What can you learn about writing about culture from these pages?
The culture in Annawadi is not as we picture culture in America or as we imagine culture to be in any part of the world. In fact, I think people would refute and argue a place like Annawadi as anti-culture, a rebel and filthy civilization that would make the "wealthy folk" gag. After reading through these few chapters, I learned not to be as sympathetic for another person's way of life. Specifically portraying Abdul's slum life in Annawadi, he seems to take his slum trade business with pride and to look at it as his family responsibility. As where a tourist, or a foreigner with a different cultural experience, would have a negative image on such a poor community and probably wouldn't be able to comprehend how much of an importance it is to Abdul. So far, I learned that culture doesn't just come from how someone invisions it, but instead by experiencing it. Katherine Boo includes several creative details to describe how severely poor Annawadi is. On page 7 Boo writes, "Abdul was surprised to find the sky as brown as flywings, the sun signaling through the haze of pollution the arrival of afternoon." The use of these details helped me infer how wretched and unsanitary this community is, and was undoubtedly not caused by the Annawadians but also by the ignorance of rich people. All in all, anyone and everyone in Annawadi is just looking for a way to survive, no matter what the conditions are. Characters like Asha, Mirchi, Mr. Kamble, Rahul, and Abdul, are all progressive in their own ways and are trying to survive in any way possible. As remorseless as it seems to live in the slums, their culture is not remorseless at all. Abdul doesn't dabble on the hardships of life. They talk about Bollywood films, go out to movie theaters, and ultimately, try to make life as happy as possible by all means possible. So I ask, what's culture if you can only downpour on your losses and your struggles?
What can you learn about writing in a more general sense from Katherine Boo's writing?
Katherine Boo makes no mistake in using imagery to get the reader to visualize the success and hardships in Annawadi. The imagery is pushed from the prologue through the first three chapters, to further describe the identity of Annawadi and to introduce more characters living in this particular setting. What makes Boo writing so compelling is that when she introduces something new in the story, she spends a lengthy amount of time doing so. An instance of this takes place with the character Rahul. Boo describes him in chapter 1 as, "Rahul--a pie-faced, snaggle-toothed ninth grader...Rahul had learned his serial entrepreneurship from his mother..."Boo really revelled into all her characters by giving them a cultural identity. She describes what they look like, what's their interests, their social class, and many other characteristics of her characters. Then she goes on to explain their experiences in Annawadi and their roles in the community. I like how she puts a sort of little short narratives about the character's lives for the reader to get a better understanding of their lives and a better picture on how Annawadi looks. From all the information I receive from the characters, it's easier for me to point out who they are and what their motives are in the community. Without this build up information, would it be anything for me to infer about the characters? No. The characters would have been meaningless in a sense if they were only mentioned briefly. Overall Boo builds up this information to give the characters life in the book and to have the reader get a better understanding of their culture.
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