man’s broken soul. It is not until he is incarcerated and separated from his own hardships that he begins to feel sympathy. “He had seen worst at Annawadi but hadn’t felt it, overwhelmed as he had been by his own work and worry” (Boo 129). This is the reality of impoverished communities like Annawadi. People are surrounded by hundreds of others equally struggling to get ahead, yet feel completely isolated within their own
The Effects of Globalization and India’s Economic Growth
By: Gabriela Roque
PSC 100 Understanding Politics
Professor Genevieve Kehoe
13 November 204 Globalization and India’s economic growth has constructed two seemingly contradictory narratives of the effects of this phenomenon. Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat and Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, both exemplify the disparity between these two realities. Friedman frames globalization as a “world flattener” that will create new possibilities, opportunities, and equalize people across the globe. He uses India as an example of a nation that has successfully adapted to the new needs of globalization and thus experienced an …show more content…
The worst effect of this vitality is best illustrated in the character of Abdul who from a young age began working to support his family. Abdul lost his humanity, as the only concern to his parents was his ability to support and provide, “To his family, Abdul’s physical capability had been the mattering thing. He was the work horse, his moral judgments irrelevant” (Boo 132). Abdul was able to pull his family to a higher standard of living by his guiding principle of avoiding trouble, “Avoid trouble. This was the operating principle of Abdul Hakim Husain, an idea so fiercely held that it seemed imprinted on his physical form” (Boo xiii). In order to avoid trouble Abdul isolated himself to the point where he began to question if he even had a heart. The other residents considered him quiet and Sunil thought of him as having an old man’s broken soul. It is not until he is incarcerated and separated from his own hardships that he begins to feel sympathy. “He had seen worst at Annawadi but hadn’t felt it, overwhelmed as he had been by his own work and worry” (Boo 129). This is the reality of impoverished communities like Annawadi. People are surrounded by hundreds of others equally struggling to get ahead, yet feel completely isolated within their own