This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence. Sounds defeatist to talk about an 'effort' but I still feel silly talking as if I were a writer. Anyway my current thoughts about Farid....... My hero is an exile. His family of Moorish Spaniards have sent him away, mainly for his safety but he has only been persuaded to leave by telling him that he can find them somewhere safe to live. He's young and has to learn a lot quickly just to survive. He's on a ship when we first meet him, headed for ?(not sure where to be sending him yet). He's been brought up to be proud of his heritage, so it's hard for him to feel worthless and even despised by the larger world. He tries to keep his feelings under wraps because he sees them as weakness that will harm him and anyway he has no friends and soon learns that trust is not a useful characteristic to have. His experiences in the first year or two after leaving home are brutalising. It's hard to keep his own values and he's involved in situations that will inevitably degrade him, but he has inner strength that will surface. All he wants is to go home, but this isn't an option. He searches instead for somewhere that will be a new home for his family. He has a vision of rescuing them and bringing them to a place full of happiness. Obviously he's naive at first and when that is rubbed away by Life he becomes a man who affects not to believe in anyone or anything. He becomes strong physically and tough mentally, but inside there's still hope for love and friendship.
