“Live Free and Starve” by Chitra Divakaruni and “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” by Marie Javdani

In the essay “Live Free and Starve” by Chitra Divakaruni and the essay “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” by Marie Javdani, both the authors discussed the serious issues happened in the world due to the appearance of globalization. The issues happened under globalization includes child labor and objects importation. Two authors explains these two aspects respectively. Chitra Divakaruni states her point that “it is easy for us in America to make the error of evaluating situations in the rest of the world as though they were happening in this country and propose solutions that make excellent sense — in the context of our society” (Divakaruni 443)”, and Marie Javdani points that “The United States should reduce demand by dramatically increasing both treatment and education” (Javdani 450). The theme of these two essays is alike, for they both talks about the problems happened under globalization. In “Live Free and Starve”, the author talks about the situation of the children in the third world countries.

Children in countries like India have to labor in order to gain basic needs rather than live under the protection of their parents because of their poorness. Likewise, in “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead”, the author thinks that “The United States should reduce demand by dramatically increasing both treatment and education” (Javdani 450).. In fact, people in United States are getting more and more addicted into drugs like heroin and cocaine from Mexico and Columbian, which is also a result of globalization. Moreover, the tones of these two essays are also similar with each other. They are both serious and severe. In “Live Free and Starve”, the point that being focused on is the child labor issue in third world countries, which is a very difficult problem that needed to be changed. The children cannot get educated in their childhood, which is the best time to improve their knowledge. Instead, they have to be forced to work, to labor so that they won’t starve.

For the same reason, the author in “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” also discusses the serious situation in United States that the drug cartel uses the money, which is to aid the farmers in Columbia, to keep producing drugs and to keep their vicious cycle. The author proposes that the governments in both countries should make execution on monitoring the drug input. To sum up, the both two authors think that government should execute more on child labor and Columbia peasants. In addition, the similarity of the purpose in these two essays is obvious, which is to inform the particular group of people to make efficient solutions. The author in “Live Free and Starve” informs that the anti-child labor bill should not be passed and to urge the Senators to see the full extent of stopping importing the goods from countries which used child labors. For example, the author asks “But is this bill, which, if it passes the Senate and is signed by President Clinton, will lead to the unemployment of almost a million children, the answer” (Divakaruni 443).

In the same way, the author in “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” informs that adults should stay away from additive drugs and the governments in United States and Columbia should keep holding a “drug war” to stop illegal importation of drugs. She states that “Obviously, the United States needs to monitor how its dollars are used in Columbia” (Javdani 450). What’s more, the use of titles is alike. They are both ironic and sarcastic. “Live Free and Starve” suggests that a child in third world country either choose labor to continue his or her life or choose freedom and starve to death. Meanwhile, “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” implies that farmers in Columbia “can either take the money—drug money, bribe money, and so on—or take a bullet” (Javdani 449). Furthermore, the method that both authors used in their essays is the same, which is the method of cause and effect. In “Live Free and Starve”, the cause and effect is that if the Senators in the United States pass the anti-child labor bills, the poor children in the third world countries will have to starve.

For the same reason, the cause and effect in “Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” is that while America continues to wage war on the illegal drugs entering the country, the slaughter of people from drug related crime continue to rise, for the farmers from Columbia keep using the aid money to produce drugs. In all, cause and effect are both well-applied in these two essays. The audience for these two essays is mainly the Senators in United States. Both the author wanted the government to make solution on these two fields. Chitra Divakaruni wants the senators not to pass the bill so that children will not starve to death. She even questions the Senators that “But is this bill, which, if it passes the Senate and is signed by President Clinton, will lead to the unemployment of almost a million children, the answer” (Divakaruni 443). Meanwhile, Marie Javdani wants the government execute more to fighting crimes due to drug importation. She proved her ideas by giving that “Under threats from the rebel drug lords, who now control many areas, civilians must either allow their land to be cultivated for the growth of coca or put themselves and their families at deadly risk” (Javdani 449-450)

Last but not least, both the authors use similar method in supporting their ideas. For instance, “Live Free and Starve” contains a real-life story happened in the author’s life, the experience between him and his child slave Nimai. Nimai is a child slave who serviced the author and her family and gains a good encouragement to learn by the author’s mother. Now, when he grows, he became more confident in the slave group because of his education by the author’s mother. The author could not imagine the horror of children dying because of starving if the Senators passed the anti-labor law. On the meantime, Plata o Plomo: Silver or Lead” also contains a story, a story of two teenagers from United States and Columbia, Eric and Miguel. Eric is an American teenager who is addicted to drugs, while Miguel is a Columbian teenager who failed to prevent him and his family from producing drugs in their field and died.

From here, the author wants that American should reduce their need for drug, which might reduce the death rate of peasants in Columbia who fight against producing drugs. In conclusion, while Chitra Divakaruni states her point that “it is easy for us in America to make the error of evaluating situations in the rest of the world as though they were happening in this country and propose solutions that make excellent sense — in the context of our society” (Divakaruni 443), Marie Javdani makes her clear idea that “The United States should reduce demand by dramatically increasing both treatment and education” (Javdani 450).