Bless Me Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

The leisurely read of Bless Me, Ultima isn’t always high on hand to hand actions; however, it is abundant with internal conflicts on the main character, Antonio. Through the high points and low points of his life, Antonio struggles to find an answer for his life. Antonio’s internal conflict about his fate, leads to him questioning his religion and who the people around him actually are, as people. But when Ultima joins them at the house, Antonio has a person who he can relate with to talk out his misfortunes. Antonio’s quest for his fate and religion is a painstaking journey that extends until the last few pages of the novel.

Cico trusted Tony with the story of the carp because he said that Tony was a fisherman. Cico said there isn't an exact rule on who to tell the story, it is just the feeling on who they think they can trust. In the process of Tony's spiritual maturity, the carp represents Tony's innocence in a way. He has always known to believe in one god, but now he is questioning this other god and his religion, but it also brought him closer to God.

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.

though it is hard to get through the hard times, that it is possible to be triumphant.

Hardship in childhood can cause children to be wise beyond their years. A child 's experiences are what shape their future, making them evolve both mentally and spiritually. In Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio’s system of beliefs is greatly influenced by the perception of God that is instilled in him mainly by his mother. His understanding of God is forced to evolve as Antonio goes through many experiences throughout the course of the novel, including the tragedies that befall Narciso, Florence, and Ultima and his exposure to these characters. God is a being that is characterized by his punishment of those who sin and his protection of those who do not. As the events in this novel unfold, Antonio sees on many occasions how the God that he believes in does not perform the roles that he believed he did.

Many symbols are in the presence of an innocent child such as a golden carp god or being watched over by the owl of a “witch”. Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is a story of how a boy who wants to discover who he truly is; Antonio struggles with the conflicting blood of his parents’ opposing natures running through his veins. The symbols that Antonio comes across cause him to question his faith and try to discover his destiny, such as the god causes him to question if he was praying to the wrong god. Mental conflicts such as this are what make this book important in Chicano literature as it is expressive of the problems that Chicano’s face because of their mixed culture, leaving them to feel lost and alone.

Personal ideologies provide an aspiration for a fools paradise. That endeavor contrived a blindness that makes their perfect world, someone else’s ordeal. Individuals might convoke others for guidance to an explicit ambit to discover their own dogma. However, humanity has a type of ignorance in a sense that compels them to force their own beliefs onto others. Distinct mentalities collide due to their own belief of being “right” which in turn causes further separation between religions, nations and even families. In the book “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya, the predominance of Antonio’s parents impulses him to have an

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).

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.

He kills Narciso in cold blood. He is a true coward and he hides behind others instead of facing those who he seeks to fight.

Antonio Marez started off at the beginning of the novel with being very innocent. Antonio was very innocent before he started school, got friends, and lived with Ultima. All of these people have changed Antonio’s life. During the progress of the book, you can notice that Antonio began to lose his innocence. He may have lost his innocence, but he became more sophisticated, mature, and very cultured. Ultima influenced Antonio to be more mature while they were bonding. Antonio came to the realization that losing his innocence was a part of growing up.

The thoughts we think, ways we speak, express ourselves, voices heard, and means of imagination define our identity but can branch out as they are grown from the influences and nourishment of others. The social roles of each character in the novel Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya propel Tony so he doesn’t need to feel suffocated by choices, but embrace them as elements to life that lead to growth. Death and rebirth being a prevalent theme in the novel that can symbolize more than what is depicted in just the story of Antonio. The concept of rebirth exists not only within certain events but also in the unraveling of each character.

This is one of the most prevalent moments in Antonio’s ultimate character development. Litcharts describes his new ‘religion’ as: “This new Chicano myth for Antonio is based more on the forgiveness of the Virgin of Guadalupe and Ultima's healing powers”. The character development seen through Antonio’s conflict with religion and the supernatural include his final sense of self-awareness. Where Antonio comes to the final realization that he does not have to follow explicit rules or guidelines, rather he can create his own rules and his own beliefs separate from his parents, Ultima, and the

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