“Behind the Beautiful Forevers”;
Life in slum communities throughout the world is a major topic that is studied by social scientists and authors. In Annawadi, home to one of the largest slums in India, was built on swampy land abutting a sewage lake. This is home to a motley collection of struggling muslims desperate to make a living out of the rubble of the city’s economic boom. Author Katherine Boo’s book “Behind the Beautiful Forever goes in-depth about the life of the dirt-poor residents that live in Annawadi and their experiences handling violence, corruption, and political outrage. The book did an exemplary job on portraying the characters throughout the book who showed persistence, ambition, and will doing what they needed to survive for them and their family. The build up of Abdul Husain throughout the book is remarkable. A hardworking entrepreneur making a living for him and his family through the recycling business being falsely accused for a shocking tragedy left me on the edge of my seat. Longing for the outcome of the corruption of law touched the positives of the book. Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a great read for the way it shows the struggles Annawadians face every day and how Boo shows her credibility to gather information about the lives people live there. However, some characters she brought to life through her interviews in Annawadi weren’t given enough detail in my opinion as well.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers is able to send its powerful messages across to me through its display of struggle and hardship Annawadians face every day when carrying on with their lives. This affected me and made me feel more happy with the life I live because when I noticed throughout the book Asha having to keep a sharp tongue and fend off unwanted attention, I saw that struggle was present. Furthermore, there is a sense of pathos when coming across her issues because I appeal to the emotions of her and can deeply feel the words and issues that Boo collected in her time in Annawadi. When I saw how Abdul was treated throughout the whole book, I felt that there was no hope for him at all and that his life was full of no opportunity. Him being falsely accused of crime including the pushbacks of his case towards the end of the book seemed like a never-ending spiral of negativity. We see towards the end, he focuses on his work transporting recyclables around Mumbai in a continuous cycle to stay alive. This struggle makes a bold statement to why the hardship makes this book so appealing to me. I also think Kalu and his struggle made the book that much better. His criminal mind and sneaky ways around the corruption of Mumbai made me focus in on him as well. Especially since he was regraded as a thief who makes deals with the police to locate and secure the stolen goods. At the end, his problems he got into were at its last when he was murdered. I think those characters helped solidify why the struggle they faced made the book more interesting. I think the different views we see from each one helps give Boo more credibility about what she wrote.
What I also see Behind the Beautiful Forevers get right is how Boo uses ethos to persuade me that life in Annawadi is corrupted and a struggle. One of the things that caught my eye was that Boo spent almost three years of her life in Annawadi studying the life that these slum dwellers live. As an author, that dedication is unbelievable. That information made me appreciate how well written the book was and how she harnessed information from people about what they’ve experienced and went through. Overcoming the obstacles to effective reporting, Boo follows their lives and experiences in an effort to understand the problems of poverty from the bottom up. The raw facts and figures of the book sets it on a different level. Instances like the dying man trying to raise money for the operation that might save him, the policewoman seeking to extort money in return for tailoring her case files, and even Meena who swallows rat poison because it was one decision about her life she got to make. Also, there’s Abdul’s father, who had developed an irritating habit of talking about the future as if it were a bus that one could run after, even if one kept missing it. All these events that happened made it known to me that they are based on true events and that the hardship they faced was important to add into the book since it could give the story more life to it. When Boo stayed in Annawadi for her time, she had examined the social dynamics between the individuals and families in Annawadi, showing the relationships that come from such an extreme living situation. What she noticed that eventually was important to forming her boom was due to the incredibly close quarters of life in the slum, all the inhabitants of Annawadi were intimately involved in each other’s lives which served as a big part to her success in getting truthful information about her. Boo’s credibility throughout the book made it that much more respectable to here the stories from those in Annawadi. In my opinion, it was vital in delivering a powerful message of corruption, crime, and upbringing.
On the flip side from the positives of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, there was one thing that I felt like she could have changed to make the book complete. I felt that throughout the book, I didn’t hear some things from minor characters that I would have found very interesting if Boo had gotten more in depth about them. Later in the book, Sister Paulette, who runs the Orphanage that Sunil stayed in for a bit, was accused of selling food donated by airport catering companies to poor women and children, who in turn tried to resell them. We don't hear from Sister Paulette ever again though. Not even to give her the chance of denial which is strange. Another group who I question is the cops. Who really were the cops? Why are they all shown as corrupted? They appear to play a closer role in the fortunes of the slum dwellers. I still don’t agree that even though they are a step or two higher up socially, they shouldn’t be granted with the ability to persecute everyone around them. That’s where I think Boo should have went a little more in depth on. One final thing I noticed was about World Vision charity and how corrupted the organization was. I feel like nothing was said from the workers for World Vision regarding Subhash’s schemes for the election to get votes. I don’t think a public amenity is worth all this trouble and I feel like I didn’t know much more about the organization which I felt had way more problems than Boo addressed. Overall, I think these parts should’ve had more backstory to them because interesting information was left out that Boo could have used to expose even more corruption about some of the minor characters and ideas that were shown throughout the book.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers shows the struggles Annawadians face every day and hints at the credibility Katherine Boo has towards this subject. I still feel that this book wasn’t very authoritative as well considering the high amount of detail. In all, we are left with a book that gives readers with valuable insight on the lives that many live in the slum community. It was full with plenty of detail and emotion that persuaded me to further read into the book with an interest.