With a title like So Far From God, I held high expectations that this book would send me on a roller coaster of emotions ranging from sorrow for the tragedies of the characters to inspiration strengthening my own religion while whetting my appetite for the Spanish culture. During the first hundred pages of this book, though, I grew disappointed that my high expectations hadn’t been met. I finally came across a revelation when I stopped blaming my lack of engagement on the author’s writing style. When I took a step back to look at the novel from a perspective outside of my own culture, I can see how other cultures would embrace this mystical Hispanic folklore. So Far From God speaks to the state of humanity by giving a Hispanic twist to the
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However, quite the opposite is Castillo’s case as the novel encourages the readers against a spirit of passivism. Castillo makes this point of seeing life as “a state of courage and wisdom and not an uncontrollable participation in society, as many people experienced their lives” (250). Sofia’s initiative to stand up against injustice shines through as she confronts her neighbor as being a conformist by saying, “That’s what my ‘jita Esperanza used to call people who just didn’t give a damn about nothing! And that’s why, she said, we all go on living so poor and forgotten!” (139). All of the other members of Sophia’s family become consumed by the dominate culture except for her. The victimized heroine who fights against the affliction of feminism, Sofia’s husband sells away almost everything he and his wife own and leaves his family to go follow the debts of his gambling addiction. Sofia is abandoned to single-handedly raise her four daughters and run the butcher shop. When Domingo returns after twenty years of estrangement, Sofia accepts him back, passive to the injustice dealt to her. However, Sofia becomes a dynamic character when she fights against her disempowerment by divorcing Domingo and fights against the disempowerment of her village by becoming its mayor. The village of Tome is suffering economically as land grants are being overtaken by Anglo control. As mayor, Sofia unites the people together as one in a series of grass roots reforms, setting up a communal bartering system and a cooperative enterprise dealing in joint sheep grazing, wool weaving and shared food
However, quite the opposite is Castillo’s case as the novel encourages the readers against a spirit of passivism. Castillo makes this point of seeing life as “a state of courage and wisdom and not an uncontrollable participation in society, as many people experienced their lives” (250). Sofia’s initiative to stand up against injustice shines through as she confronts her neighbor as being a conformist by saying, “That’s what my ‘jita Esperanza used to call people who just didn’t give a damn about nothing! And that’s why, she said, we all go on living so poor and forgotten!” (139). All of the other members of Sophia’s family become consumed by the dominate culture except for her. The victimized heroine who fights against the affliction of feminism, Sofia’s husband sells away almost everything he and his wife own and leaves his family to go follow the debts of his gambling addiction. Sofia is abandoned to single-handedly raise her four daughters and run the butcher shop. When Domingo returns after twenty years of estrangement, Sofia accepts him back, passive to the injustice dealt to her. However, Sofia becomes a dynamic character when she fights against her disempowerment by divorcing Domingo and fights against the disempowerment of her village by becoming its mayor. The village of Tome is suffering economically as land grants are being overtaken by Anglo control. As mayor, Sofia unites the people together as one in a series of grass roots reforms, setting up a communal bartering system and a cooperative enterprise dealing in joint sheep grazing, wool weaving and shared food