The interpreter, Malson, also comments on Maria. He says that Maria is a lucky woman. Maria is born as a beautiful Brazilian girl. This luck continuously
happens in her life. Of course, he hasn’t seen you sing or dance, but you could learn all that,
whereas beauty is something you’re born with. These Europeans are all the same; they come over here and imagine that all Brazilian women are really
sensual and know how to samba Coelho 23.
Another minor character who comments on Maria’s beauty is an Arabian who works as an agent for a fashion show in Swiss. However, he tends to consider
Maria’s beauty as a symbol of sex. He uses Maria as an object to fulfill his need in sex. “You’re very pretty, said the man. If you come up and have a drink with me
in my hotel room, I’ll give you a thousand francs” Coelho 52. Then, there is Ralf Hart, a painter who sees Maria’s beauty from different
point of view. He realizes Marias inner beauty. He shows that Maria has something strong inside her. He catches something good from the inside not only
Maria’s physical appearance. “You have a glow about you. The light that comes from sheer willpower,
the light of someone who has made important sacrifices in the name of thinks she thinks are important. It’s in your eyes-the light is in your eyes.”
Coelho 105
Through her personal description and character as seen by another, it is obvious that she is a beautiful and lucky woman. She also has an inner beauty,
which is spread out through her. Her beauty attracts people and her surroundings. 28
2. Smart
Outside from Maria’s physical appearance, she has complex and dominating traits, motivation and conflicts. Readers can see her character through
the way she thinks and her interaction with people. The most obvious character that can be seen is her smartness.
Maria never makes mistakes like she did before. She always learns from her previous experience and tries not to make the same mistake. It can be seen
from her experience in dealing with love and relationship. At the first time, she never dares to start a conversation with the boy she loves. Until she finds out that
she will not have the second chance because the boy has gone. Then, she realizes her mistake and tries different way in reacting with men.
When she had just turned fifteen, she fell in love with a boy she had met in a Holy Week procession. She did not repeat her childhood mistake: they
talked, became friends and started going to the cinema and to parties together Coelho 7.
From the description given by the author, it is clear that Maria wants to know everything. Her curiosity also challenges her to learn anything new. She
learns that there are some activities that cannot be done in front of a lot of people. She used to do this when she was a child and she liked the feeling, until,
one day, her father saw her and slapped her hard, without explaining why. She never forgot being hit like that, and she learned that she shouldn’t
touch herself in front of other people … Coelho 11
Maria is smart in knowing how attractive she is. Therefore, she tries to put her beauty as her strength to attract men. She knows how to maintain the
surroundings with her beauty and her strength. She knew how attractive she was, and although she rarely listened to her
mother, there was one thing her mother said that she never forgot: 29
“Beauty, my dear, doesn’t last.” With this in mind, she continued to keep her boss at arm’s length, though without putting him off completely, and
this brought her a considerable increase in salary … Coelho 17
In her job as a salsa dancer, for example, she realizes that she works as a slave because she only gets a small amount of money. Therefore, she tries to find
justice by going to Roger’s office and talking about the law which leads her freedom not to work in that club again.
Maria might be young but she was not fool, especially once her Arab lover had told her that Swiss employment laws were very strict and, since the
night club kept back a large part of her salary, she could easily allege that she was being used for slave labor. She went back to Roger’s office, this
time speaking reasonable French, which now include the word ‘lawyer’. She left with few insult and five thousand dollar in compensation-a sum
money beyond her wildest dreams-and all because of that magic word ’lawyer’. Now she was free to spend time with her Arab lover, buy some
presents, take some photos of the snow and go back home in triumph Coelho 44-45.
On the first day working as a prostitute, she reviews everything related to what she has done the whole night with the clients. She is glad that she can pass
through it. She knows what she faces and how to handle it. Therefore she tries to do the best she can do in serving the clients, as life was teaching her-very fast-
that only the strong survive. To be strong, she must be the best, there’s no alternative 73.
As a prostitute, Maria does not always count on her body to satisfy her clients. She realizes that she must serve her clients better than the other.
Therefore, she has to learn more that her clients do not merely need sexual satisfaction but also accompany.
… She sought out self-help books, because her clients nearly asked for her advice. She read studies of the human emotions, because all her clients
were in some kind of emotional pain. Maria was a respectable, rather 30
