Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

Furthermore, his dreams influence his belief of religion. In one of his dreams it shows God as unforgiving and punishing. God tells Antonio that “vengeance is mine” (173). Towards the end of the dream, the Golden Carp appears as “ such beautiful brilliance that he became a new sun in the heavens” (176). The Golden Carp seems much more positive than the Catholic God because of how the different God was described as in his dream. Antonio believes more of the Golden Carp rather than God because God punished people while the Golden Carp “swallows everything good and evil…and…becomes…a new sun to shine its good light upon the earth” (176). In the first dream, it mentions of another power, describing it as the presence of the river. Antonio asks to save his brothers but “…sparks flew when [he] spoke. It is the presence of the river” (26). This foretells that there is another great

As time passes within the novel, Antonio continues to dwell on the growing anguish that his parents have unknowingly placed on him. He is lost within a void of confusion and uncertainty, melding together to create a source for which his terrors feast on. After learning of the Golden Carp from Cico,Antonio later dreams of the Golden Carp which sets the backdrop for what occurs within the dream. His mother and father argue over where he was baptized and continue to press that one is right and the other is wrong. “Mother… you are saved! We are all saved! Yes, my

Narciso and Antonio do not have many direct encounters in the novel, yet Narciso has a profound effect on Antonio’s religious maturation. Narciso, who is considered the town drunk, is present in many important conflicts as a mediator figure. He goes to great lengths to help his friends, which is shown when he attempts to convince the townsmen not to rashly kill Lupito after he had shot the sheriff. Once Lupito is killed Antonio worries about the fate of the men on the bridge who shot him, including his own father. Antonio wonders "Did God listen? Would he hear? Had he seen my father on the bridge? And where was Lupito 's soul winging to, or was it washing down the

While Maria enforces her beliefs on the entire family, Gabriel isn’t much of a religious man. Gabriel was a vaquero, a free man with nothing to bound him, his limits were about as far as the eye can see. He was a Marez. Even though Gabriel was of the Marez bloodline he was still under the control of Maria. His inner beast was held inside a cage like a lion held in the zoo. He was at the top, but now he is just a fraction of a man of who he used to be. To be on display for all. Antonio is reminded that he is both Luna and Marez. At Antonio’s birth the Marez family came and stated with conviction (Anaya,70) “Gabriel, they shouted, you have a fine son! He will make a fine Vaquero!” Antonio felt even more pressure now that he had to decide whether to become a priest or a vaquero. If he becomes a priest he might become a man with the power of God’s influence in his hands

At Antonio’s birth, the Luna and Marez fought over which heritage he would inherit, but Ultima resolves the conflict by saying, “I pulled this baby into the light of life… only I will know his destiny” (6). So, when Ultima dies at the conclusion of the novel, the knowledge of Antonio’s destiny dies with her. Antonio then has the freedom to create his own future free from the pressure of choosing to be either a Luna or a Marez. Ultima’s death, while resolving his identity conflict, also forces Antonio to grow up and become more self-reliant. Before her death, Antonio depended on her for advice because his parents are biased with his identity struggle. Without her guidance, Antonio is forced to be more independent. Ultima seems to recognize this as she blesses Antonio before she dies saying, “I bless you in the name of all that is good and strong and beautiful, Antonio. Always have the strength to live. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle and the owls sing in the hills. I shall be with you—” (261). Ultima reassures Antonio that she will be with him because, without her, he has no one else to depend on for guidance. When Ultima dies, it concludes Antonio’s faith and heritage conflict because it gives him the independence to seek out his destiny as both a

A bildungsroman is a novel in which the moral and psychological growth of the protagonist is depicted from the genesis to the denouement of the given work.

In the society we are brought up in today focuses on being your own person, following your own path and making your own choices but how much of that is hindered by those who brought us into this world? Parents have a tendency to be extremely involved in every step of our lives as they have the right to do so but is it in their jurisdiction to control who we are and who we want to become? In the novel Bless Me Ultima by the author Rudolfo Anaya the debate of how much jurisdiction a parent has over their children is brought up within the reader. In the novel which is told from the perspective of the character Antonio, Antonio’s parents known as Maria and Gabriel have set their eyes on what they want their children

Utilizing Antonio's brothers and their actions, Anaya symbolizes his parents burdensome expectations. The three brothers provide an example for Antonio´s quest for identity that he should be able to look up to. However, they are very irresponsible and yearn for independence from their parents. Comparing tony to ¨her priest¨, as gene states, Anaya represents the way the three brothers have dropped the full weight of their parents expectations on Tony's shoulders. They seem to want to pursue a more vaquero lifestyle, however, they don´t wish to help their father with his dream. Anthony has desires for his own life, similar to his brothers, yet he yearns to make his parents happy. Regardless of Tony's life inclination, he has become boxed in to

​Antonio’s questions about good vs evil begin when he first foreshadows that his innocence and peace would be shattered and everything in his life would change forever. He foresees a new period of difficulty and conflict that parallels his transition away from childish innocence and towards becoming a “man of learning.” “But the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever, and the affairs of the town began to reach across our bridge and enter my life.” (15). The beginning of his transition comes when Jason’s father, Chavez comes to the

