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Culture is in everything we do, see, hear, and even smell. It is a presence that can only be fully understood if you immerse yourself into it. When fully immersed into a culture you learn things that from the outside looking in, you would not see. To write about culture you need to be immersed because otherwise facts can be misconstrued. Bias happens when things are not understood and that is what makes writing about culture that much more difficult. In Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she is exploring the culture of a Mumbai undercity called Annawadi. To do this she spent three years and five months “document[ing] the experiences of residents with written notes, video recording, audiotapes, and photographs” (Boo 249). From reading the first 50 pages of her book, the reader can see that writing about culture needs to stem from personal experiences. This is evident in the fact that each chapter focuses in on specific people and places. For example, chapter three is focused in on small boy named Sunil. In this chapter the culture of Annawadi can be seen, in part, through his eyes. When Boo is trying to capture life for an “orphan” child she uses Sunil’s experiences to illustrate it. For instance, Boo writes, “ For years, he had waited for this discriminating visitor to meet his eye; he planned to introduce himself as “Sunny,” a name a foreigner might like” (Boo 35). This quote shows specifically how Annawadians saw the outside world and how they try to fit in somewhere else.

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When it comes to writing Katherine Boo uses a lot of details. She tries to get inside of the people’s heads in order to fully dissect the situation. In doing so her writing reflects a sort of first person narrative almost. Especially when describing Asha, Boo throws in these tiny details that truly bring out her personality. For example, when Asha was being harassed by a man named Robert, Boo relays this information to us by writing the following, “Whatever you want. Tell me, bastard. Shall I strip naked and dance for you now?” (Boo19). This quote helps us, as the reader, get into Asha’s mind. Another thing that Boo does with her writing is that everything is not necessarily in chronological order. She started off the book with a prologue set in the future and as we read the book tells individual stories that just seem to be intertwined with one another. This provides the reader with an interesting outlook on what is to come.