Dominique Lapierre's "The City of Joy"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the broad spectrum of poverty, misery and desperation that Dominique Lapierre describes in his novel "The City of Joy," about Calcutta. The writer describes the leper colony, the lack of sanitation, the horrible conditions on the street and even in hospitals, and the trade in human bodies, organs, blood and fetuses. Human life is cheap in Calcutta, human rights are a foreign concept, and people are openly exploited by others for their economic value.

Outline:
Health, Hygiene, and the Economy
The Hospital
The Life of a Rickshaw Puller
The People who Have to Donate Blood to Earn their Living and the Pushers who Encourage them to Do So

From the Paper:

"One aspect of life particularly striking to a Western reader is how some people's lives are seen as innately more valuable than other people's lives in The City of Joy. For example, poor people are allowed to sell their blood until they are too weak to stand. People beg to survive, or pick through the garbage, hardly caring if the condition of the food puts their lives at risk because they are so desperately in need of food. The priority is living from day to day, not long-term survival and the improvement of one's life, as it is in the West."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lapierre, Dominique. The City of Joy. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 1988.

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