Could Lakshmi have found another way to escape her abusive marriage? What do you think of the choices she made to change her circumstances?

Could Lakshmi have found another way to escape her abusive marriage? What do you think of the choices she made to change her circumstances?

I don’t think she had any choice. She had to run and hide. She was so brave and so alone. She worked so hard and had to be separate from everyone.

I think her choices were limited by the society in which she lived and the economic situation in which her parents found themselves. The fact that her mother burned all her letters (and the money she sent home) indicates that she would have had no support for resisting her husband had she stayed. While her road up the ladder from that point was rocky her choice ultimately paid off.

At the time, she was definitely at her wits' end, something even her mother-in-law acknowledged. I really enjoyed reading about the relationship with Saas, who gave her the valuable gift of knowledge regarding plants and potions. She ran to save herself.

The only other way she could have escaped her abusive marriage would have been to kill her husband and while she probably had the herbal knowledge to do that, clearly that wasn't an option for her.

No, I don’t believe there was. The culture of her village made it impossible for her to return to her parents, not that they would have even allowed it. It was acceptable to them that a husband abuses his wife. She was a survivor and knew she had to leave to try and create a better life for herself.

I don’t think Lakshmi could have escaped her abusive marriage any other way than but to physically move away. I think Lakshmi made a wise choice in using her henna application skills to sustain herself as a female living alone in India at that time.

Based on the culture, she really only had limited choices. She used the knowledge she had as well as the connections and luck.

Lakshmi takes the only route she has to escape an abusive marriage. She is smart and talented, so she uses what she has to make a good life for herself and then for Malik and Radha. I don't see how she could have gotten away without simply leaving as she did.

Lakshmi couldn't even escape having to marry Hari in the first place. She had no choice; that was made for her by her parents- -as an act of desperation, not because they thought Hari was a wonderful match for their only daughter. She could not return home- -her parents would not have allowed it as that would have brought more shame to their family. Divorce was not an option until when... 1955? Would divorce even be an option for a poor women in a rural village?

Lakshmi's only chance at a better life was to leave and go far away where it would be harder to find her.

I like scgirl's point about her only option in the village was to kill Hari. I think it says a lot about Lakshmi that she refused to go there.

Lakshmi chose the only option, besides murder, that was available to her. Her parents were pleased with the match and would not help her. Lakshmi was brave and determined that her life would be better. It was sad that she carried so much guilt about bringing shame to her parents.

I dont believe she had any other way to escape her abusive husband...it was a very bold move on her part to leave and although I know, she felt so guilty for it, and missed her parents so much, it was the only way she could keep herself from falling prey to the ways of their culture and stay downtrodden. I had a lot of respect for her for doing this, but those kind of bold moves always come with a price.

As other readers have said, given the culture of her country and her village, I don’t believe she had much choice. Her parents were not in a position to assist her and she could not bring herself to kill her husband. She chose to escape despite the heavy price she paid for it.