What is your reaction to Manju? Does she remind you
of anyone you know? How is she like and unlike that person? What
are the principal characteristics of her identity?
Manju comes across to me as clever. She is stuck in this
forsaken land and making a difference. She is working hard with the school run
out of her hut and getting her education. She is trying to become an
independent woman, who can make it in the Mumbai society. She wants to be able
to support herself. Manju does not approve of her mother’s heartless moves to
become the ruler of the slum. She operates on higher morals because she doesn’t
see it from her mother’s perspective. She reminds me of myself in a way because
I don’t really agree with my mother’s behavior or methods in a sense. She is a
stay-at-home mom and I don’t want that life for myself. I am working now to
ensure that I can make it on my own without a man or roommates or family
helping me out. I don’t want to be dependent on anyone and Manju is the same.
Our upbringings are definitely different. I grew up in a middle class home in a
suburban town in Michigan, whereas she had to deal with so much more against
her. I think that makes her more admirable and stronger than myself. I think
she is very clever too because she hides her beliefs from her mother. She
obeys, but with a plan. I think the principal characteristics of her identity
are compassion, responsible, strong, independent, dedicated, determined, and
kind. She sees things through compassionate eyes; for example, when Mr. Kamble
comes in needing a loan for his heart valve so he can work, Asha doesn’t want
to help and sends him away whereas Manju wanted to help. Manju also spends
hours teaching the children of Annawadi English and other subjects even though
she could just leave them be and still get paid. She studies in her free time
and knows English better than anyone in the village besides the one boy who is
a scholar.
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