Summary Of Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

Ultima goes to stay with Antonio Marez, a young boy who lives in the llano with his parents, two sister, and three brothers. This is because

In the novel, Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a boy goes through many more experiences than any child in the hot summer days in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. He witnesses the deaths of his close friends and family. This boy expresses his emotions and grief through his dreams, only to wake up with fear and confusion in his mind. Antonio’s life is filled with dreams that foreshadow future incidents, as well as influences Antonio’s beliefs of religion and ideas of innocence.

A “Bildungsroman” is defined as a piece of literature that focuses on the mental, moral, and psychological growth of a protagonist in transition from childhood to adulthood. Ideologies adopted into a Bildungsroman are ones that shows the coming of age like the shortcoming of loved ones, meet with challenges that the adult world presents to the younger generation, and having mentors or guides who teach the ways of life through valuable lessons. In Rudolfo Anaya’s coming of age novel, “Bless Me, Ultima”, the Bildungsroman concepts and ideas about maturity from childhood blossom as the novel's protagonist, Antonio Marez, lives his Hispanic, Catholic life at the age of eight, through countless experiences that molds his coming of age. Elements that substantially influences Antonio's coming of age includes confrontations with death, disappointment in realizing soul crushing realities, and encounters with emotions and despair that would be met in the adult world. Antonio, through, these structural elements, shapes his shift from a child to a man by emphasizing why certain events occur in his life.

     After reading the book, Bless Me Ultima, I realized the integral importance of religion and need for religion and answers to life’s questions. At first, while reading this book, I thought it was just about relationships and the meaning in them but as the plot progressed I realized the book, is more than that, it questions the structures that decide the rules, morals and values that society is composed of. There were three types of religion that I identified in the book that young Anthony chose to pursue. The first was the paganistic rituals of Ultima. Ultima came into the life of Tony at a very young age and had great influence n the child. Ultima saved the life of Lucas through Tony’s

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).

Characters: Ultima- An old Curandera who comes to spend her last days with Antonio and his family. She is Tony’s mentor and helps him to find the right path for his life.

Only a few books dare to discuss the confusion surrounded by a religious awakening. In Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya, Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award recipient, challenges standard religion and brings in different ideas through the perspective of a young and confused boy. Due to the new ideas that he is introduced to, the events that occurs especially deaths, and his eagerness for knowledge all leads Antonio to question his religious beliefs. At the end of his struggle to understand, the boy reaches the peace of mind he was seeking.

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

Experiencing death can sometimes be the best event someone can go through. Death is more than just someone stopping from existing, it’s a concept that can be perceived as a new beginning. Being able to take the death of someone and turning their philosophy into consideration can be beautiful. In the novel “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya Antonio gets his faith put to the test when the arrival of Ultima brings him the beginning of the end.

“Bless Me, Ultima”, published in 1972 reflects Chicano culture of the 1940s in rural Mexico, this distinct piece was written by Rudolfo Anaya; a teacher as well as a writer.

(26) he feels his soul grow under Ultima guidance. One of Tony’s obstacles in life is to become a man. His mother does not want him to become a man but his father argues saying “everything Tony sees and does makes him a man”(37) but Maria says that it is a sin for a boy to grow to be a man by saying that “life destroys the pureness God gives”. (36) but this is not the only diction Tony has to make. His first dream portrays his insecurity about his identity. He has to choose between the two is he a “fine vaquero” or a “farmer-priest”(9) He is confused, on one side its his mother and on the other its his father. Who should he become? He is also confused about which God to believe in. the golden Carp, who he marvels at the “bright golden-pagan God”(114) on the other side the catholic God “who could not forgive”(120) He does not understand why God cannot forgive Narcisio who is a good man while the Virgin Mary can forgive the evil Teronio. Tony is confused throughout most of the novel. Tony believes that the women always forgive, therefore in his child’s logic he thinks women in general do not judge but always forgive. He has a lot of decisions to make. He remembers his dream where he sees Andrew at Rosie’s and remembers what Andrew had told him in his dream that Andrew “will wait and not enter until (Tony) looses (his) innocence”.(85) Tony’s belief that

     Tony himself went through the process of growing up and losing his innocence as well throughout the novel. In the beginning of the whole story, Tony is concerned with nothing much but his own little world like every child ought to be. His worries and experiences are really nothing compared to what he had in store for him later on, but although his later experiences would be rather unreal it still would be how any child would grow up, very gradual learning and taking things in stride. So as the story

As the film progresses, the filmmakers demonstrate his transition to a sadist and reveal how he will use people to achieve his American Dream. We see Tony wanting and wanting, but not giving. In the film Tony is seen being very protective over his sister so much so that any man who touches her will be either beaten or killed. So when one day his best friend falls in love with her and has her move into the house he is living in Tony is not happy about it. Tony decides to go to his house and kill him in his own doorstep. This lables Tony as a sadist because he killed his best friend

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

Tony is an indian. In the beginning, you get the impression, that he is a sweet, innocent and caring boy. He’s very helpful but also very naive. Through the story, it gets more and more clear, that there is something mentally wrong with Tony. He keeps believing, that the cop is something that his parents warned him about in his childhood, wich he calls ‘a masked dancer’. His parents told him not to look into the eyes, so in Tony’s head, the cop’s sunglasses equals the masked dancer’s mask. And Tony ends up killing the cop, and telling Leon that everything is O.K., it’s killed, they somethimes take on strange forms. He also compares the cop’s raised billy club to the witch’s raised human-bone in his dream.