TOW #12 – IRB: “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo

TOW #12 – IRB: “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo

                Katherine Boo, journalist and writer, traveled to the slums of India, observing the lives of the people for three years. She tracks not only one person, but multiple, gaining different insight to the daily lives of the people of Annawadi. Hopes are high as the economy prospers, but before long, Abdul, who sees a bright future in the trash of the rich, is charged with a serious crime. The economy starts to shift and the hopes of the people plummet. Boo’s rocking story shines light on the tough situations rampant through, not only India, but every country. She uses extremely strong and descriptive diction to paint the picture of these lives to show the middle class and the rich the pain and the suffering the lower class must endure to get through each individual day.

                Boo excites an emotional response in her audience by using well thought out diction in addition to listing the experiences she observed while in Annawadi, the slums of Mumbai. She includes phrases such as “the belly-down splay of alcoholics” (3), “booby-trapped with contentions” (5), “broken-toothed, profit-minded Santas” (6), “turned his snot black” (7), and “brittle stack of newspapers” (8) to describe the slums. The diction helps to describe the people, the rich, the land, their jobs, and, overall, their lives. It highlights the overwhelming buildings housing the rich surrounding the slums, the terrors and the fears of each individual job, the mindsets of people who have worked too hard to gain nothing, the homes that may fall in at any second. Her diction paints a picture of the slums, both emotionally and physically. Without saying anything forthright, Boo informs her audience of the precarious situation in the slums, illuminating the differences between the luxurious life of the middle class and the lower class.

                Simply by using stronger language, Boo already evokes an emotional response in her audience and demonstrates the lives of the lower class in the slums of Mumbai.