Behind the Beautiful Forevers Essay

Choose one of the following two essays. Upload to Turnitin by Friday.

1. The lives of ordinary women are an important part of  Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Do women like Zehrunisa and Asha have more freedom in an urban slum than they would have had in the village where they were born? What is Meena, a Dalit, spared by living in the city? What freedoms do Meena, Asha, and Zehrunisa still lack, in your view? Compare the experiences of the Annawadi women and girls to the experiences of their American counterparts.

2. Zehrunisa remembers a time when every slumdweller was roughly equal in his or her misery, and competition between neighbors didn't get so out of hand. Abdul doesn't know whether or not to believe her account of a gentler past. Do you believe it? Might increased hopes for a better life have a dark as well as a bright side? How does intense desire affect your own life, whether it's hope for a relationship or inclusion in a peer group at school or an acceptance letter to college?

Vocabulary Test Parts 1 and 2

There will be a vocabulary test on Friday for the 14 worst-performing words from the last test and 11 new words from Part 2 of Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

The new words are: blatant (pg. 71), purdah (pg. 75), exacerbate (pg. 81), subsidized (pg. 91), lassi (pg. 100), immolation (pg. 102), fetid (pg. 100), bier (pg. 115), languorous (pg. 117) prostrate (pg. 118) and sentient (pg. 120).

Here is the link to the memrise page: http://www.memrise.com/course/1074711/behind-the-beautiful-forevers-part-i-and-2/

You can ignore the following words: supplicants, jaundice, dengue fever, paltry, stanched, brandishing, emulate,
To ignore a word on memrise, click on Words, click on the button that says ignore, and check the words you want to ignore.

Inspiring Video

If you were absent on Monday, you may want to watch this inspiring video about India. http://www.ted.com/talks/kiran_bir_sethi_teaches_kids_to_take_charge