So Far From God by Ana Castillo explores the ways in which Chicana women are forced to exert resistance against the existing male-dominated and Anglo-Saxon society. In the story, Sofi and her four daughters, Esperanza, Caridad, Fe, and La Loca, as well as other female characters, reveal how Chicanas (Chicano women) resist their patriarchal society and gain control and create change in their worlds. The novel serves to work against “a pervasive stereotype of Chicanas as passive individuals who are victims of oppression…by presenting a cast of female characters who resist domination” (Delgadillo 888). They rebel against the norm and seek to escape the submissive, domestic lifestyle traditionally expected of women in Chicano culture. Sofi, Esperanza and Fe resist a culture that is traditionally a society dominated by patriarchy and with their own acts of female independence they are able to create and control their own future. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Fe is Sofi's third daughter and the most traditional member of the family. She is the one in the family who “desires to turn her life into a success story and lift herself up from the family through her work ethic” (Mermann). To achieve the American dream he so desires, Fe uses this work ethic to shore up financial means. She works steadily at the bank, a position she has held since high school, where she is passed over for promotions regardless of her dedication to the job. Most of the friends he has are not other Chicanas, but "gringas" with whom he works at the bank. Part of this American dream also involves marrying her high school sweetheart Tom and buying a house to live in. Fe's ultimate goal is to have this perfect lifestyle, which is important to her as someone who "has kept her image above all else" (Castillo 28). Image is so important to her specifically because of the way she views her family, seeing them “so counterproductive, so unambitious” (Castillo 28). She believes it is vital to separate herself from what she sees as a failing family and create her own family in which she is defined. She is readily willing to do whatever is necessary “to achieve the perfect American family even when it means having to repudiate the tradition of the extended family, including the community” (Gillman). She is ready to abandon everything she has lived and grown up with, in exchange for the perfect American lifestyle. He is not afraid to sacrifice his family and his traditions to get what he wants. Although Fe desires a traditional lifestyle, her methods of achieving it are slightly less traditional as she works so hard to ensure that she and her fiancée will be able to live the life she wants. Instead of remaining passive and inactive, Fe takes the necessary steps to achieve the lifestyle she desires. Fe, like her mother and sisters, is described in the novel as a “Chicana character who actively participates in the construction of [her] world” (Delgadillo 909). Fe breaks from tradition in taking action to achieve her dreams, instead of remaining inactive and allowing a man to control her and her situation. When Fe is finally left by her fiancée shortly before the wedding, she is completely destroyed by the dissolution of the family. all his dreams. He then descends into a year-long period of mourning consisting of constant wailing and screaming. After irreparable damage to his vocal cords and emotions, Fe attempts to put his life back together. Eventually, she marries her cousin Casimiro, where for a short time she has her owndesired American dream, and the "long-dreamed-of automatic dishwasher, microwave, Cuisinart, and VCR... that she had bought with her." own his hard-earned money from all the bonuses he earned at his new job” (Castillo 171). She's back to working for herself for the lifestyle she wants, working hard to get the money to buy the things she believes will complete her perfect lifestyle. Unfortunately for Fe, her attempts to seek female independence in patriarchal society lead to her untimely death from cancer. Fe works tirelessly at the Acme plant, no doubt working with unknown chemicals to continue to financially support his American dream. Castillo points out how rare Fe's dedication to her new job is and how she is so "intent on moving up quickly at Acme International... she took every gritty job available, just to prove to the company what a good worker she was" (Castillo 178). She is eventually “promoted” to work with even more dangerous chemicals. He worked so hard to fulfill his dreams, that “just as he ingested the poisonous fumes of Acme chemicals, so too he ingested the carcinogenic culture of Anglo-dominated capitalist society” (Gillman). Despite all her hard work and her refusal to sit idle in achieving what she wants, Fe's American dream is unattainable as she pays for her work with her life. It is her drive for the American dream and her refusal to remain passive in a patriarchal society that leads to her untimely death. Esperanza, Sofi's eldest daughter, is the first and only to go to college, earning both a bachelor's and master's degree. . She is known for being intelligent and a revolutionary activist, having worked to convince her college to study Chicano. Always something of a Chicana feminist, she "never feels satisfied with the poor and forgotten status afforded to Chicanas" (Gillman). Esperanza is aware of and dissatisfied with the patriarchal society she lives in, determined to live outside its boundaries and create and control her own life. However, there is still this idea that something is missing in her lifestyle of female independence. As an intelligent, independent woman who worked as a television journalist, Esperanza experienced "transitional years where she felt like a woman with brains was practically dead from all the happiness he brought her in the love department" (Castillo 26) . Even though she is independent of a man, lives without a husband, and actively works towards an education and career, there is still the idea that she needs a male figure in her life. She attempts to satisfy this need with her on-and-off relationship with Ruben. Ruben, like the other husbands, boyfriends and men in the story, "share a certain inability to act that the protagonists assume" (Martinez). This creates a contrast in the story between these inactive men and their proactive female counterparts, emphasizing the strength and independence of women. When Esperanza is offered a promotion in Houston, she decides to go but is then held back by the return of her lover. Reuben. They formed a new relationship where "every two weeks she was there with Ruben, at the teepee meetings...teaching her...the role of women and the role of men and how they were not to be questioned" ( Castle 36) . They only saw each other every two or three weeks, to attend a meeting and then “they would go home and make love all day” and she wouldn't hear from him again until the next meeting (Castillo 36). The only intimacy in their relationship becomes sex; Esperanza wishes she could confide in him more, but he doesn't want any further relationships. She accepts this and hers“inability to ask for more…stems in part from social constraints against