...“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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...Austin Matheney Professor Witschi ENGL 2220 4th December 2014 Contrasting Landscapes in Bless Me, Ultima As the pages flip, and the story unfolds, the audience begins to notice that the landscapes in Bless Me, Ultima play a vital role in many different facets of the novel. Throughout the novel, there is an obvious dichotomy between the llano, the land of the main character’s father, and El Puerto de los Lunas, the land of the main character’s mother. As Antonio, who is the focus of the novel, grows older, he is forced to make a decision between the llano and the Luna. This decision is not based upon which land to dwell upon, but rather on which path Antonio should place his life: the dreams of his father or the dreams of his mother. Rudolfo Anaya, the author of the text, also utilizes other simple landscapes, such as the river and the pond, to aid in the coming of age of Antonio. Ultimately, Antonio must choose a path in life, and Anaya implements these different landscapes in order to exemplify Antonio’s struggle and development. The land of both Antonio’s father and of Antonio’s biggest inspiration, Ultima, is the llano; a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and dark plains. At first glance, this is all that the llano holds, but the llano is much more than just a beautiful piece of land to the vaqueros, to Ultima, and to Antonio’s father. The llano represents freedom and embodies the spirit of the vaqueros, or herdsmen, who are a group of people that Antonio’s father...
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...The True Identity of Questions and Discoveries Life is full of questions and discoveries. People question because they do not believe or trust in things or people. People discover because they want to find the answers to their questions. In Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, the main character Antonio starts to discover and question beliefs and people. Antonio’s life changes when Ultima, a healer and her owl come to live with his family. Antonio’s mother is Catholic, but his father believes the llano has all the answers. Antonio is raised Catholic by his mother, but doubts God, especially after witnessing the death of Lupito and Narciso, and learning the legend of the golden carp. Ultima shares her pagan beliefs with Antonio, but...
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...Marisa Tobias Dr. Romo EN7317 3 April 2017 Bless Me, Ultima: Women and Power Rudolfo Anaya’s novel, Bless Me Ultima is a coming of age story of a young boy, Antonio, growing up in New Mexico in the 1940s around the end of World War II, although it is a story of self-identity, it contains feminist tones particularly in regards to the title character, Ultima and the boy’s mother, Maria. Throughout the novel, Antonio is deeply torn between his mother’s dream of him becoming a priest and his father’s desire for him to live the life of a vaquero. However, he realizes, as a result of Ultima’s guidance and lessons about his culture, that he must make his own decisions and possibly create a way of life that might not be either one of his parents’ wish. Bless Me, Ultima, in the long run, shows the importance of Chicana women as mother figures and as leaders, Ultima and Maria are important and powerful women that break free from the traditional roles that women were expected to play during that moment in history and within that patriarchal society. Anaya is “hailed for helping the Latino way of life, traditions, and values become nationally recognized with his first novel, Bless Me Ultima (1971). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Anaya was known as the premier voice...
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...Bless Me Ultima Part One In Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses descriptive diction to communicate the majesty of the Golden Carp. Using words such as, beauty and grandeur, in context with the word silence, shows the power the appearance of the carp seemed to hold over the two boys. When Anaya speaks of Cico holding his hand to his chest the carp glides by it helps the reader to understand the importance of the Golden Carp. As the carp gives a “switch of its powerful tail,” the reader can infer the carp must be one of the stronger fish. The diction Anaya chose helps the reader to better visualize the importance and majesty of the carp’s appearance to the boys. Bless Me Ultima Part Two Topic | Tone | Theme | Family Expectations | Contemplative | Throughout life we try to please others without losing our way in the fight of good and evil. | Loss of Innocence | Fearful | Good vs. Evil | Objective | In Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya, communicates a theme of family expectations through the opposing views of Tony’s parents. Tony’s mother wants her son to become a priest. This dream is fostered at the birth of her son, when he is born under a full moon. Tony’s mother’s brothers want him to become a priest and work with them on the farm because he is a Luna. Meanwhile Tony’s father hopes for his youngest son to become a vaquero or cowboy, like he once was. Tony’s father argues that his son is a Marez and he will wander the countryside like vaqueros. Tony’s...
