Patrona Isa stands at the emotional center of Rejected because her life embodies longing, power, fear, and the unraveling that comes from deferred hope. She begins as Isa (sometimes called Princess by Amo Abe), the polished South Texas matriarch whose greatest dream has always been motherhood. Later, when Jehovah renames her Sara, her identity shifts yet again, reflecting both the burden of her past and the promise she desperately wants to claim.
This spotlight explores her motivations, contradictions, and the complex relationship she forms with Hillary, all grounded in the moments woven through the manuscript.
Who She Is
Patrona Isa is introduced as warm, hopeful, and eager to secure a pregnancy after eight years of infertility. Her joy is palpable when she believes the latest treatment might finally work. Her excitement fills the room as she speaks about nurseries, due dates, and her dream of motherhood. Her enthusiasm appears early when she clings to Abraham’s promise that they will have a son. Her hope is sincere and heartfelt.
This desire becomes the axis of her world. It shapes her marriage, her decisions, and eventually her treatment of Hillary.
Her Desire for Motherhood
For Patrona Isa, motherhood represents identity, value, and divine approval. Her daily life revolves around fertility treatments, cycles of hope, and painful disappointment. She talks openly about wanting a child more than anything else and confesses how each failed attempt intensifies her fear that she is the problem.
Her longing is not selfish. It is rooted in genuine yearning and emotional vulnerability. Yet as the years pass, stress hardens her once-soft edges. The weight of infertility strains her marriage and distorts the way she views Hillary.
Her Relationship With Abe
Her marriage to Amo Abe is affectionate at first, marked by shared dreams and mutual encouragement. Their partnership feels intimate and unified when they celebrate the possibility of pregnancy together, hugging and kissing in excitement.
However, when promises fail to materialize, cracks form. Isa becomes frustrated and defensive. She challenges Abe’s faith, snaps under pressure, and doubts whether she can ever be the vessel of the promised family line. Her breakdown becomes especially heartbreaking when she cries, “Where are the descendants Jehovah promised?” while wondering if she is the reason the promise cannot be fulfilled.
This emotional vulnerability sets the stage for her most devastating decision.
Her Decision Regarding Hillary
When Isa reaches her breaking point, she suggests that Abe sleep with Hillary so their tribe can begin through another woman. Her desperation leads her to believe that Hillary’s pregnancy could become a solution to her pain. This is one of the pivotal turning points of the novel. It displays Isa’s emotional collapse and her willingness to sacrifice the well-being of another woman in order to achieve motherhood.
This decision marks the beginning of the rift between them. Hillary becomes both surrogate and threat, and Isa’s behavior shifts from friendship to control.
Her Shift Toward Cruelty
After Hillary becomes pregnant, Isa’s gratitude transforms into resentment. She assigns Hillary excessive workloads, isolates her, and treats her with increasing harshness. Hillary works twelve and a half hour days without breaks, and Isa does not seem to care. Her cruelty deepens as jealousy rises and she becomes determined to maintain control over the surrogate who now carries the future she believes should have been hers.
Isa’s need for power and emotional security overrides compassion. She polices Hillary’s medical appointments, refuses to leave the exam room, and even threatens her during moments of vulnerability.
This escalation shows how trauma, unmet desire, and fear can transform someone once gentle into someone capable of deep harm.
Her Identity Transformation to Sara
A significant turning point comes when Jehovah changes her name from Isa to Sara. The shift reflects both the biblical parallel and her attempt to reshape her identity. Hillary notes that this name change takes place around the same time Abe becomes Abraham, and she observes how strange the transformation feels inside the household.
As Sara, she maintains her authority, but her emotional state continues oscillating between longing, resentment, and flashes of tenderness. Her relationship with Ignacio, whom she unofficially adopts, reveals her desire to be motherly, even as she hides the truth about his origins.
Sara becomes a portrait of internal conflict. She is loving and cruel, hopeful and despairing, devoted and manipulative.
Why Her Character Matters
Patrona Isa / Sara embodies the entanglement of power, patriarchy, trauma, and identity. She is not a villain, though she inflicts real harm. She is not a hero, though she is deeply sympathetic. She is a woman shaped by cultural pressure, spiritual expectation, infertility, and the fear of being forgotten.
Her complexity makes her one of the most layered characters in the novel. Through her, the story explores how longing can distort moral clarity and how systems of control harm both the oppressed and the oppressor.
Conclusion
Patrona Isa’s journey is central to the emotional landscape of Rejected. Her character arc weaves tenderness, trauma, desperation, and transformation into a story that mirrors the ancient narrative she reimagines. Understanding her allows readers to see the full depth of what Hillary is up against and the emotional realities that shape both women’s lives.
Patrona Isa’s Backstory
Barren: A Contemporary Story of Sarai (available on Amazon) provides the backstory of how Patrona Isa and Amo Abe get married and how Helena (Hillary) comes to live with them in south Texas.
Buy Rejected on Amazon. Buy on BarnesandNoble.com.
Buy Barren on Amazon.
Leave a comment