Introduction
In Katherine Boo’s Pulitzer-winning novel, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she traces the lives of Indians living in Annawadi, a decrepit slum littering the outskirts of the Mumbai International Airports. Juxtaposed with the lavish hotels foaming with wealth and foreigners, Annawadi’s economic system is derived from others’ trash. The social structure in Annawadi can be representative of Indian society in that the conflict between Muslims and Hindus is rampant, and Muslims are disadvantaged by their religious affiliation. The poor living conditions and scavenging is left unaddressed with since the community lacks entertainment or any sort of release. This can lead people, such as Mahadeo, to turn to alcoholism or other sorts of self-medication.
Summary
The novel begins with Abdul Husain, an adolescent trash scavenger, who struggles to find scraps that he can sell to keep his family alive. His father is a sick with tuberculosis and his mother, Zehrunsia, barks orders, defending the family from their Hindu neighbors. Next door to them, Fatima, a one-legged woman, argues and earns the disdain of her neighbors around her. Along with Abdul, a boy named Sunil struggles to stay alive after he has been removed from an orphanage because they are poorly funded. The slum is kept together by a stubborn yet authoritative women named Asha, who bribes and takes advantage of people to propel her through the social hierarchy. Her daughter works as a schoolteacher in one of the better schools in Annawadi, although most students leave with poor skills. Fatima, the crippled pariah, attempts to avenge the many inconveniences she has incurred from the Muslim Husains and self-immolates after a dispute over a common wall. She accuses the family, and then, Abdul and his father are imprisoned. Abdul is then transferred to a juvenile prison. The section ends with Fatima's death from her burns. In the midst of all this chaos is Mahadeo. He battles with alcoholism and is unable to lead a productive life in the community as he toils with his own problems.
Mahadeo
Mahadeo is Asha's husband. He struggles with alcoholism as a middle-aged man with skills in construction. When Mahadeo is deprived of alcohol, he is not rash or violent; instead, he "offer[s] his construction skills to the Husains for a hundred rupees" (111)*. He is seemingly absent from his family's life, presumably because he is too drunk to function productively, he adapts to Asha's "cleverer hiding place" (111). When not under the influence, Mahadeo could sell his construction skills to earn wages (as he did when he needed alcohol) for his family. Mahadeo does not evolve to reconsider his situation as a man who has fallen victim to a disease affecting 14 million Indians when he is deprived of it, but instead, he works harder to ensure that he will be able to get drunk.
Perhaps Mahadeo sees his spouse's willingness to bribe and cheat in a man's world and feels emasculated by her higher position and therefore turns to the bottle. In traditionally patriarchal society's like India, men are usually seen as the bread-winners and backbone of the family unit: without them, the family would crumble. In Mahadeo's family, however, Asha has been working diligently to become the Annawadi slum lord and has had many accomplishments that make her seem like an anomaly compared to Indian women. Mahadeo, wishing to quell his emasculation, turns to alcohol to provide a much-needed release from his subordination to his wife. When men feel emasculated in patriarchal societies or people feel deprived of their cultural norms, they often turn to forms of self-medication and substance abuse to alleviate their worries and woes and further entrench themselves in insurmountable "culture debt."
Perhaps Mahadeo sees his spouse's willingness to bribe and cheat in a man's world and feels emasculated by her higher position and therefore turns to the bottle. In traditionally patriarchal society's like India, men are usually seen as the bread-winners and backbone of the family unit: without them, the family would crumble. In Mahadeo's family, however, Asha has been working diligently to become the Annawadi slum lord and has had many accomplishments that make her seem like an anomaly compared to Indian women. Mahadeo, wishing to quell his emasculation, turns to alcohol to provide a much-needed release from his subordination to his wife. When men feel emasculated in patriarchal societies or people feel deprived of their cultural norms, they often turn to forms of self-medication and substance abuse to alleviate their worries and woes and further entrench themselves in insurmountable "culture debt."
Page numbers from Katherine Boo's Behind the Beautiful Forevers e-book.