Comparing Cunegonde And Sharbat Gula

After meticulously reading the article “ A Life Revealed” by the National Geographic Magazine, I have developed numerous thoughts over what it truly means to have a story. The article declares the abilities of one photographer who struggled to rediscover one of the subjects he previously photographed. Her name was Sharbat Gula, the woman whose photograph drastically changed the others’ opinions over refugees in the Middle East. With captivating sea green eyes and a flat expression, she stared into the souls of the people, revealing all the hardships she experienced, through simply an expression. Back in 1985, this picture inspired thousands to aid the refugees. But if this enthralling woman truly affected my view of the refugees, should I not know her name?

Along with all their individual problems,

So why after all these years we, the public, now discover her true identity. Alluding to a novel written by Voltaire titled Candide, the lovely Cunegonde experiences the same thing Gula had gone through. By similarity, Cunegonde and Gula, both, have lived complex lives with many fateful encounters. In Gula’s case, she had to escape from her birth country of Afghanistan, face the deaths of her parents, and beget an unborn child. On the other hand, Cunegonde faced the slaughter of her dear parents and brother, and her most respected Pangloss, the insolence of a horrible Bulgar soldier and the knife wounds he gave her, her work as a cook to the Bulgar captain. Although the events Gula has gone through events pale in comparison to the events Cunegonde has been through (or one can argue the other way around), Gula chooses to remain humble and stare down the people for forming an opinion upon her while Cunegonde finds it amusing that others have discovered more pain than she has. This example is clearly