Sofi had devoted her life to being a good daughter, a good wife, and a good mother, or at least had given it all a hell of a good try . . . Now there was no mother to honor, no father to respect, no 'jitas to sacrifice for, no rancho to maintain, and no land left to work (Castillo 218).
The purpose of this research is to examine the transforming character of Sofi in So Far from God by Ana Castillo. The plan of the research will be to set forth the cultural and social context in which Sofi can be seen as shaping her identity from her environment and family history. Also discussed will be psychological implications CastilloÆs portrayal of mother-daughter relationships--especially how human relationships are shaped by the response to unique cultural forces.
In a way, Sofi is defined by a social environment of women and small-town gossip. This can be seen in the form that the storytelling takes from the beginning to the book. That is, Castillo tells one little story after another about what happened to all of SofiÆs daughters to make them grotesques in their little town of Tome. Thus Loca seems to die and then seems to raise from the dead. Her epileptic fits have the look of insanity. This is why she gets the name La Loca. Esperanza enters college and becomes a successful career woman. Caridad has a pattern of good-time living--and getting pregnant (three times) and getting an abortion each time. Ultimately, however, she is beaten and raped and mutilated by men who are never caught. Fe tries to get the best ordinary job she can and find a good, old-fashioned life--only to be jilted by her fiancT and only to fall into hysterics for several months thereafter. Now all of this takes place in the first chapter of the story. In other words, the author is explaining the environment by explaining, in a tone of back-yard gossip, the women of SofiÆs family.
Sofi is defined by the culture and environment in which she lives because she int...