Analysis Of The Book ' ​ Bless Me, Ultima ​ '

Meaning and significance of death in the light of the Christian narrative is addressed and shows a deep understanding, including a detailed description and many examples.

Antonio’s introduction to the golden carp presents a problem for him because of the Catholic view of pagan gods, yet Antonio feels a strong connection to it. When he first witnesses the golden carp he is overcome by “a sudden illumination of beauty and understanding” he had “expected God to do at [his] first holy communion” (Anaya 114). When Antonio’s questions to God are not answered during his first communion, he believes God has abandoned him. However, with continued pressure from his mother to become a priest and from Cico to choose between Catholicism and the golden carp, he struggles to decide what he believes. As Antonio’s doubt deepens, he questions God’s definition of good and evil and His plan concerning who receives forgiveness and who receives condemnation. In a dream, God speaks to Antonio saying, “You would have a God that forgives all, but when it comes to your personal whims you seek punishment for your vengeance” (173). For example, Antonio believes Florence should be forgiven, regardless of his disbelief in God, but Tenorio should receive punishment. When the Church cannot answer his questions, Antonio turns to the Golden Carp, and even considers that the Virgin should be a god. Antonio is lost in his faith identity,

Death is abstruse but can make one savvy. The way one thinks may be shifted by an incident, bringing them to a point where they feel uncertain about what they believe in. All the purity and sin that comes with this life is what brings them to become equivocal and controversial as to what is right and wrong. Thoughts of doubt may not be cleared up, but it will allow one to find a path they pertain to. A novel, Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya relates to this concept in the sense that the main character Antonio Márez is conflicted due to the deaths he encounters which alters his beliefs.

The grieving that individuals experience with death is unique, but the main stages are universal across cultures (Axelrod, 2017). There are five stages of grief. Nicolas Wolterstorff’s story, Lament for a Son, addresses these five stages as he tries to find joy after the loss of his son. The meaning and significance of death in light of the Christian narrative is also addressed in the story. Having a hope of the resurrection can help comfort individuals in situations similar to Wolterstorff (Wolterstorff, 1978).

The geography of rivers is important to their symbolism in this story. Antonio’s river starts from a lake, a place of no morals; studies prove that infants are selfish beyond belief, and so is water at its birth. His river carries the water to the ocean, the place where all water lands, carrying the blood and salt and debris that it picks up on its long journey. All high rivers go to the ocean, no matter how many lakes they go through. The ocean is where water goes to die, until its spirit, in clean water, is carried through the clouds back into the frigid mountain lakes, where it is born again. This is the cycle of water, and the cycle of life.

Experiencing death can sometimes be the best event someone can go through. Death is more than just someone stopping from existing, it’s a concept that can be perceived as a new beginning. Being able to take the death of someone and turning their philosophy into consideration can be beautiful. In the novel “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya Antonio gets his faith put to the test when the arrival of Ultima brings him the beginning of the end.

Abstract The author’s perception and treatment of Everyman are that each individual need to prepare for it by repenting, following God, and doing good works. The author’s perception is that at the end of the day one cannot take anything or anyone with them when they die. The only entity someone can take is their actions and how they use the resources that are given to them. Those who put God before everything and perform good works will enjoy eternity with Him, but those who enjoy only the pleasures of life and forget God, will not. The author’s main message throughout the play is to not fearful of death but know that one day everyone will die, so do as much good as one can, repent of one’s sins, and to put God first. Keywords: author, perception, treatment, death The Author’s Perception and Treatment of Death in Everyman In the late fifteenth century, an unknown author wrote a morality play called Everyman. According to Pearson, a morality play during the Medieval period would communicate a moral lesson and make it so simple that both illiterate and well-educated audiences could both understand the lesson (Adu-Gyamfi, 2016). One may believe that the author of Everyman want to communicate to the audience that everyone will receive judgment the actions they commit on Earth. The author’s perception of death is that God is the only one who has the power to control when each individual die, so if one has a relationship with Him one should not be fearful death. The author

Life has many lessons in store for us. Often times, one of the most terrifying and traumatic lessons a child can learn really has nothing to do with life--but rather, death. Unfortunately, it is a lesson that we all must encounter at some point. No matter the age or circumstance, it is hard to understand how something so dark and mystical can impact our lives so much. It is even harder to cope with the loss of a loved one and to come to terms with knowledge that each day we live, we become one closer to dying.

