Biblical Allusions In Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

Living with Ultima since seven, Antonio quickly learns the struggles between his two family cultures. His mother’s side, the Lunas, who is obsessed and pushes Tony to become a priest. On the opposite, his father wants him to follow the Marez tradition, being of the son of vaqueros, riding horses across the plains. Leaping from child to adult, he begins to understand the tragic between both religious, overcome obstacles to unknot the family ties that bind him from finding his own identity. In his bildungsroman Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya uses imagery and point of view to illustrate the protagonist, Antonio’s loss of innocence.

Many of Antonio’s dreams foretell future incidents. In the first dream, the night before the arrival of Ultima, Antonio is born and both sides of his family gather together for the arrival of the baby boy. The two families express their hopes and desires for the

Through Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, the reader notices many themes. One central, and very important theme is the repetition of the number three. For example, there are three sources of understand for Antonio, three deaths that Antonio witnesses, and Antonio's three prophetic dreams. These all play crucial roles in both Antonio's life and serving to further the plot.

Have you ever not been sure of what kind of person you wanted to be because of the pressure of your parents traditions? Well in the book Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya , It talks about how Antonio is unsure if he wants to be a Luna or a Marez the story takes place during world war two in New Mexico . In the story Anaya uses literary elements such as symbolism to reveal Antonios true identity. Some symbolism used is the luna and marez name, the owl of ultima, and the golden carp.

The wisest man asks questions pertaining to the complexities of life. However, when no answers are delivered said man seeks answers in a place that seems most correct. The spiritual life relies on believers who have strong fundamental beliefs in hope. The unshaken foundation relies on believers who give their everlasting hope and have solace in this faith alone. The faith goes deeper than understanding, but full reliance on the church and its holy deities to solve the world 's most mysterious questions, cure even the most powerful illness and still have faith when such actions do not occur. In Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima Antonio sought to find the answers he was so desperately in search for, however he never received an answer. Antonio’s religious ambivalence is created through his journey of life from several encounters, life and death alike, and not receiving answers to the questions that he most desperately sought for. The aspect of Antonio’s ideal benevolent God verses the God he was presented, and external sources, would all create different epiphanies that would lead him astray from the traditional church and into other spiritual realms. These realms would be an outlet for him to receive enlightenment to the situations of which he was presented.

A clear theme in Bless Me, Ultima is Antonio’s struggle to find who he is amidst two sides of himself: the Lunas and the vaqueros. He fears for his future, where he believes he will have to decide between the two parts of himself, and inevitably disappoint one half of the people in his life. He fears what his life will be. He fears the river. This all changes when Ultima arrives. She teaches him to love the presence of the river, and to love his life however it may come. She shows him that the river is the lifeblood of the herbs she uses to heal and save, and that he can use his life to help others as well. But her spirit, in the owl, also shows him that life, and the river, can be very dangerous (Anaya, 14).

In the book “Bless Me Ultima,” by Rodolfo Anaya, the role of duality goes very into depth with its many controversial topics. Some of these topics include the contrast between Catholicism and indigenous mysticism, good witchcraft and evil witchcraft, and men and women. Since Antonio must struggle to find his own identity and place he must battle between his family, beliefs, and self. This can be seen between his parents, who’s frequently conflicting views make it difficult for Antonio to accept either of their belief systems, his struggles between the English and Spanish language, and how evil and good affected his innocence.

At first, it makes him question his own God. He wonders why God allows such terrible things to happen, and when he dreams of God, he dreams of Him as a dark, unforgiving being: “ And again the laughter rang from the flames. You foolish boy, God roared, don’t you see you are caught in your own trap! (Anaya, 181). Antonio continues to question God for sometime, especially when the dead haunt him in his dreams. He wants to be a priest, but the weight is heavy for his young mind. He had prayed for those who were dying, and in his dreams they come to him for forgiveness. “Grant us rest!” (Anaya, 249), they called out to him. And as the time passed and he had grown, he was still haunted by the dead, especially after watching a friend of his die. “Why must I be witness to such violence!” (Anaya, 257); Antonio was afraid and he wanted it to end. But, it helped him grow. It helped him to realize that not all was good in the world, and it helped him accept the bad more easily. Something that no child should learn that quickly- but in the end that’s what the deaths around Antonio do to

The geography of the town of Guadelupe from the book Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is immensely symbolic. After Lupito was murdered at the river, Antonio becomes “afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river” (15). The water conveys the impurity of the town it surrounds and at the same time, it symbolizes the cleansing of nefarious acts and thoughts of the town’s people. The river also illustrates how life continues to flow no matter the case. However, Antonio comprehends that the town’s detrimental avocations will soon reach his family when he reveals to himself that “the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever” (20). Their isolation restrains the corrupt ways of the city and its people.

