In this essay, I will be discussing how Abdul, Asha and Sunil see Mumbai, their perspective of this city, Annawadi and the other people in it. I will also explore Katherine Boo’s writing techniques that she uses to express these three protagonists views. Abdul, Asha and Sunil all reside in Annawadi, a small slum with a large population by the international airport. These three are all of a different age, status and have differing outlooks on Mumbai. Asha is a grown woman that sees Annawadi as an opportunity to gain power whereas Abdul runs a rubbish collection business and keeps his thoughts and feelings concealed within himself. Sunil, however, is a scavenger who is struggling for survival, he works so he can grow and live till the next day and rarely gets angry when he discovers “the secret reasons behind the way people behave”.

The first person we are introduced to is Abdul who keeps his thoughts to himself. He tries to keep away from distractions and support his family so they can escape Annawadi. Abdul has a negative view on the slum, this can be seen when it says ‘Besides this was the gentle going-hour in which he hated Annawadi least’. From this we can learn that Abdul disliked his home which possibly led to why he has a withdrawn persona and focuses solely on his work. He sees the slum as simply a place of work and rest and enjoys the early morning hours when there are only few people around to bother him and while Annawadi is peaceful, quiet and beautiful. The repition of the g sound in ‘gentle going’ creates a pleasant sound in the readers ear which gives the impression that Annawadi is not that bad after all. This can also be seen when he says “The pale sun lent the sewage lake a sparkling silver cast”. Here Boo uses personification to express how the slum can be occasionally beautiful by stating that the sun ‘lent’ the lake a cast. However the word lent suggests that it is temporary and that the moment will only remain for a while.

Abdul keeps himself away from his neighbours as he believes that “The better I know you, the more I will dislike you, and the more you will dislike me. So let us keep to ourselves.” Here Abdul is trying to say that some things he does, his actions, should stay unknown as it could anger or upset some others and will result in even more arguments or rifts between friends and families. The use of short sentences also help to get Abdul’s point across quicker. Due to these issues that could arise, Abdul chooses to stay away from communicating with his neighbours as news in a Mumbai slum spreads quick and so he doesn’t want to risk making anyone unhappy and hurting the balance of peace in Annawadi.

The other character we are introduced to is Asha, a protagonist who believes that annawadi is a place of potential, not just a slum but an opportunity to gain power and get further in life for asha. She is a women who has lived at Annawadi for many years with her 3 children. “She had by now seen past the obvious truth – that Mumbai was a hive of hope and ambition – to a profitable corollary” from this we can understand that Asha was one who can see through the potential of Annawadi and understood the powerful position and control being the leader of the slum brought. She knows that there is opportunity to go ahead in Annawadi and she learns how to possess this power thought the chapter such as her becoming a candidate for director of Ward 76. The use of personification is used to show how the idea of hope in Mumbai was available in abundance, the word hive expresses this and shows how there is a lot of potential in the city for thoes that know how to use it.

Whilst reading, we learn that Asha has gained her place in the society of the slum by becoming a ‘fixer’ someone who resolves problems and helps people for a fee, “Mumbai was a place of festering grievence and ambient envy”. We can understand that Asha has worked out that many people in the city including the slum, had issues with each other and could use this problem between people to gain an increase monetary and social position. The words ‘festering grievance’ create the image that

The final character I will be discussing today is Sunil, a small young boy who struggles to survive daily and has resorted to becoming a rubbish scavenger and sells his items found to Abdul. “He planned to introduce himself as sunny, a name a foreigner might like” here sunil is stating that he would represent himself as sunny instead of sunil as it is a name that a foreigner might like. From this we can understand that sunil belived that he’d have to change his name to be liked by foreigners who he hoped would take pity on him and give him money.

Sunil also understood how he appeared to other people in the city, “sunil knew how he appeared to the people who frequented the airport: shoeless, unclean, pathetic”. We learn that Sunil knew how he appeared to thoes around him and wanted to change it. He sees the people of Mumbai, specifically thoes around the airport as judgemental, as he expresses his concerns of how he appears to them. We can infer that he believes the people in mumbai won’t help him, they look down upon him and thus he struggles daily to survive due to his experiences, specifically with sister Paulette who kicked him out of the orphanage at the age of just 11, leaving him to fend for himself.