Bless Me Ultima Character Analysis

In the book “Bless Me Ultima” Ultima has many big influences on antonio, the main character. He is stuck deciding with three choices he can either become a priest like his mother wants him to be, choose what his father wants him to be a vaquero, and lastly choose his own path for him to take. These choices put a lot pressure on Antonio, and Ultima is there to help him choose by influencing him. Three of her biggest influences are being a mentor towards Antonio by helping him with his anxieties and uncertainties. Giving Antonio the respect and understanding he needs even though he is a small child. Lastly, Ultima lets Antonio make his own decisions and doesn’t force him to do things even if he’s a child.

“Bless Me, Ultima”, published in 1972 reflects Chicano culture of the 1940s in rural Mexico, this distinct piece was written by Rudolfo Anaya; a teacher as well as a writer.

Bless Me, Ultima is a novel created by author Rudolfo Anaya that tells a story about a young boy named Antonio who grows up to learn deep cultural values and develops a special bond with a character that possesses mysterious magical powers. The story takes place in New Mexico during World War II in a setting of grassy plain and green valley. It was a summer when Antonio in his early years of seven first met Ultima who came to stay with him and his family. Antonio was just like any other ambitious boy who was full of questions and had an insatiable hunger for knowledge, but Ultima on the other hand was an older woman who possessed a puzzling spiritual history that would teach and change Antonio

Lupito has just killed the town sheriff, and all the men are out for his blood. They are searching the bridge and the bushes looking for him when Narciso comes down and tries to calm everyone down. He shouts at the the group of men: “Let us act like men! That is not an animal down there, that is a man. Lupito. You all know Lupito. You know that the war has made him sick-,”

To find one's identity can be a struggle for many; however author Rudolfo Anaya takes on that struggle to explain what it means to find yourself in his Mexican-American literature, Bless Me, Ultima. Rudolfo Anaya uses the theme of Identity and enlightenment and many other themes through the young protagonist Antonio Marez. Anaya is able to illustrate the journey and hardships of finding out who you are through the eyes of a child. Using the personal development of character and plot, he is able to build connection with the reader and story of the main character's coming of age. The novel is also based on the Anaya's actual childhood. At the same time, the novel shows many elements of fantasy and magic, with the myth of the Golden Carp, the

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).

n the novel Until Tuesday by Luis Montalvan, the author faces numerous struggles during the times he was fighting and the times he was facing PTSD. Throughout the hardships of dealing with PTSD, Luis felt betrayed in many different aspects through his experiences. Luis feels betrayed due to the fact that the media was portraying false ideas and didn 't let Luis take action, the unfair treatment he dealt with in his own country and that his parents did not help nor accept him back even though he needed help. Luis throughout the novel wrote about the difficulties of coping with PTSD and the responses he got after coming back from Iraq was something he knew he did not deserve. People ranging from everyday citizens to his parents, all treated him in a tough manner and had no understanding of what he is dealing with.

Throughout the context of “Bless Me Ultima,” it is evident that there are many motifs and examples of dichotomy. I believe that Anaya uses the previously mentioned elements of literature in order to provoke his readers’ thinking and help embody a struggle of understanding the world we live in. Motifs in this novel include: family, dreams, religion, education, and the list continues. For examples of dichotomy, the idea of good versus evil is the most vivid in this novel.

Characters: Ultima- An old Curandera who comes to spend her last days with Antonio and his family. She is Tony’s mentor and helps him to find the right path for his 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.

Ultima is an old curandera, which means healer in spanish, who comes to El Puerto to live with the Marez family after she is left alone in the town of Las Pasturas. When she arrives and turns to greet him, Antonio feels awestruck. According to Antonio, he “felt the power of a whirlwind sweep around me (Anaya 12).” A series of events occur throughout the story which makes Antonio overprotective of La Ultima. For instance, when Antonio and Ultima go to his grandfather’s house to cure his uncle, “Some women bowed their heads, other made the sign of the cross (Anaya 104).” Crossing your forehead in front of someone who is helping your family is a sign of disrespect. I feel that if I were Antonio, I would feel very offended because Ultima is my friend and nobody should be disrespected in front of the people you care for the most. As Antonio grows, he finds himself questioning his religion and comes to accept that everything is not what it seems. For example, Antonio realizes that the people of the town can be very judgemental and will blindly follow anyone because they fear the unknown. Antonio has to deal with is brothers who are led astray by the prostitutes of the town and their unrealistic dreams. After the war ended, his brothers came back, but with different plans for themselves. They leave because they want to be free, but I believe that they chain

Only a few books dare to discuss the confusion surrounded by a religious awakening. In Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya, Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award recipient, challenges standard religion and brings in different ideas through the perspective of a young and confused boy. Due to the new ideas that he is introduced to, the events that occurs especially deaths, and his eagerness for knowledge all leads Antonio to question his religious beliefs. At the end of his struggle to understand, the boy reaches the peace of mind he was seeking.

Bless Me, Ultima is a Chicano novel written by Rudolfo Anaya in 1972, which includes a magical realism plot. Chicano literature is especially significant in this novel because it helps create a cultural identity for the main character and his community. The novel talks about a petite boy named Antonio; throughout the book Antonio makes his best efforts to try and find the path to which he belongs, he wants to find answers about who he is and wants to learn a lot more about his religion which included getting his questions answered about god. The novel talks about the importance in Chicano literature and what impacts it has on the characters. Although Bless Me, Ultima focuses on Chicano literature and the magical

Bless Me, Ultima is a story about the maturation of a young Mexican-American boy, Antonio M’arez, struggling with many questions about his destiny, life and death, and good and evil. Ultima who comes to live with Antonio becomes his caretaker and his teacher. Antonio learns there are powers in the world that differ from his beliefs in the Catholic faith. Ultima teaches Antonio “that the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart”. Ultima shows Antonio how to experience the magic of life with his heart and not with his eyes. For the first time, he sees the river not as something to be feared but as a source of life, “I had been afraid of the awful

After his story, another family is interviewed due to the arrest of their son, Nathan Damigo, who after a month from coming home from Iraq was arrested. Nathan’s grandmother said his nightmares were getting worse; Nathan said he thought he was having another nightmare while holding a taxi driver at gunpoint and realizing it was not a nightmare when the police arrested him. After this story, another letter was narrated explaining how he heard a big shell and how he saw men blown to pieces and dreamed of it once he was back home. The last family interviewed was a survivor whose wife said that he did not die in war but yet somehow he did. The man said that he had come so close to hitting his wife because he felt angry all the time and the wife said she had thoughts of leaving him but she didn’t. Lastly, he was pointing out his metals, talked about his nightmares, and how he has seen humanity at his