The family has taken in Ultima out of a respect for her healing powers, her knowledge of plant, and her service to the community. Through the book Antonio mother and father are always arguing on what would be the destiny of Antonio and this challenges himself on wanting to learn more and understand who he will become. When Antonio was born, Ultima served as his midwife and buried his afterbirth letting believe that she only knows the destiny of him. As we read through the book Antonio sees three different people die and even at the very end see Ultima die as well. Antonio Through the book also struggles to understand the conflict between his father and his brothers, but like so many of the moral questions that trouble him, it is too complicated for him to grasp. But through the book his mother tells him that he will understand when he begins to take Communion, and he begins to look forward anxiously to the day he will be old enough to do so. But when he does, he realizes that what his mother said was not what he expected because when he finished his communion he did not feel what he wanted to feel. Antonio also realizes other believes other than just the Catholic religion and starts question himself on everything and everyone that has taught him all this believes. All the things that he experiences really make Antonio question everything in his life and what he is and what he is meant to

Although Bless Me, Ultima is widely celebrated for its authentic description of Latino culture and folklore, it is also a fine example of buildings roman, or coming of age story. The main character, Antonio, experiences trials, descents into darkness, heroic feats and achievement of new knowledge. By the end of the story he has learned the struggles of what life has to offer that caused reconcile of making a man of himself. The first stage of Antonio's coming of age are the trials he undergoes.

Often times, people tend to find no meaning in works of art such as stories, while in reality they fail to capture the true essence and deeper meaning these creations. Most notably, the novel Bless Me, Ultima is a perfect example of how much impact literary device have on a story. Bless, Me Ultima is a novel which depicts a boy named Antonio trying to adapt to his ever-changing world after meeting the curandera Ultima. As a result of Ultima’s guidance, Antonio finds light through the tough tragedies that occurred during his childhood. In Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses symbols such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, the river and the Golden Carp to depict Antonio’s gradual spiritual development, which demonstrates his shift in moral decision-making throughout the novel.

Gene Luen Yang, a prominent Chinese cartoonist, said, “Religion and culture are two important ways in which we as humans find our identity.” The qualities, beliefs, and culture that make a particular person different define one’s identity. To further develop the main character, Rudolfo Anaya touches on the subject of finding one’s identity many times in the novel Bless Me, Ultima. Antonio, the six-year-old focus of this coming of age novel, perfectly elucidates the difficulty of finding one’s identity. The author expertly utilizes juxtaposition in order to place Antonio’s internal conflict center stage. In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, author Rudolfo Anaya uses direct contrast to augment the focus on Antonio’s search for identity among competing forces.

When writing a novel, an author often includes several similarities and references to their personal or history. An example of this is Rudolfo Anaya and his book, Bless Me, Ultima, a coming of age story revolving around the life of a young boy growing up in New Mexico, Antonio. Antonio's two families have opposing values and views which confuse him, making him feel as if he has to make a choice. The setting, characters/families, circumstances, and culture of Bless Me Ultima are all a projection of Anaya's life. Rudolfo Anaya wrote Bless Me, Ultima to portray his struggle to find his place in the world, or to have a sense of belonging, and to revert back to his native style.

It’s everywhere, on T.V, in movies, on billboards, it’s so well-known that even children are pretty familiar with it. Politicians, also, take this into consideration when disusing new polices and laws. So what is “it”, well it defiantly isn’t Stephen Kings book, even though it’s now widely well spread due to the new movie; “it” is actually the Bible. Writers tend to feature Biblical imagery quite often, though this doesn’t necessarily mean it holds a religious meaning. As well as “borrow” stories from the Bible, Thomas F. Foster goes in depth to into these matters in his book How to Read like a Professor.