...Caleb Robinson Rob Gibney English 260 December 9, 2014 Bless Me Ultima Analysis Bless Me Ultima in my opinion was the best book we read this year. This book had many literary elements for me to discuss. For time sake, I’ll be discussing some of the many themes that were presented in the novel. First theme, the author illustrates a loss of innocence by using the character of Antonio. Also the author shows good versus evil when given power, like the curandero and a witch which hold similar powers, but have used it differently. Lastly, I'll write about is the conflict of how the parents have different views/ influences that will lead Antonio to make a choice on what he wants from life. Since Antonio’s brothers are away at war he is left as the...
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...“I could not tell him that I wanted the castle of the giants to be forever, that I wanted the goat path and the hill to be for always” (Anaya 143). Symbols of childhood are valuable because they lead to the continuation of a person into adulthood. As a child, one is innocent and oblivious to the wonders of the world around them, but they develop and learn as they age to maturity. Bless Me, Ultima is a novel centered around a young boy named Antonio, who grows and changes throughout the book, going from a boy to a man. Throughout the bildungsroman Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses symbolism of the goat path – along with its cohesivity to childhood innocence – to portray that the transition to adulthood is an extensive journey gained through...
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...Everyone in the world seeks independence, whether it be from one’s parents or from corrupt countries. At first, one copies their parent’s beliefs and traditions without question. Later on, however, a child would seek independence and create their own set of values. This concept of independence is very important in Bless Me, Ultima. When the protagonist, Antonio, first hears his brother “explode” in front of his father, he “thought [that] he must be drunk to talk to [his] father like that” (71). Throughout the novel Antonio limits himself to his parent’s values: a priest or a cowboy. With guidance from Ultima, Antonio realizes that neither option suits him well, and that perhaps a combination of professions would better suit him. Antonio...
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...In the novel Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, a boy named Antonio witnesses many symbolic things. One major thing that really impacts Antonio is Ultima's Owl. The owl is still an owl. It is a sign of fear and usually seen as a threat. Antonio also sees it as a threat at first. Anaya states “ And with Ultima came the owl. I heard it that night for the first time in the juniper tree outside of Ultima Window. I knew it was her owl because the other owls of the llano did not come that near the house. At first I was it disturbed me”. This shows how the owl is a symbol of disturbance and fear for Antonio at first. The owl is an animal that symbolizes safety for Antonio and Ultima. The owl comforts Antonio and makes him feel safe because of the...
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...In Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses Ultima as a mentor to lead Antonio on a quest for identity. Through Ultima’s use of spiritual and historical teachings and the acceptance of different beliefs, Antonio achieves a sense of balance in his thoughts. In the beginning of the novel, Ultima as a mentor opens up doors of identity for Antonio. When Antonio and Ultima go out in search for herbs and plants Ultima, being a curandera, teaches Antonio about nature around him and about the spirits within plants. This allows Antonio to ease into his acceptance of nature and loss of fear to the Llano. Through Ultima, Antonio learns more about his family and their ties to nature with their personalities. Through this Antonio begins to become more open-minded as he begins questioning which path to pursue, Llano or Priesthood. As a mentor, Ultima encourages Antonio to balance these paths and take a direction of his own. In addition, Ultima also explains the history of Antonio’s ancestors and the mix of cultures between the indigenous and the Spanish from Europe. She mentions how the two cultures never got along when they collided. This information shines its importance as it prepares...
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...Bless Me, Ultima: A Reflection on Individuality There arrives a time in everyone’s education where they must make the conscious decision to stray away from their childish delusions. From that point forth, choosing between the truth and the safety of familiarity becomes a struggle that numerous people must overcome. Rudolfo Anaya illustrates this concept in his bildungsroman, coming of age novel, Bless Me, Ultima. Bless Me, Ultima, follows the life of six-year-old protagonist Antonio Marez as he attempts to make sense of his life in World War II-era New Mexico. For his whole life, Antonio has lived on the Llano, a barren range of land where plant life is hard to sustain; however, his life changes when Ultima, a curandera, comes to stay with...
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...“No matter the age of parents or the age of children, parents always have tremendous influence over their children”(Kevin Thompson). Mr. Thompson later continues to address in his article, How Parents Influence their Children, that through example, story, and encouragement, parents can unknowingly and purposefully impact their kids. This ideology can be seen in Bless Me Ultima with Antonio’s parents. The Marez parents have different views on the future for Antonio and their words and action contributes to Antonio questioning who he is. Anaya utilizes the symbolism of the moon and sea to represent the two opposing heritages of the Lunas and Marez; this symbol helps to convey that an individual's future cannot be pressured by one's parents, but...
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...The novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is a powerful story about a young boy named Antonio who lived in New Mexico in the 1940s with his family and an old, magical woman named Ultima who guides him through his transition from childhood. Antonio is a young boy who confronts difficult issues that blur the lines of right and wrong regarding religion and his family’s cultures. He is deciding between his default religion of Christianity and pagan ideologies, and he is being pressured to decide who he wants to be regarding his parent’s expectations. Antonio is doing a lot of moral questioning, and as the church repeatedly fails to answer his questions, he is learning moral independence to make his own decisions with his beliefs. He is increasingly...
