My Beloved World: Chapter 25 Summary & Analysis

Sonia finds the DA office’s mission alluring. She gets to help protect the public, though the 15-hour days distracted her from her troubles with Kevin. After her divorce, Sonia begins to examine how her job is changing her. She notices that her colleagues are often cynical and desperate. She and her colleagues look for the worst in people, and she can see that she’s hardening and becoming less sympathetic. She begins to doubt the value of her job when one day, she opens a file and sees that it’s a man she already convicted—and after getting out of jail, he committed the same crime again. Now, it’s a felony. It starts to make everything seem futile.

At this point, being a judge seems like a worthy and even attainable goal. Sonia sets her sights on the federal bench, though getting there will be difficult. Most federal judges either come from prominent law firms or careers in government, so Sonia decides to move to civil law to gain experience. Bob Morgenthau tries to dissuade her. He doesn’t know she wants to be a federal judge and says that if she stays, she could become bureau chief and then a state judge. He assigns her several high profile, challenging cases to delay her departure. The first is an investigation of police brutality, brought by a Harlem minister. She doesn’t prosecute, but through her attempts to find witnesses she begins a practice of cultivating better relationships with the community.

Second is Sonia’s first murder trial, the case of the Tarzan Murderer. She’s the assistant prosecutor. When the perpetrator is arrested, he’s on parole for violent crimes and has a $200 per day drug habit. He ruins the lives of his victims and their families by robbing them and shooting anyone at home. The trick is to prove it’s the same perpetrator in each of the 11 incidents. They decide to file to try all of them together. Sonia makes the case to Judge Rothwax and he agrees to let Sonia prosecute the 11 incidents in one trial—proof, Sonia believes, that she can now think like a lawyer. They find 40 witnesses to testify and Sonia visits their apartments to see the damage. It’s heartbreaking. The Tarzan Murderer himself is disturbing. He clearly feels no remorse and Sonia is glad that he receives 67 years in prison.

The last of the cases concern child pornography. Sonia discovers that while it’s easy to understand that child pornography is amoral and uniquely awful, it’s hard to understand the extent of how horrible it is until one sees it. Sonia knows she has to get the films admitted as evidence in order to convince the jury to convict and focuses her attention on building her argument that the defendants are guilty. The first, Scott Hyman, is the retail front of the operation and was caught by an undercover cop. His partner, Clemente D’Alessio, is harder to pin down; the evidence against him is circumstantial. The investigation and police work is sloppy, but Sonia has a recorded phone call between Hyman and D’Alessio that clinches her case.

Sonia is unusually nervous for opening arguments. She takes six days to present her evidence. She has recordings of Hyman boasting about how easy it is to get the films and plays the recording of Hyman and D’Alessio’s conversation. Finally, she shows 13 films. They’re horrifying; a journalist sitting in to research a book takes off her glasses and refuses to watch. Sonia’s closing argument runs two hours. The jury finds the defendants guilty. Everyone expects this, so Sonia puts her efforts into making sure D’Alessio and Hyman receive as much jail time as possible. She makes the moral case that the children were robbed and raped, and both defendants serve jail time. After this case, Sonia refuses Bob Morgenthau’s offer to let her head an office focusing on child pornography. It’s time to move on.

Sonia takes a trip to Puerto Rico. Her thoughts, however, are with Nelson in New York, who cleaned up after joining the military. He married, had a daughter, and then was diagnosed with HIV linked to past needle use. Now, he remembers his childhood premonitions of an early death. As they chat, Sonia realizes that a person can be addicted to drugs and still function in society. She shares how she always admired his brilliance, but Nelson insists that he always admired Sonia—she could always study and learn something, but he doesn’t have her determination. Nelson admits that a few months ago, Sonia unknowingly drove him to pick up heroin. Sonia feels naïve as Nelson deliriously begs for forgiveness. In July, she wakes up and senses Nelson. Tío Benny calls with the news that Nelson died.