Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Chapter 4

[Behind the Beautiful Forevers]

In chapter 4 “Manju” of Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo writes about Manju, the daughter of Asha and sister to Rahul. Manju runs a local school out of her hut and is considered very a very beautiful Annawadi woman who’s light skin gave her high status on the marriage market.

When discussing Manju alongside her mother Asha, Boo writes “But Majnus’s desire to be good was also rebellion – a way of chastising a mother who was said to have acquired the television set and other advantages by behaving badly.” (124)

What about you? What are some similarities and differences you noted about Manju and Asha? Please provide page numbers.

--Kacee Aldridge 

12 comments:

Kiana S. said...

Manju and Asha are obviously very different from each other on many things including Asha's corrupt way of living (getting a loan for the grocery instead of helping Mr. Kamble get a heart valve, p. 124) and Manju's kindheartedness (caring and teaching the kids at her hut-school instead of only on the days the supervisor came like the other teachers, p. 125), but I also see similarities between the two. Both are very passionate about what she does and does it to the best of her ability, good or bad.

Unknown said...

Asha seems to be a little selfish and just looking out for her family. Manju seems to have compassion and is caring. Manju puts everyone above
herself by only getting 4 hours of sleep a day due to teaching in the slums, cooking, and laundry services for her household of 5.(P.116-117). Asha is working for a corrupt corporator and took advantage of it. She took out a loan to open a failing business (P. 124) but wouldn't get a loan to help with heart valve surgery for Mr. Kamable. Manju also wanted to be married and become a teacher while her mother stated drama and money is more important than love (P.124).

jessica oranika said...

The main difference between Manju and her mother is the compassion that Manju has. She cried when her mother refused to give Mr.Kamble money for the heart valve (Pg 69). Some of the similarities between them is that they are both beautiful and smart. Her mother "found her brain" because her husband was unambitious. Manju is a college girl (page 106)

Brianna B said...

Asha is selfish and careless at the beginning of chapter 4 (p106) she makes it clear she doesn't care about corruption unless it effects her future while Manju is caring and selfless which she displays when she helps to decorate and clean the temple (108) though the women are different its clear they are both passionate though about different things.

Andrea R. said...

I believe that Manju and Asha are similar in the fact that they're both headstrong and passionate about what they do and what they want. However, they're both very different as Manju seems to have more of a moral conscience while Asha will take any avenues to get what she wants. This is definitely demonstrated in their differing views on how the school should be run. Asha believes that they should only run the school on days when the supervisor came to check on the school (thus they would still keep their stipend) while Manju believes it shouldn't.

Alexandra J said...

While reading the chapter, one main difference between Manju and Asha is how they treat others; Manju is much more compassionate and cares about others in comparison to her mother. Asha seems to do things only to benefit herself regardless how her actions affect others. (page 106-107) Manju, on the other hand, is the opposite and puts people before herself by teaching, cooking, and doing laundry services for the people in her household. (p 116-117.

Unknown said...

Manju and Asha are similar because of their personalities. They may not have the same beliefs/goals, but the both of them are very passionate when it comes to something that they want to do during their lifespan.
Asha believed that "money is more important in love" while Manju agreed that money isn't the most important, the text says "she hungered for virtue" (124). The author's word usage of their beliefs showed how strong-willed and passionate they both were for what they believed in.

-B.Nigeda

Breanna B. said...

Asha is cut-throat; she is willing to step on others in order to get to the top. On page 124, the loan she refused to give Mr. Kamble was later used on one of Asha's failed business endeavors. Manju is quite the opposite of her mother. She uses their like traits--beauty and brains--to teach the children of Annawadi. Two women with the same assets, but two women using said assets in completely different manners.

Unknown said...

Both Manju and Asha are both passionate about the things they do. Manju is passionate about her students (p125) while Asha is passionate about rising to the top of the black market in the slum. Asha is different from Manju because she is blood thirsty to be corrupt, while Asha is kind and caring and wants to make the world a better place.

Ajeenah Johnson-Brown said...

Asha is very self-centered. She does not care about anything unless it directly effects her. She states this on page 106. We see here that she does not care about the corruption because it is not impacting her life. Manju on the other hand genuinely cares about other people. We see this in many different situations. For example, her teaching kids at the hut school (p.125) and also when she cleaned and decorated the temple (p. 108).

Shervonti Norman said...

The main difference between Manju and her mother definitely have to do with compassion and honesty. Asha has a very firm personality and as we all know, she's not above doing dirty work to get ahead. Manju's aspirations consist of wanting to earn an actual degree and maintain an actual job that will be helping other people gain the knowledge to hopefully get out of Annawadi eventually. While her mother's aspirations only consist of getting ahead... by any means necessary.

A good example of the difference in their honesty is shown on page 125 where Asha thinks that Manju should only conduct her class when she was being checked up on because that is what a lot of other school teachers in Manju's position did but Manju took pride in little help she was able to provide the children.

Anitra B. said...

Like others have said, Manju and Asha are similar in their passion for what they do. Both really believe in what they do. Manju and Asha differ in there beliefs and how they act. Manju is caring as seen in her attempt to help out Devo when he is hurt (pg.126) and continuing to run the school, even though her mother disapproves, because it's the only way that some of the kids will get to learn (pg. 131). Asha is only motivated to do things if she will benefit in the end. She even states that "money is more important than love" (pg. 124)