Patricia McCormick's 'Sold' as a Masterpiece of Cultural Literature

This novel deals with the study of the horrific realities of child trafficking across the Indo-Nepal border. The novel has effectively blended the conceptual framework of cultural literature. It is the story of a young, observant, and self-reflexive girl-child, Lakshmi. The stepfather of the protagonist, Lakshmi, sold her into the nexus of the sex trade. As a survivor narrative, this novel is written in vignettes and it focuses on the apathy, greed for money, and inhuman nature of those who promote child trafficking for commercial sex. The trajectory of survivor narratives has empowered the victims to voice their agony and register their experiences; these narratives bring peripheral issues to the public domain. Valuable inputs from scholars, social activists, critics, and theorists such as Judith Herman, Fredrich Engles, and Siddharth Sarkar have been duly incorporated to support the study.