Third Response: Critical Analysis

Agueda Charles
Professor Anel I. Flores
English 1301January 30,2007


Another protagonist of the novel: Francisco el Penitente, godson of dona Felicia, was introduced in the same believes of his godmother in cures, witchcraft, and ‘limpias.”
It seems to be the all family is in the santero business, business ran over two centuries. The Caribbean “santero” maintained a kind of secret membership, just as the penitente brothers of Francisco’s land did. Based on ancient African rites, where the “santero” himself contained the power to answer prayers, perform miracles, etc. Different as the medieval Catholic rituals seeking absolution through penance and mortification, but I can see what these two rites have in common when Francisco describe the way is made the “bulto” or “santo”: “his expert hand was not guided by the aesthetic objectives of artists, but by the saint himself in heaven.”
In chapter six the author give us a memory of Sofi’s life, how she got to know her husband, the place where they met, how he called her “silly Sofi,” and finally reconciled.