Book Reflection Paper: So Far From God

Book Reflection Paper: So Far From God

Introduction

The novel written by Ana Castillo, “So far from God”, depicts the story of a Chicano family which lived in Tome (Castillo, 1993). The novel is well organized in the form of 16 episodes. The family included the couple Sofi and Domingo, and their four daughters. In addition, the novel also included a healer, and a psychic Surgeon in its caste. The daughters' names are Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and "La Loca Santa”. All the four daughters of Sofi die under different circumstances or diseases. Suffering from the immense grief and depression, Sofi founded the organization named as Mothers of Martyrs and Saints. This essay discusses that how the characters presented in the novel affect my notions of reality, and what ideas the writer actually wanted to convey through her novel.

Discussion

The novel narrated the story about Sofi, who struggled to fight against all the hardships she had in her family life, as well as in her town. Through the character of Sofi, Ana has tried to set an example of a woman who never gives up and despite of all the hardships, she continues to become stronger and even enlightened. The themes of the novel include religion, laughter, sex and heartbreak. Overall, the novel is considered to be tragic as the ending is not happy, but the readers also find it funny and inspiring due to the fluent writing style and interesting story.

The novel incites rebellion against the values and norms which were common place in the Chicano patriarchal society. The three elder daughters of Sofi tried to find their world outside of the home, which their mother has made for them. Eventually, all the three daughters returned back to the Sofi's house as they were frustrated and hurt by the cruelty of the male dominated society. The youngest one Santa remained at home and helped her heart broken sisters to recover from their traumas. The characters of novel are shown to practice the traditional beliefs, even in the presence of modern Catholic concepts. The combination of real and mythological characters further enhances the story. The legends in the novel helped the writer to depict the richness and complexity found in the Chicano cultural heritage.

In the very first paragraph of the novel, Ana tried to express the relation between women and nature (Olmedo, 2012). The paragraph also described that women often have to spend a non human life. This is the point where Sofi tried to understand the animal warning about her baby; she was able to figure out that something was wrong with her baby (22). The youngest daughter was different from her sisters; she did not go to school and mostly avoided staying with the people, except her mother. La Loca used to spend most of her time by the river, or with the animals. Through the character of youngest daughter, the writer tried to express that how some women try to led a simple ...