Hope and faith

In the novel Behind the Beautiful Forevers, author Katherine Boo argues that hope and faith are what brings together a family during hard times. She explains the meaning of “hope and faith” to a family in the slums of Annawadi in section 3, “Sunil” (31-49). “First these children have to learn after bread and rice, when they’re older, they can worry about the other things” The first argument Boo explains the fights and gangs of Maharashtrains and argues that these gangs fight the Bhaiyas in hope of forcing them to leave the city, so they can claim the few available jobs. Abdul a young boy living in the slums has been affected differently by the young gangs. Abdul does his best to avoid the fights, demonstrating how cautious he is. On page 32 of “Sunil” Katherine Boo lets her readers see just how Abdul avoids the fights. She has the character question “Can you please stop talking about the fights! The riots are just a show, a few bastards making noise and intimidating people” (32). Boo then introduces Sunil, a dedicated scavenger just like Abdul. Sunil has a very personal opinion of Abdul “keeps his head down day and night” (32). “Except for those child-eyes, black as key-holes Abdul looked like an old man to him” (33). Sunil is an orphan not really. He has a father who at an early age learned who people really are. Sunil’s mother died from TB but his drunken father still rents a hut in the “stenchiest” of Annawadi. When Boo describes young Sunil and his sister desperately standing outside huts waiting for a plate of food but as he grew older, the citizens didn’t’ feel pity anymore. Boo explains how hard it is for just a young family to survive. As readers we become to understand the struggle of living in a hardship. Boo tells us that Sunil felt very low of himself just like Abdul, “Eventually he’d come to realize the improbability of his hope, and his general indistinction in the mass of need. But by then, the habit of not asking anyone for anything had become