In addition, Cicirelli said, “The meanings of death and life are interdependent. Life gains its meaning from the fact of death. How, when, where, and why one anticipates dying influences the meaning of the life that one has. Such a view implies changing individuals over time, and consequently a life-span perspective on development of personal death meanings and related death fears. One would expect the individual to develop different personal meanings and death fears over the course of life from early childhood to adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and old age”( Cicirelli 715). When I was seven years old, I fear of death because the dead body and the coffin. There are a lot of Chinese horror movie talk about dead people who become zombies, then at night, they will come out of

Even though people have been dying since the start of life, we can never get use to the idea of leaving our loved ones behind. Therefore humans choose to disregard death and get pleasure from life, and consequently we tend to stray away from righteousness. Two works; Everyman by an unknown author, and The Pardoner’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer have been written to preach humans toward Christianity-the right way of living. These authors utilize plot to reveal the role of death in understanding life. This is achieve by drawing on the foolishness of mankind, their response to the inevitable death and the effect of death on protagonists which altogether helps the readers understand worldly treasures are temporary.

Jalapeno bagels is about a boy named Pablo whom cannot decide what to take to school for International Day. He wants to bring something from his parents’ baker. He wants something that represent his heritage but he cannot decide what to bring. His mother who is Mexican baked pan dulce and change bars. His father who is Jewish baked bagels and challah. Both of the bake good were good but while helping his parents with the bakery on Sunday morning, Pablo made a decision on what to bring. He decided to bring jalapeno bagels because they are a mixture both of his parents and just like him too. The multicultural representations in the story line is Mexican and Jewish. The pictures that were drawn in the book, the family has the same color of skin even though the parents are different cultures and the main character is mixed. There were no different skin colors.

Ultima teaches Antonio of this magical strength as she tries to help him understand the murder of Narciso. The townspeople do not seek justice because Narciso had been the town drunk and his life seemed worthless, “Because Narciso was the town drunk, nobody cared much”. Ultima explains that Narciso had died trying to help a friend and that was honorable. Once Narciso had been a respectable young man but hard times had fallen upon him after the death of his young wife. Narciso had turned to alcohol to ease the pain but had remained forever indebted to Ultima for trying to save his wife. Ultima uses the death of Narciso to teach Antonio the ways of his ancestors. She explains, “The old people…always helped each other; through good or bad they stuck together, and the friendships that were formed in that desolate llano were bonds for life”. It was through Ultima that Antonio discovers life is not what is always seems. Narciso had died trying to warn Ultima but few remembered anything good about him. Narciso had an inner goodness that had been hidden by his use of alcohol. Ultima taught Antonio to see the magic in Narciso, just as she had thought him to see the magic in the river and all that surrounded it.

Lupito’s death caused a big confusion in Antonio. Everything that happened the night Lupito was killed created a lot of questions inside Antonio’s head. An article that discusses how young children handle deaths states,“Younger children believe that they cause

This lack of feeling regarding death is by far one of the most outlandish ideas in the novel, but is our world all that different? After the Heaven's gate mass suicide 39 religious followers were subjected to the harshest discrimination any group could endure, but these people could not defend themselves. In there final resting places they were photographed and displayed throughout the world as oddities, such as Linda dying in front of a group of youngsters. Shrouded by a triangular purple cloth, dressed alike, and carrying similar items{Miller} they were dismissed as another subject for comic relief.

God can see that Everyman is not living justly and summons Death to give Everyman the news of his beckoning. God is viewed from the start of this play as in as the only authority. When God and Death are having a short discussion, God is viewed as the authority and Death is seen as his subservient. Death is shown as simply a meek carrier to the glorious God above. The sad thing is, even though there is a God above that loves us and has our best interest in heart, people still and will always fear death. Gary Habermas explains in his book, The Risen Jesus & Future Hope, "the ultimate fear is probably the dread of death"(173). The author of the play gets Habermas' idea and tells the reader that God is still in control of death and will always be in control. There are a couple different instances in the Bible (Elijah and Jesus) where this is not the case, but overall God has used death to guide people into eternity with him. Death is used as an instrument of God to point out the fall of man due to its turning away from His perfect will.