The Unworthy is a critique of organized religion and an examination of patriarchal social structures that oppress and marginalize women. The narrator and the other “unworthy” women live in an isolated convent where they repeatedly atone and self-flagellate in the hope of shedding their inherent impurities to ascend to the rank of Chosen or Enlightened. However, at the end of the novel, the narrator discovers that “He,” the mysterious leader of the cult, is raping and abusing the women who have become Enlightened, suggesting that organized religion is merely a ruse to give men power and access to women’s bodies. The use of religious language and ceremony to mask systemic violence underscores how spiritual hierarchies can be weaponized to justify the dehumanization of women. The novel offers a bleak portrait of faith devoid of love or grace—an authoritarian system where purity is synonymous with silence, mutilation, and submission.

The House of the Sacred Sisterhood draws on Christian theology that depicts women as inherently devious and untrustworthy, beginning with Eve tempting Adam and initiating the fall of man. These and other interpretations of religious texts have long been used to prop up patriarchal societies and argue for female inferiority. In the Sisterhood, these beliefs are taken to violent extremes. “He,” the invisible leader of the cult and the only man in the convent, considers the unworthy to be “mistrustful, skeptical, inconsiderate bitches” (34), and the women have completely internalized these perceived deficiencies. The narrator, for example, can easily imagine “the nocturnal filth that drags itself slowly and invisibly through [her] blood” (3). The language of contamination and filth mirrors religious rhetoric about sin and moral impurity, positioning the female body as something in need of constant correction, cleansing, or erasure. This internalized misogyny and belief in their own inferiority causes the women to devalue themselves and the other unworthy in the Sisterhood, often to an alarming degree. They unhesitatingly turn one another in for infractions that lead to death or violent punishments and offer themselves up for painful sacrifices. They even revel in other women’s punishment and even death because the downfall of others brings the remaining women closer to attaining the rank of Chosen or Enlightened.

The women’s contribution to their own oppression illustrates how internalized misogyny makes women weaker and more vulnerable by pitting them against one another. Their belief in their own unworthiness isolates them, breaking bonds of sisterhood and making them easier to control. However, the narrator’s belief in the Sisterhood’s teachings is challenged, and her internalized misogyny is eroded as she discovers spirituality in the feminine: in nature and in connection with other women. Experiences like witnessing fireflies in the forest and making love with Lucía are “sacred moments” that undermine the validity of the Sisterhood’s violence and repression and give the narrator the strength to stand up for herself and others. She discovers that true divinity lies not in mindlessly following religious dogma but in embracing the beauty and complexity of life. By the novel’s end, the narrator’s spiritual awakening is inseparable from her emotional awakening, suggesting that healing from institutional violence requires not just action, but reconnection with one’s body, memory, and sense of wonder.