How Is Antonio An Inhumane Persuasive Letter

The final source of understanding for Antonio is God. He is expected to understand God, because his mother dreams for him to become a priest. He is also expected to believe in God because his mother is Catholic and that is what is expected of Antonio. "I hoped that in a few years the taking of the first holy communion would bring me understand"(77). Antonio is basically going through the motions that are expected of him. He is not genuinely excited to be taking his communion; it is just something that he feels he needs to do. He thinks that if he takes his first communion maybe he will have some answers for why there is good and evil going on around him. He says, "I want to know. I want to know the mysteries of

His parents have ideas which conflict each other when it relates to their precious last son’s fate. Like a hawk swooping down on its prey, Ultima, an elderly curandera comes to occupy a room in the Marez residence. To everyone else in the house Ultima staying with them is negligible, but the bond Antonio and Ultima soon begin to create is the first step into Antonio’s quest in finding his fate. “When she came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood.”(Anaya 1) Ultima’s presence alone lifted Antonio’s spirits, even the little things such as the llano he lived on all his life that had become mundane to him, began to glisten with great importance.

In the book, Bless Me, Ultima, Antonio witnesses four deaths when all is said and done,

As the story unfolds, Antonio is struggling with his own mind for an answer to the sinful nature of man and the forgiveness of his God. Under the guidance of Ultima, he learns that he must decide for himself the moral basis of life and live by it so as not to drown in the world of sin he lives in. The theme is expressed when Antonio excitedly enters the church for his first communion, thinking it will bring him an understanding of that that has been troubling his mind, ”A thousand questions pushed through my mind, but the voice within me did not answer. There was only silence.” When he feels nothing at the end of the communion and wonders why his God would not answer his questions, he begins to learn that he cannot rely on his church or his priest to provide him with what he needs to define morality. He learns that moral independence is important and as he fulfilled Ultima’s dying wish, he then understood and forged his own moral independence. Another theme is that culture and blood have a great influence of one’s identity. It can be easily seen that his family’s religious ways and the pride they carry in their blood is greatly troubling Antonio on his road to finding his moral

This is a turning point for Antonio because all of his hopes and anticipation of knowing the answers are dissolved and he is left with nothing. This is when he relies most on Ultima’s great wisdom: “Ultima was a practitioner of ancient religion of the earth, curing people with medicine,” (Sparknotes) and performing exorcisms on villagers’ homes. Ultima and her ways led Antonio’s beliefs and faith in a separate direction from that of the Catholic Church.

In the novel Bless Me Ultima , Antonio witnesses the death of four people, two of which are murders. The first death he witnesses is the murder of Lupito. Lupito developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from serving in the war. This lead him to kill the sheriff’s brother in one of his fits. Knowing his mental state, the sheriff still got his men to kill Lupito. “I must go. He was my brother!” (Anaya 103). The Sheriff is telling Antonio’s father that he should track down Lupito, not any other man. Antonio witnesses this and starts to wonder about good and if God was hearing or listening. Antonio ran home to quickly recite the Act of Contrition, the last prayer Catholics say before dying. Although Ultima tells Antonio not to judge if the men

He hopes that God will forgive him of his sins, however, he knows deep down that God doesn’t forgive anyone. Ultima believes that it is a sin for boys to become men, although Maria thinks other wise as she scolds Antonio after he comes down from the attic. Maria insisted that her children bow their head as they pass Rosie, however, Antonio believes that Rosie is evil, this evil that he feels is different than that of a

This is a reason my Ultima and her power is misinterpreted. In a small Catholic town such as this, it’s hard for people to understand a good power that may exceed the church in times. This principle doesn’t follow tradition. Because of this, Antonio hears a lot of judgment or name calling of Ultima, and has an internal pressure to handle all this in the way his father and Narciso did, with a deep sense of defensiveness. This in times gets him into trouble, yet is not always negative, since Antonio proves to

In the novel, Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya portrays the negative effect the bickering between the families and the future of Antonio that takes a toll on how Antonio perceives it. In the novel, Antonio sometimes never really expresses his take on certain events, even if they were traumatic, Antonio then exclaims that, “Sometimes I felt like Jason, like I wanted to shouth and cry, but I never did.” (Anaya 10). This can be portrayed in many ways, but take into consideration the continuous strive of taking pride in his family and also acting and behaving cautiously in order to keep shame away from his parents. It can be reasonably justified as to why Antonio would feel like Jason and his character is viewed as quite developed at his refusal to show his feelings in which are left behind at the pressuring decision of what family to

This moment stunned me because Ultima may be God in the flesh, guiding Antonio thought his life. If I were Antonio, I would equally be stunned because in Chapter 1 we were told that Ultima felt that Antonio was a special boy, meaning that he was the chosen one to learn the ways of

The fate of many characters in Bless Me, Ultima usually has a correlation to the dreams of Antonio. On the other hand, Antonio’s fate is foretold by the actions and choices of the other characters. Not to mention, Antonio is influence by others close to him as the story revolves around the characters interacting with him. Furthermore, he is torn by the religious belief of his mother and the magical powers of Ultima.

Antonio never was exposed to elements such as death and evil which caused confusion of what was actually right and wrong and whether if everything he knew about his religion was real to begin with. All of the deaths and other elements within the story led to Antonio’s overall tension with his own religion. The author makes religion a large aspect in Bless Me, Ultima in order to stress how important religion was for Antonio. Because of Antonio being exposed to new things like Ultima’s curandera magic and the golden carp, this created tension with Antonio’s pre-believed notion of Catholicism. In one scenario, Ultima is asked for her help in order to cure Antonio’s uncle and she was able to cure him when the church wasn’t able to.

The reader can feel empathy for Antonio. Most people go through one of these conflicts in life, but not all three at the same time. Bless Me, Ultima helps conveys these conflicts to the reader. These conflicts are always going throughout the book. Bless Me, Ultima presents Antonio with a conflict on his religious views,

Antonio questions God and his religious beliefs while growing up; however, throughout my childhood, I have always had a strong Catholic faith. Antonio was born into the Catholic faith and as he grew older he created a defiance for God and his abilities. Having so many questions as a child, Antonio wanted answers. He was told these answers would come through God, but he was disappointed when the answers never came. This gave Antonio doubt in God and what he can do. This lead Antonio to finding a new God or something that would answer his questions. “Papá," I asked, "can a new religion be made?’”(Anaya 261). Since I was a young child, I

Shylock is punished by the Venetian court for seeking to end Antonio’s life. He is charged under a Venetian law (of Shakespeare’s creation) and he is forced to give up his wealth and to beg the Duke to spare him his life. Viewed like this it seems simple enough; Shylock broke a Venetian law and, as a consequence, is punished. However, Shylock’s case is far from simple. Antonio’s demand that Shylock should renounce his Judaism and become a Christian and his insistence that Shylock should will his money to the Christian