So Far from God Essay | Critical Essay #12

So Far from God Critical Essay #12

Sofi's lament to her comadre (intimate female friend) that they are all "so poor and forgotten" echoes Francisco's sentiments (Castillo). Yet Sofi and her comadre both come to understand that they can get closer to "God" through their own actions. The efforts they initiate to improve the economic self-sufficiency of Tome for the benefit of everyone in the community also succeed in restoring communal social relations and dignity. Sánchez says that the "concept of centering subjectivity in collectivities is an important cultural and political construct in Chicano literature." This novel allows us to see the multiple—sometimes competing, sometimes converging— interests in Chicana subjectivity through female characters who struggle to name, assert, and lead their complicated selves against societies that continually seek to categorize them with one-dimensional labels, such as single mother, jilted woman, slut, devil, Catholic, troublemaker, or loyal worker. What Sofi and her comadre accomplish in Tome results just...
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