Bless Me Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

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

Ultima teaches Antonio of this magical strength as she tries to help him understand the murder of Narciso. The townspeople do not seek justice because Narciso had been the town drunk and his life seemed worthless, “Because Narciso was the town drunk, nobody cared much”. Ultima explains that Narciso had died trying to help a friend and that was honorable. Once Narciso had been a respectable young man but hard times had fallen upon him after the death of his young wife. Narciso had turned to alcohol to ease the pain but had remained forever indebted to Ultima for trying to save his wife. Ultima uses the death of Narciso to teach Antonio the ways of his ancestors. She explains, “The old people…always helped each other; through good or bad they stuck together, and the friendships that were formed in that desolate llano were bonds for life”. It was through Ultima that Antonio discovers life is not what is always seems. Narciso had died trying to warn Ultima but few remembered anything good about him. Narciso had an inner goodness that had been hidden by his use of alcohol. Ultima taught Antonio to see the magic in Narciso, just as she had thought him to see the magic in the river and all that surrounded it.

hesis: In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya illustrates how Antonio Marez endures to find his own identity in a cultural society that is extremely influential. Antonio was raised in a cultural society where religion is an obligation. Objective cultural values contradict his beliefs and the way he will place himself in this society.

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.

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

Antonio’s inquisitive nature leads him to the questioning of God, although it is said sin to doubt God, he wishes to understand if he is to reach his destiny. His religious ambivalence, leads him to learn the story of a pagan god, The Golden Carp. With the capturing tale of a benevolent god, who not only forgave all the people who sinned and disobeyed but also fought relentlessly for the other gods sympathy towards the humans, Antonio is mesmerized as this god has exactly what his other God lacks. However, being born into a family with such strong beliefs, he is drawn back. Perplexed, as the Catholic God proves to be insufficient in terms of benevolence and

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

The golden carp represents Antonio’s introduction to a new religion which causes him to question his faith and the fairness of gods. Right before Antonio is introduced to the golden carp, “[He] had been thinking how the medicine of the doctors and of the priest had failed. In [his] mind [he] could not understand how the power of God could fail. But it had.” (Anaya 106). This shows that Antonio is already questioning the faith of his religion, and introducing him to a new god will only make him even more doubtful. The establishment of multiple faiths causes him to learn more about the world and he matures. Antonio later reflects on the two different religions and realizes a similarity. He says that when “We drove past Rosie’s house and I thought about the sins of the town and how the golden carp would punish the sinners. He would drown them in clear, blue water. Then we passed the church and I thought about God’s punishment for sinners. He casts them in the burning pit of hell where they burn for eternity.” Antonio sees that both religions punish people for disobeying the divine law. He not only questions the fairness Christianity, but also the fairness of the golden carp. This shows him that no religion is perfect and that there is always a punishment. Upon realizing this revelation, Antonio’s loses innocence because he sees that life isn’t

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

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).

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.

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.

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.

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

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