Thematic Analysis Of Bless Me Ultima

In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, one of the main characters, Ultima is accused many times of being a witch. Ultima is a curandera who uses herbs and medicines to cure people. She goes to live with Antonio Marez, a young boy who lives in the llano with his parents and two sisters due to the fact that she cannot live by herself and had nowhere to stay. Although many people think she is a witch, her use of herbs, medicines, and scapulars show that she is merely just a curandera. With her use of chants and having her spirit in her owl, many are led to believe that she is really a witch.

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

This sets up the initial conflict for Antonio, he wants to believe in his mother's God, but at the same time he finds conviction and truth in what Samuel is telling him about the golden carp god. Furthermore, while Antonio is supposed to be praying to God he says, "There wasn't time to discover Him, like I could do when I sat on the creek bank and watched the golden carp swim in the sun-filtered waters" (233). I think this shows that Antonio feels a deeper connection to nature and the golden carp than he does to God and traditional values. He is more like Ultima, than like either one of his parents. The golden carp offer Antonio a way of thinking that is free and unstructured, unlike that of Catholicism.

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

Antonio’s introduction to the golden carp presents a problem for him because of the Catholic view of pagan gods, yet Antonio feels a strong connection to it. When he first witnesses the golden carp he is overcome by “a sudden illumination of beauty and understanding” he had “expected God to do at [his] first holy communion” (Anaya 114). When Antonio’s questions to God are not answered during his first communion, he believes God has abandoned him. However, with continued pressure from his mother to become a priest and from Cico to choose between Catholicism and the golden carp, he struggles to decide what he believes. As Antonio’s doubt deepens, he questions God’s definition of good and evil and His plan concerning who receives forgiveness and who receives condemnation. In a dream, God speaks to Antonio saying, “You would have a God that forgives all, but when it comes to your personal whims you seek punishment for your vengeance” (173). For example, Antonio believes Florence should be forgiven, regardless of his disbelief in God, but Tenorio should receive punishment. When the Church cannot answer his questions, Antonio turns to the Golden Carp, and even considers that the Virgin should be a god. Antonio is lost in his faith identity,

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

While his brothers are at war, a man named Lupito returned from that same war and Antonio witnesses his insanity drive other men’s hands to kill him. This sparked a turmoil inside of Antonio to question the world, forgiveness, and the grace of his God. As the story goes on Antonio sees more and more deaths like that of Narciso by the hands of Tenorio, it brought about wondering of hell and the sins that condemn a man to go there. Antonio’s classmate tells him about a golden carp who chose to protect his people by swimming with him. The golden carp is symbolic of morality and being one with god, but it contradicts his religion and beliefs. Antonio feels that it is wrong to believe the story because he thinks that he is abandoning his God by even believing in the golden carp because his religion calls for only one god and it is a sin to worship any other

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).

Ultima's Christ like nature is displayed through her abilities, or powers as a curandera to perform miracles. Ultima's powers are shown in the text as being good; although, it is confusing to say whether her powers are coming from Christianity, or witchcraft? To illustrate the issue of this comparison to Christ, Antonio's mother recalls Ultima's powers saying, "I have seen her work miracles. She learned from the flying man from Las Pasturas"(Anaya 85). The incongruity of this statement to that of Christianity is clear cut. According to the Dictionary of Hispanic Biography, Anaya acquired the myth and superstitions from his family who lived in Pastura about a women like Ultima, who could heal (42). From Anaya's experience, syncretism of miracles and elements of superstition in folk Catholicism is apparently true. However, the only one to perform miracles in Christianity is Christ.

Two other literary elements that Rudolfo Anaya includes in “Bless Me, Ultima” are magical realism and archetypes. Magical realism can be described as something that is not necessarily real but is believable and could be considered a miracle. Archetypes are typical examples of a person, place or thing. Anaya includes many examples of both not only to make the story grasp the reader more, but to guide the reader to interpret the story through their own lenses.

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.

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

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

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