female self-actualization” (Delgadillo 906). Women are not expected to have the same desires to fulfill their lives, and knowing that she is not expected to have them silences her about what she wants from Ruben. The relationship is considered a rewriting of Chicana gender roles, in which Esperanza remains true to her Chicana heritage and identity, but explores a new area of ​​sexual gratification “traditionally denied [to her] and considered a prostitute, lacking dignity and self-control” (Martinez ). Her feminine independence allows her to experience a new kind of relationship, a new kind of sexuality in which she remains true to her Chicana blood, but also exercising new rights and freedoms. She has the awareness that as a woman “she does not need to marry to find self-respect in her culture” and that she is an “independent subject whose presence does not depend on another being, but rather on her own actions” (Martinez). It is the ultimate realization of female independence. After reasserting her independence, Esperanza "finds her own voice and path more meaningful than the relationship she experiences with her lover" and chooses to dump Ruben and accept an offer in Washington. (Martinez). Esperanza remembers how hard she worked for her education and career and realizes that with Ruben she almost fell under traditional patriarchal rule. She takes control, “choosing to leave rather than be left, choosing her role rather than stay with an extravagant lover” (Martinez). In doing so he creates and controls his own future, avoiding the temporary submission he experienced during their purely physical relationship. Esperanza decides that "in addition to being a major career breakthrough, it was pretty clear to her that there was no need for her on the home front," with her sisters recovered and her father returned (Castillo 46). Feeling she is no longer needed at home and wanting to further her career ambitions, Esperanza heads to Washington. As with her sister Fe, Esperanza's attempts to create and control her own future outside of patriarchy-dominated society also cost her her life. In short order, Esperanza has returned to her family to inform them that she will be sent to the front lines of the war in Saudi Arabia to report on military events. After leaving for Saudi Arabia, Esperanza and her crew become lost, reported missing, and eventually declared dead. He fights for recognition as a Chicano within his own culture and Anglo culture, which serves as the drive behind his determination towards his career. Esperanza, as an activist and supporter of Chicano studies and cultures, "abandons her own culture to leave and fight a war that is not hers" (Gillman). In an attempt to resist patriarchal society and make a name and career as a woman, Esperanza is lost in the war, ultimately paying the price with her life. Sofi is the strong, independent and devoted mother of Esperanza, Caridad, Fe and La Loca. She works hard for her family, which “is a rather non-traditional family, replacing patriarchy and instead celebrating a matriarchal heritage” (Mermann). Unlike traditional Chicano families, it is Sofi, not Domingo, who keeps the family together. She is the one who supports them, financially and emotionally. Not only is she the one keeping them together, but she does so without any man, as Domingo is present but inactive. For his family to survive, he must take control of his own future. After being seduced by Domingo, marrying him against her family's wishes, giving birth to his children, losing her land and money due to his gambling habits, and then beingabandoned by him. , Sofi “must act as an agent of survival for her family, her community, and her culture” (Gillman). She is the emblem of strength, always fighting to keep her family together, even when one misfortune after another befalls her and her daughters. Being a single mother, Sofi is forced to be the sole financial support for herself and her four daughters. She ends up running Carne Buena Carneceria, raising, butchering and selling the meat herself, a job generally considered more appropriate for men. However, this doesn't matter, as survival is a necessity and Sofi does what she needs to help her family. When Sofi's youngest daughter, La Loca, dies and is reincarnated at her funeral, Father Jerome questions whether it is the devil's work. According to the linear thought of Father Girolamo and the dichotomy allowed by a patriarchal Christian Church, "The Loca can be either a devil or an angel, a virgin or a whore" (Lanza). Sofi yells at him “Don't you dare start this story about my baby! If our Lord in His heaven has sent my daughter back to me, don't you dare begin to think so backwards against her; the devil doesn't work miracles!” (Castillo 23). As a man of the church, many witnesses consider Sofi's acts blasphemous, shocked by his audacity to confront and hit a priest in this way. It is necessary for her and she refuses to give in to the patriarchy of the Church when it intends to condemn her newly resurrected son. Either he has to act and defend his son, or he loses control. Sofi's great realization of independence comes when one day she realizes that “If that Domingo doesn't fix the screen door this week, I'll have to do it myself; then I will surely kick his ass; anyway, what do I want it for?" (Castillo 130). He realizes his ability to take control and decides to "run for mayor of Tome and make some changes around here..." (Castillo 130). He states the her abilities as a woman of action and, instead of waiting for what males in such a patriarchal society should do, she takes matters into her own hands. It is here that Sofi decides on her dedication “to work for the betterment of the community” (Castillo 138) Sofi essentially becomes a mother figure for the community, adding to her image as a strong mother, the matriarchal figure. Before Sofi's actions to strengthen the community, “there were no roles for women other than that of wife/mother. or abandoned wife/mother” and it is Sofi who created “new roles for women in which she and others could be appreciated for something other than being a wife/mother” (Delgadillo 910). allowing them to become a stronger figure within the culture that seeks to make them subservient and its resistance turns out to be “a public effort to fully include women in community governance” (Delgadillo 910). She takes action to create and control the future of herself, her family, and other women in her community. Sofi isn't just strengthening herself as a mother; he is empowering his entire genre. Sofi comes to recognize Esperanza's activist beliefs and that "the only way things are going to get better around here, is if we, all of us together, try to do something about it" (Castillo 144). He began to understand the importance of community and the strength a community can possess. After campaigning and gathering support, the mission becomes more about saving Tome and less about Sofi as mayor. The community works diligently, planning and organizing, and “the vecinos of Sofi finally embarked on an ambitious project, which was to start a wool weaving business for sheep grazing” (Castillo 146). Thanks to the efforts of Sofi and the 2011.