Antonio's Fate In Bless Me, Ultima

In the book Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a family friend of Antonio’s named is killed. This followed by a dream concerning vengeance and repentance. Anaya uses Biblical allusions, symbolism, and slight allusions to Pagan beliefs to show Antonio beginning to understand the consequences of each action, and the power of forgiveness, and how each aof these actions plays a role in who a person is.

Throughout Rudolfo Anaya’s book, “Bless Me Ultima”, the main character Antonio has several vivid, detailed and sometimes graphic dreams. In one of these dreams (on pages 243-244), Antonio bears witness to blood, violence, and death. In this dream, Anaya uses imagery, symbolism, similes, and specific diction to indicate that Antonio is losing faith in his religion and god. Notes: Need to adjust the words used towards the end.

Many people in the town love Ultima. They praise her and can’t thank her enough when she cures one of their loved ones. While many love and praise her, a select few in the town believe that Ultima is a witch and of ten accuse Ultima of it. One of these is Tenorio Trementina, the father of the three Trementina sisters who put a curse on Lucas, Antonio’s uncle. Even Antonio, who loves Ultima very much, once doubted if Ultima was really a witch or just a curandera. Some of Antonio’s classmates have also called Ultima a witch. Tenorio often besieges Ultima. Despite all this, Ultima is still very strong and remains strong until the day of her death. Ultima is also very brave strong. She is not threatened when Tenorio threatens to kill Ultima or when people make the sign of the cross to see if she really is a witch.

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

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

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

First, and probably most important are the three sources of understanding for Antonio. First, there is Ultima, who serves as a neutral source of understanding and comforter for Antonio. The next source of understanding for Antonio is God. Antonio constantly struggles to understand good and evil through the eyes of the Catholic God. The final source of

In this book some of the examples of conflict Antonio faces include his innocence versus the people in his life, Antonio’s reality versus the dreams he has, and his faith, whether it be to the Golden Carp, God, or the magic of Ultima. In this novel, one conflict is Antonio’s innocence versus some people that have affected his life in major ways. For example, Antonio’s mother wants him to be a priest, however he feels he cannot because he has seen so many bad things in his life, for example someone being murdered, his brothers beating him up and making fun of him, them going to “whore houses” and being very inconsiderate towards him. Antonio also had to witness many deaths, like the death of Lupito, Narciso, Florence, and Ultima and her owl, which all made him feel less innocent and not worthy.

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

An important motif in “Bless Me, Ultima” are Antonio’s dreams. His dreams foreshadow major events and make him question his beliefs, especially revolving around

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).

In the beginning, Antonio is only six years old. He is at the center of a conflict between the Márez values of his father and the Luna beliefs of his mother. His father would love for him to become a cowboy, but his mother desperately wants him to become a priest. “ Once I had told my mother about my dreams, and she said they were visions from God and she was happy, because her own dream was that I should grow up an become a priest.” (4) All throughout the book he works as a helper to Ultima. “ We walked together in the llano and along the river banks to gather herbs and roots for her medicines.” (15) He takes in her wisdom concerning life and all of the things she does. As the story goes on, Antonio is torn between sin and morality and the truth about religion. “... I learned from her that there was a beauty in the time of day and in the time of night, and that there was peace in the river and in the hills.” (15) Eventually, he decides to find his own path in life and create his own religious faith.

Throughout the novel, Antonio is learning that Ultima’s owl is also his protector. "Its song seemed to say that it had come to watch over us," (13). The song, Ultima’s owl sings throughout each night, symbolizes Ultima’s comforting presence in Antonio’s life and the protective power of her magic. Also, like Ultima, the owl is like a healer to Antonio, when it sings through the night. "The owl had always been there. It sang to me the night my brothers came home from the war, and in my dreams I sometimes saw it guiding their footsteps as they stumbled through the dark streets of their distant cities," (272). Throughout the novel, the owl of Ultima is not only Ultima’s protector, but it is also Antonio’s protector. Also, in Antonio's mind as well, he could see it as a guiding spirit, because it provided a sense of hope and longing. All in all, Antonio sees Ultima’s owl as a protector and comforting presence throughout the novel.

Throughout the book Antonio is introduced to many new ideas. The first is the experiences he has with Ultima. Ultima is a healer who learned

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.