...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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...Is Ultima a Witch, or not a Witch? Are you one thing or another? Is Ultima a witch, or not a witch? We all ask ourselves questions based on assumptions made by others. Bless Me, Ultima contains witch suspicion during the curing of Lucas, the quarrel between Tenorio and the Marez family, and the killing of Ultima’s owl. During the curing of Lucas in chapter Diez, page 100, Ultima was seen by Antonio coming and going from the room. At one point when Ultima came back on page 101, her feet were wet with clay from the valley. Antonio still stuck in bed, watched Ultima shape three lumps of black clay she took from her little bag, and molded them into three dolls, listening to her hum along the way. Ultima later on dressed the dolls with scraps of cloth. But where did the scraps come from? Just like how the three Trementina sisters took something (Luca’s hair) from Lucas to curse him, Ultima must have done the same thing with the Trementina sisters by taking their clothes. Later on, she stuck pins into each one of the dolls which is known as Voodoo. Ultima also sings a song before she holds the dolls up to Lucas to breathe on, singing, “You have done evil, but good is stronger than evil, and what you sought to do will undo you,” that is witchcraft right there and it proves something must have happened, due...
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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: 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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...Bless Me, Ultima is a coming of story about a young boy’s journey towards spiritual awakening. Below the surface of this deceptively simple story lie powerful elements of binary opposition and symbolism that the author, Rudolfo Anaya, uses to help provide the backdrop to Antonio’s immersing journey and reveal the “curious mélange of elements” taught to him. Through these literary strategies, Anaya develops the intense conflict between the two sides of Antonio’s family, the mysticism of his surroundings and experiences and glimpses of what lay ahead. Antonio is a six-year-old boy who grows up in a home with conflicting lifestyles. His mother belongs to a devout Catholic family known as the Lunas, who consider themselves masters of the land and skilled farmers. They pride themselves in their humility and strong faith. Contrasting, is the Mares family, from which Antonio’s father was raised. The Mares are a wild bunch of vaqueros, horse-mounted workers, with a burning desire for adventure who take pleasure in handling their own matters without any one else’s authority. This poses a major conflict that is visited through the entirety of the book, between Antonio’s mother and father. While his mother prays incessantly that young Antonio grows up to be a priest and leader of the Lunas community, his father, contrastingly, hopes that his son will follow in the Mares footsteps as Antonio may be his last hope of leaving New Mexico and moving to the wilds of California. This binary opposition...
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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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...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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...Momcilo Latinovic ENG 318 May 3, 2012 Daniel Martinez Grown Little Man Children in many countries and cultures are put in the situations that seem different to us. They are forced to grow up and mature much faster and make life long decisions. "The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt." This quote is by Max Lerner. The things that kids go through to enter maturity can be complicated. Their task is to come across themselves, and grow into the mature person they will become. There are facing some difficult journeys filled with new things, difficult situations, confusion, and a loss of childhood innocence. The novel Bless Me, Ultima, written by Rudolfo Anaya, is about Antonio Marez, a young boy who has to make his way into maturity and in doing so he deals with some things that are not common for a boy his age. Antonio becomes emotionally mature from crying about deaths to staying tough when he sees the decease, intellectually mature by showing how intelligent he becomes and physically mature by changing in size and strength. For example, Antonio is the reason for many of his parent’s arguments that occur. They fight over what Antonio would be when he is older. This is not something usual for a seven years old kid. Most kids his age are spoiled by their parents and family and all they do is play with the other kids and just have fun. However, Antonio is stuck between...
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...Bless Me Ultima was published in 1972 by Rudofo Anaya. The themes Anaya writes of are still applicable today, especially if you are an inhabitant of New Mexico. Many who live here have come to appreciate the multi-cultural influence we live with daily. Ours is a State that offers extreme geography, where we can easily attend church or seek a Shaman or Curandera. Though we are scattered among cities, small communities and isolated ranches, the spirit of the people still shines in times of trouble. Rudolfo Anaya writes that, “The supernatural and ordinary reality are worlds that exist side by side. I don’t believe the truth is out there, I believe it is within. To discover the truth and power within is to walk in the supernatural.” The novel Bless me Ultima has several examples that reflect Anaya’s comments. My favorite is a conversation between Antonio and his father. “Understanding does not come that easy, Tony—““You mean God doesn’t give understanding?’ “Understanding comes with life, “ he answered, “as a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, he works, plays, meets people—sometimes it takes a lifetime to acquire understanding, because in the end, understanding simply means having a sympathy for people,” he said. “Ultima has sympathy for people, and it is so complete that with it she can touch their souls and cure them---“ “That is her magic—“ “Ay and no greater magic can exist.” “But in the end, magic is magic, and one does not explain it so...
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...Jacob Garcia Bless Me, Ultima Outline I. (Thesis Statement): Antonio Matures throughout his life with the help of Ultima and his family. He grows emotionally and spiritually over the course of the novel. II. (What is the first point you are making? SENTENCE) Antonios parents teach him the ways of Ultima. Makes antonio think about being a priest. A. (proof – not a sentence) She heals and does good for people. B. (quote or partial quote – with page number) “There isnt a family that she did not help...no road was to long for her to walk to its end to snatch somebody from the jaws of death.” (Anaya 3) III. Ultima comes to stay with him and teaches Antonio more about God. A. Antonio is curious as to what happen the night before and questions God. B. “ and more important me hijo, you must never judge who God forgives and who he doesn't.” (Anaya 33) IV. Antonio witness many deaths and a normal seven year old would not be able to stay and pray with a dead man in front of him. A normal one would run away scared to death. Antonio prays for Narsico at the tree B. “I knew I had to pray. I had to pray an Act of Contrition for his departing soul, like I prayed for Lupito. But I had not held Lupito while his body went cold.” V Antionio takes control of things at the end. He knows exactly what is going on and reacts like a man. A. he is trying...
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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 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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...Rudolfo Anaya is an American author his most common novel is Bless me Ultima. He was born October 30, 1937 he was born in Pastura, New Mexico a small village located on the western edge of the Staked Plains. Anaya was the eighth child out of ten other children. In 1952 Anaya and his family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Rudolfo wrote Bless me Ultima in 1972 and other novels as well. While in the process of writing novels he was a high school educator and also a college educator. Anaya has greatly influenced the chicano literature. Before actually getting into literature he used to write poems to girls. This also happened before he got married in 1966 but can’t remember the wife’s name. His wife was his encouragement in writing books. His...
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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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