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...In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, the author sets the story during and after World War II. He does this in order to develop conflict. If the book was set in the present day, then war wouldn’t have as big of an effect on society. For all of the characters in the novel, the war completely changes the course of their lives. The war causes the character, Lupito, to have terrible PTSD that drives him to the brink of insanity. He goes so crazy that he kills a police officer. The parents of the main character and narrator, Tony, are also negatively impacted by World War II. All three of their sons have to fight in the war, which causes them to worry for their safety, changing their mindsets and their lifestyles permanently. Tony’s three...
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...Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya is a coming of age novel being told by an adult perspective of the main character, Tony. Tony witnessed many things while growing up. For example, he saw many deaths, an exorcism, bullying, and much more. During his childhood, Tony had many dreams that allow the reader to delve into his subconscious and gain insight, that regular dialogue would not be cable of. This insight includes his religious, social, and economic views but also displays many literary devices such as symbolism, foreshadowing, and personification Tony has his first dream in chapter one. He dreams about his birth and this is the first time that Tony exhibits his family conflict. Both his parent wants different occupational paths and Tony...
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...In the novel by Rudolfo Anaya Bless Me, Ultima, he writes about the complex, confusing, and unsettling process of a young boy finding this faith. In this novel, one of the main characters is an elderly woman called Ultima, the Curandara is central to Antonio, the young boy’s quest to find his faith. Supernatural, magic, and miracles are part of the Mexican culture and people like young Antonio Marez. The scholarly article in the journal, Atenea, by Holly E Martin, “Hybrid Voices in the Borderlands: Translation and Reconstruction of Mexican Image in Rudolfo Anaya”, analyzes the supernatural culture of the Mexican people. For example the legend of La Llorona , also known as the weeping woman. The stories o La Llorona is said to be of an Native American woman that had three kids with a Spaniard man how didn’t wan to marry her since she was a foreign woman. So he preferred to marry a Spanish woman instead. Out of sadness, grief and depression the Native American women drowned her three kids in the river then committed suicide. (Martin 63) There are so many variation to the story of La Llorona some...
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...Bless Me Ultima Analysis In the novel “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya expresses a young child named Antonio, coming to age, making his own choices, and last understanding the ways of life. “The magical time of childhood stood still, and pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood” (chapter 1). Antonio preaches, his childhood memories and knowledge is still their, but he seen too much as a kid so he is a lot more mature than other kids his age. As being said Antonio still has a lot of mysteries to find throughout his life. As he proceeds through his life he will start growing up and seeing more things. Rudolfo Anaya expresses Antonios coming of age moments by using questions and clues to find his own answer. “The...
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...“Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya Literary Analysis Throughout the context of “Bless Me Ultima,” it is evident that there are many motifs and examples of dichotomy. I believe that Anaya uses the previously mentioned elements of literature in order to provoke his readers’ thinking and help embody a struggle of understanding the world we live in. Motifs in this novel include: family, dreams, religion, education, and the list continues. For examples of dichotomy, the idea of good versus evil is the most vivid in this novel. 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 religion. The dream that Antonio had subsequently following his witnessing of Tenorio killing Narciso, best shows why Anaya corporates them in his novel. In this dream Antonio’s guilt and young principles take over. Evil, revenge, and sin lead the end of the world as Antonio views it. At the bottom of page 176 it reads, “A new sun to shine its good light upon a new earth.” (Anaya, Page #176). Based on this text and knowledge from reading the book, we can conclude that after the earth has been destroyed and the golden carp swallows all that is good and evil, a new world is produced. Dichotomy is defined as the contrast between two things that are represented as being opposed or entirely different. What is more contradictory than good and evil? Although these terminologies are very different...
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...In the novel Bless Me, Ultima religion, family and culture play a huge part into the book, these topics make the reader understand and connect to the characters. Without those major points presented in the novel the reader wouldn’t be as interested in reading the book. Bless Me, Ultima if the type of novel of coming of age, this is represented by one of the main characters. This novel is important to Chicano literature because it was a way to fashion the culture to individuals and communities. Much of the experiences and events in the novel reveal the finding of cultures and search of identity in multiple associated spanish culture. Anotonio Marez is writing as an adult about the events he recounts that occured when he was six years old. Ultima who is a curandera, or healer, who comes to live with Anotiono and his family. When Antonio meets Ultima for the first time and shakes her hand he senses some type of power whirlwind around him. Antonio is on the brink of discovery and starting to figure out what it means to grow from a boy to a man. It all begins...
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...Throughout “Bless Me Ultima”, written by Rudolfo Anaya, we witness a young boy named Antonio experience a multitude of vivid dreams, and the various literary devices applied by Anaya to emotionally invest the audience into Antonio’s experiences. Anaya sets the mood by using diction and he utilizes imagery to the point where we develop strong sympathetic feelings towards the main characters, or victims, in Antonio’s dreams. Many of Antonio’s dreams contain graphic descriptions of how the people appear in his subconscious. One dream in particular gives a descriptive portrayal of Narciso’s appearance and what appears to happen to him after he dies. The use of emotional appeal, foreshadowing, and vivid imagery help aid Anaya in his description of this dream by building the reader’s emotions towards what happened to Narciso and the aftermath....
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