Sofia Mendes has had a
life that has not been kind to her but it has built her character tremendously.
She is an incredibly strong human being and has made it through her life by
having the uncanny ability to cut her emotions out of the equations of life and
complete any task she sets her mind on. “She maintained a cold neutrality,
concentrating on what was, blocking out what might be. She has survived
because, by heritage and experience, she knew how to see reality unclouded by
emotion.” (Russell 62)
Sofia was only
13 when her mother was killed by a random mortar shell during the second
Kurdish war. In that same year her father went missing after searching for food
and never came back. He was presumed dead. All of her family was dead before
she reached the age of 14 and was left alone to fend for herself in a war-riddled
country. She was always taught to choose life, so instead of dying of pride she
sold the only thing she had to survive -- her body. At age 14 in order to feed
herself, this bright minded girl needed to sell herself to survive. This is where
her ability to remove all emotion and go to another place came in handy. This
allowed her to escape so that she did not have to feel anything as the men used
her body. She was picked up by a wealthy broker who made a living off of
picking up promising young orphans who were far above average intelligence and
have them sign a contract that signs over the next 20 years of their lives to
him in exchange for a fair wage and getting them out of the terrible situations
they are in. Sofia moved from being a slave on the streets to a personal slave
of someone else. Her early life is a cruel sad story, yet she perseveres and
never quits. She is always working to finish the contract and regain her life.
This is an example of metaphysical evil because it shows how the world is far
from perfect. This broker makes money off of this metaphysical evil because if
the world was perfect, there would be no orphans for him to get to sign
contracts that would allow him to own them for a large portion of their lives
while he profits.
The metaphysical
evil is prominent again in Sofias life again when she is an adult with her
relationship with Emilio. After she meets Emilio and gets to know him, she
allows herself to feel emotions towards him and Emilio has strong emotions
towards her. In a perfect world they would have been married and loved each
other forever, but since metaphysical evil exists and the world isn’t fair, the
first person Sofia allows herself to feel emotions towards is forbidden because
he is a priest and cannot marry because of the oath he made to his church.
Sofias life is a
rollercoaster of metaphysical evil from the death of her parents to her having
to sell her body to survive even though she was so gifted intellectually to getting
out of prostitution, (but at the cost of her freedom) and then finally not
being allowed to marry a man that she loves and allowed herself to express
emotions to.
-Adam Zack
-Adam Zack
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