C. It demonstrates how miserable she felt.
Zitkala-Sa was put through many tortures, based on this excerpt. It is clear that she was taken away from her mother young, and that her captors did terrible things to her like tie her to a chair and cut off one of her braids. If she was treated like this, it serves as an example for how the rest of her people were probably also treated.
A Second Major Plot Point
Karen was disdaining her thoughts on the political debate.
(Now that I have answered your question can you help me with my current one. Its the most recent one on my profile page thing.)
A metaphor compares two unlike things without using 'like' or 'as'. Example: Happiness is a warm puppy. Happiness (an abstract concept) is being compared to a puppy (a physical object).