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...In my essay i am going to talk about the book ''Bless Me Ultima'', by Rudolfo Anaya. This book is mostly about religion and the church. In the book there is a boy named Antonio, Antonio struggles to re council the complexities of his experience with his religion that leads him to think that he must make his own decisions. He becomes extremely frustrated by the failure of the church. Ultima is a curandera who helps to heal people when they are sick or who have been bewitched. In the town people accuse her of being a witch. Ultima teaches Antonio that the most difficult questions about life can't be answered by a single religion or cultural tradition. Antonio has so many questions about evil, forgiveness, truth, and the soul questions...
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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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...The author of Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya, grew up in a small village in Eastern New Mexico, called Santa Rosa. He grew up in a spanish speaking and catholic family. His career as an author didn’t happen until sometime later after attending the university where he found a passion in writing. . During his university experience he would write poems and attended many different things associated with writing and reading. With the help of learning how to read he would spend most of his time in the village library on top of an old fire station. Growing up, Anaya didn't have books at home so when he was able to go to the library he would checkout many books at one time. In the book, Bless Me Ultima, all the characters that have an important...
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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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...are seamlessly blended in one. There are many elements an author utilizes to create this type of fiction. Magical realist authors aim to write the ordinary as miraculous and uncover a reality of people or communities that are outside of the objective norm. Although magical realism is very similar to other genres of fiction, it has individual characteristics and elements that categorize it separately from fantasy. Authors of magical realism tend to use the literary device of personification to have ordinary objects and settings within their story, take on lives of their own in a way that is seen as normal to the characters. During the novel, Bless Me Ultima by...
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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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...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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...In the novel Bless Me,Ultima written by rudolfo anaya, Antonio's dream in chapter twenty two explains his dream and the different type of things he saw throughout his dream. This helps convey the idea of confusion between antonios religion and the suffering he's been through. We see this through the use of symbolism and imagery. In the beginning of Antonio's dream, antonio sees some type of “parade” passing with all the men Antonio had seen die. Among them was Lupito, narciso, and florence. “Finally i saw the body of florence, floating motionlessly in the dark water.”(243). THis was an example of imagery. The dark water represented sadness and death. I believe this because dark is usually a very sad color and and in funerals people wear black because of their deep sorrow .This is why the water was black instead of clear. This was also an example of imagery because, it gave so much detail it made us feel like we were part of the dream and staring at the same thing antonio was...
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...In Bless me, Ultima, Antonio starts to understand the identities of different heritage because of Ultima’s influence. In this narrative, Ultima starts to teach Antonio things that his family cannot. She does this because she sees herself knowing Antonio more than his family knows him. Ultima thinks this way because she claimed that she is the only one that knows his true destiny and that more than anyone else Antonio comes to her for advice. Antonio’s most relevant lesson that Ulima taught him was that he should follow his own beliefs, he decides his fate, no one can do that for him even family. Antonio learns about the identities of his families’ heritages. Anaya uses Bless me, Ultima to introduce the reader to conflicting cultures in Antonio’s childhood. Antonio’s early life is based on the conflict between the two sides of his family, the Luna and the Marez. The Luna are devoted farmers who worship the earth and the moon, while the Marez are vaqueros who are devoted to horses and the sun. Because of Antonio’s three older brothers chose the life of the Marez, Antonio is expected by his mother to choose the Luna and become a priest. “You are a Luna, they chanted in unison, you are to be a farmer-priest for mother”. (Anaya 26) Ultima teaches Antonio many things about morality. "In two days we would celebrate the mass of the dead, and after mass we would take her body to the cemetery in Las Pasturas for burial. But all that would only be the ceremony that was prescribed...
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...Imagine a young irishmen tired of the rain and dark clouds of Ireland; Frank finds his way to new mexico in hopes of a brighter, drier future. But he falls ill; unable to work he’s forced out into the street. With his hope depleting like his health, he’s has given up, ready to welcome god. When a hispanic boy about the same age as him offers his help. Tony calls himself a curandero, able to heal through the will of Ultima. Would you think that these two boys would have anything in common? In Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, Frank McCourt is a young boy being raised in Ireland during the depression.Growing up Frank faces many struggles between poverty, religion and prejudice because of his northern heritage. He endures it all in hopes of one day making it back to America to give his family a better life. In Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio Marez is a young hispanic boy learning about his family, religion and life under the wings of a strong curandera named Ultima. Although there are some obvious...
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