So Far From God by Ana Castillo - Book Report/Review Example

So Far From God Ana Castillo’s novel ‘So far from God’ opposes the marginalization of Chicanos who are the victims of the oppression of the then politics, culture and church, and their struggle to resist the norms of the society in everyday life. Through the characters Ana depicts the adversities they suffer and how they emerge out from the struggle against the suppression resulting in a change. The change occurs in the levels of spiritual and metaphysical. The novel depicts the story of a Chicano family. Sofi and her husband Dominingo have four daughters. Its center of attention is Sofi and her four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad and Loca. Sofi struggles a lot to bring up her children in the particular conservative background of the town, Tome in New Mexico. She is never assisted by her husband to share the adversities and dilemmas on the way. Totally against the concept of the then society, the ladies go out to work for the family. Esperanza, dedicates her life for others. She is a civil right activist who involves in Chicano Movement, and later dies while reporting the Gulf Crisis. Esperanza’s death is revealed through La Liorona , who informs la Loca that her sister had died. She appears to her mother sits near her and sooths her. Ana writes, “..Esperanza did not come to put her arms around her mother’s hunched shoulders “(P 34). Esperanza or ‘hope’ fail to provide any hope for her mother. Fe, the second daughter follows the culture of the Chicano society. She has speech problem and it affects her life badly. She is working for a savings and loan institution in Tome, a dedicated worker. But she never received the expected prospect from her job. Castello writes, “What she was finally told was that although the company did not want to discriminate against her ‘handicap’, Her irregular speech really did not lend itself to working with the public What do- mean handi-?” she asked the manager but was only advised to go to speech therapy and that was that” (P 177). Fe, to get a more comfortable position, leaves the position in the bank and joins at an arms manufacturing company. She was promoted to more severe conditions of working environment where she has to deal with unsafe chemical. Soon she became a victim of cancer and dies of cancer. The third one Caridad, being discarded by her husband, leads a licentious life. According to Anne “She gives herself to’ loving anyone she met at the bars who vaguely resembled her husband Memo’. Later we see that she is raped by a spirit known as’ Malogra’. She gets a miraculous healing. Then onwards Caridad learns the job of ‘curanders’ or the ‘healers’. On the way of a pilgrimage she finds a woman Esmeralda, in whom she finds the lost love. She is also a love struck lady. Both of them being tired of struggling for their love end their lives by jumping off the cliff and disappear. The people of the village never get their bodies. They believed that they are carried by the deity ‘Tsicktinako’. The villagers still believe that she has magical powers. Loca is a resurrected child. She dies of AIDS when she was three years only. During the funeral mass she astonishingly opens the lid of the coffin and reaches the top of the church and reveals to the priest that she had travelled through hell. The people of the town call her ‘La Loca Santa’, and consider her as a divine deity. Now she is a saint for the whole village. Throughout the novel the author brings out the mutiny of the characters against the custom and believes of the Chicano society. The four women characters are assigned specific roles through which the sufferings of the female due to the male dominant attitude is criticized and brought forth. The head of the family is Sofi, the mother of the four daughters who is overthrown by her husband and carries out the duties with great difficulty and obstacles. The Chicanas assigned the role of women only to look after their father, husband and children. But here the characters go out to get a meaningful life other than this to assist their mother, but the then society offers more difficulties. ‘So far from god ‘is a remonstration against the established injustice of the then world. We know that the characters, except Sofi has resisted to make changes in the society, but they embrace death as a reward. Fie is a victim of the narrow mindedness of the company in which she works. They knowingly allow the employees to expose themselves to the toxic elements, thus Fie gets cancer. The treatment of women and their physique is criticized by the Ana. All the women characters are dehumanized during their life span and later given the divine deity qualities. Sofi is the epitome of torments. She is brave enough to surmount all the tragedies. She alone raised the four daughters and she met the loss of all. Her husband gambled away all what they had and Sofi sends him and out. She divorced him which she would have done at the beginning. She confesses to the priest “ God gave me four daughters , and you would have thought by now I would be a content grandmother, sitting back and letting my daughters care for me ,bringing me nothing but their babies on Sundays to rock on my lap ! But no ,not my hijitas! I had to produce the kinds of species that flies! (P 84). The then society and its treatment if the Chicanos, the role of religion especially Catholicism , is drawn closely in the novel. The reply given by Father Jerome in the context is notable “ Se should be thank full for that much( P85). The death of the characters and the attitude towards death is treated strangely and also breaks the whole conventional believes at that. The death brings no sorrow or pain since the life continues in another form or a transformation takes place. It is against the belief of the Catholic Church. The author herself says …”…the end of Caridad and her beloved Emerald, which we nevertheless will refrain from calling tragic” ( p. 190). We know that how the novel describes the death of the three year old La Loca at the beginning. So the treatment of death is absurd and the alteration is questionable. Thus the death of Caridad La Loca, Esperanza along with their transformation to spirit is unanswerable and questions the traditional beliefs. Death is not much intensified in the novel. The potency of death is reduced by the superhuman powers attributed to the dead characters. It is a message to the readers that the people who encounters the realities with a steady mind can survive. The novel offers a new outlook in belief and religion. Sofi has a poignant role in putting forward the change .Cultural and ideological novelty is brought by suffering mother. We know that she endures everything and later becomes the Mayor of the town. So far from God is a narrative which talks about the political crookedness , industrial corruptness that lingered in New Mexico. The ill-treatment of women, the influence of politics, culture and beliefs in the life of women are depicted with aptness. We know that Fe is a victim of the corrupted politics for which she offers her college life .At the end Fe tells …” had only wanted to make some points with the company and earn bonuses to buy her house, make car payments , have a baby, in other words, have a life like people do on T V( p 189). But we know that her faithfulness and her belief in the system did not answer the tragic events in life. The treatment of women in the existing society is worse. Even though Sofi is the only one who challenges the situation, all the other women are less powered to confront the situations successfully. The novel is a spoof of the existing systems of religion, industry, politics and church. Work Cited Castillo, Ana So Far From God, !993 Read More