Gabriel and María’s clashing aspirations create inner conflict in Antonio. Gabriel is firmly opposed to María’s dream for Antonio. María wants Antonio to become a Luna priest who rules over a farmer community, and makes it clear what her expectations of Antonio are. However, Gabriel doesn’t have “good feeling[s]” towards priests; his father beat a priest for preaching against him, and Gabriel often makes fun of priests, calling them women, as they wear “long skirts” (29). When María suggests talking to the current priest about Antonio’s future, Gabriel snaps at her, saying that “it is not the priest who will decide when the time comes, but Tony himself” (31); Gabriel wants Antonio to make his own choices, not María’s. The conflicting messages Gabriel and María send Antonio create a divide between them; Antonio cannot

He still goes back to the idea of his preordained future in priesthood, as destined by his mother. As a child first witnessing the horrors of life, his mind instinctively goes to his mother. As if seeking validation, if he were to fulfill his mother’s hopes in becoming a priest, he would be gratified and he would be innocent again. This brings about an obvious turmoil within him and his perceived responsibilities within priesthood. Anaya also uses symbolism to show the stark contrast between blood and the river. The idea that Lupito’s blood was spilled as a result of his sinful actions is now tainting and defiling the purity and sanctity of water could be paralleled to Antonio’s innocence defiled and diluted by the horrors he had just witnessed. Arguably, Lupito’s death is an unjustified persecution of an ill man. His actions—actions that he was not completely conscious of—stemmed from the horrors of war which brings about the question of justice. Why would God let this man—a man not fully conscious of his actions—be held responsible, punished, and persecuted when he had done nothing wrong?

Throughout the story Rudolfo Anaya uses Antonio’s dreams as a device to further our understanding of Antonio, and foreshadow upcoming events. In his first dream, he witnesses Ultima midwifing his birth. Shortly after his birth his mother’s side of the family begin fighting with his father’s side of the family. They are fighting about what to do with the afterbirth, because his father’s family wanted to bury it while his mother’s wanted to burn it. Ultima quickly breaks up this argument and says because she delivered the baby, she will decide its destiny. By showing us the argument over the afterbirth, this dream foreshadows the struggle Antonio experiences trying to meet his paternal and maternal family’s expectations. His paternal family, the Marezes, expects him to be free wild vaquero, while his maternal family, the Lunas, expects him to be a

As he is unable to understand yet why God would allow war, or let people turn to sin, his ideal notion of justice and forgiveness through Christ is shattered. Anaya beautifully illustrates Antonio’s anti-baptism through Lupito’s death as he contrasts the purification of the soul with the staining of the river. “He fell forward then clawed and crawled out of the holy waters of the river ... ” (Anaya 22) shifts into “The river’s brown waters would be stained with blood, forever and ever and ever …” (Anaya 24). With only two pages apart we see the apparent shift in Antonio. With his youthful innocence soiled forever and ever, Toni must find validation elsewhere and comes to the conclusion that only he could offer it for himself.

Antonio learns about the golden carp from Cico, a friend of his. According to Cico, the golden carp was once a god who loved the people of Antonio's town, Guadalupe. The people were not allowed to fish for the brown carp that lived in the river that flowed around the town. These fish were sacred to the gods. However, because of a drought and no food, the people had to eat the carp to survive. This angered the gods. They wanted to punish all the people by death but "they relented from killing the people. Instead, they turned the people into carp and made them live forever in the waters of the river-". The god who loved the people wished to become a carp like them to protect them from the dangers of the river. The gods agreed and "because he was a god they made him very big and colored him the color gold". Antonio cannot believe there is a new god and seeks answers from Ultima. Ultima is pleased that he has learned so much, but says she cannot tell him what to believe for he must decide for himself. The Golden Carp represents all the questions Tony has about religion and morality. Tony’s confusion is due to conflicting forces in both these aspects of life. When Cico first introduces the Carp to Tony, he is forced to make a tough decision, “Do you believe the Golden Carp is a god?” which he skillfully evades until he has the information he wants to make his decision. After the emergence of the Carp, Tony begins to question his

Tenorio’s one light eye and one dark eye seem to balance each other out. His closed, empty eye makes him feel like he has nothing left to lose and his one working eye lets him act on his feelings towards Ultima who he feels is responsible for his pain. In literature, eyes can be the gateway to the soul. Having one of Tenorio’s eyes stolen from him can remove access to his soul creating a sense of nothingness and now being able to do anything he wants without his soul getting in the way. In the painting, there seems to be more of darker colors than light, they almost completely surround the red and white. Tenorio represents the dark colors and Antonio represents the light colors, smaller in size, losing territory, and therefore, losing, like the game of Go Red is also the color of blood, which can be the wounded rabbit Antonio is compared to Tenorio. Antonio seems to be the prey and Tenorio waiting for Antonio made him seem like the predator and animals who have an ability to see well in the dark usually having glowing eyes when a light source shines on them. The wind is restricting Antonio’s eyesight, but isn’t affecting