“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” (Reinhold Niebuhr). In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, a young boy name Antonio Marez has faith to go through his childhood life to perceive in learning new aspects and independence in Catholicism in which he goes in the real world in order to create and establish new ideas and acknowledge himself into adulthood. Through the use of religious symbolism that connects to different cultural beliefs, the author, Rudolfo Anaya seeks to explain how New Mexico’s cultures can combine with each other to create a new culture with combined religious beliefs using knowledge. Antonio discovers more about the Lunas and how it relates to him and the world he is living in while also appreciating the Virgin of Guadalupe and the religious beliefs he has for the Catholic Church. Not only that, but also becoming a true believer and having struggles going through understanding religion as the golden carp appears. Anaya does this in order to compare and contrast New Mexico with Antonio’s rite of passage into adulthood and with the growth of others during World War II. The golden carp and the Virgin of Guadalupe are two different cultures, while the moon is the one that explain who Antonio really is.…
Allowing the reader to re-experience the Mirabel sisters lives, in their point of views gives a better understanding on what happened during the era of Trujillo's dictatorship in the Dominican…
“Understanding come with life. As a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, and he works, plays, and meets people”, says Rudolfo Anaya, the author of Bless Me Ultima. In the novel, we are first introduced by Antonio to his childhood. Antonios mother is a staunch catholic while his father is the son of a vaquero. His father want him to become a cowboy, however his mother want shim to become a priest. This is when Antonio begins to question his destiny. (insert when Anotnio asks is it possible to be both) In chapter one, Ultima comes to live with the Marez family. Ultima is a curandera, a healer who uses folk remedies. Ultima is more like Antonios mentor. “I felt more attached to Ultima than my own mother,” said Antonio. (123)…
Antonio’s childhood through a life changing journey. Also, Ultima, the “ curandera” who helped his…
“Understanding come with life. As a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, and he works, plays, and meets people”, says Rudolfo Anaya, the author of Bless Me Ultima. In the novel, we are first introduced by Antonio to his childhood. Antonio’s mother is a staunch catholic while his father is the son of a vaquero. His father wants him to become a cowboy, however his mother wants him to become a priest. This is when Antonio begins to question his destiny. “Then maybe I do not have to be just Marez, or Luna, perhaps I can be both –“, said Antonio. (247) In chapter one, Ultima comes to live with the Marez family. Ultima is a curandera, a healer who uses folk remedies. Ultima is more like Antonios mentor. “I felt more attached…
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.…
Blood becomes the river. The human race dies and only the "she-goats and the he-goats" remain (176). The lake "cracked with laughter of madness" and the "ghosts stood and walked upon the shore" (120). Who dares dream such gruesome images? Only Antonio Marez. He argues with God and the Virgin Mary. He commutes with the dead; the dead asks him for blessings. Just who is this Tony person! You might not believe that this is only a seven year old kid, but he is the hero of Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima. Tony is valiant, and this courage sometimes reflects his curiously precocious nature. Precocious he is, he still is in constant mental ambivalence.<br><br>When I say Tony is brave, I don't mean that he fights demons or kill dragons, but rather that he stands for what he believe is right and he is not afraid to go to extreme measures to protect the people he love. He shows that he is a "man of the llano" when he "does[n't] run from a fight" even when confronted with Horse, the notorious bully (37). Tony also stands up against a mob for Florence; everyone wants to punish Florence for "not believing in God" (214) and Tony pushes the crowd away and refuses to give Florence the penance that Florence does not deserve. Although Tony knows that he will be given the "Indian torture" (214), he still speaks up for his friend. Anaya often presents Tony as a dependent character, never wanting to "be away from the protection of [his] mother" (51); in fact, he's so close to his mother that it seems that he's going through Oedipus's Complex. Anaya actually does this to increase the impact of Tony's bravery. One might expect Tony to stay in his undercover bushes when Tenorio is standing so close; however, when Tony hears that Tenorio knows the way to kill Ultima, the thought to warn Ultima supercedes his fear and encourages his legs to pick up and run home (255). At trying times, he "stood by Ultima" and "would have slashed out to protect Ultima" (138).<br><br>Oftentimes, Tony's…
Bless Me Ultima, a book by Rudolfo A. Anaya, is about a young boy named Antonio who comes of age through troubling ordeals throughout the book. He is aided in this journey by a curandera named Ultima, who teaches Tony many life lessons. Anaya uses animals to symbolize such as good and evil. Representing Ultima, he uses the owl, which serves as the good character, while the coyote represents evil, portrayed by Tenorio. The Golden Carp is a symbol of Tony's confused uncertainty toward religion and morality. Anaya's portrayal of these magical characteristics shapes Tony's ascent into manhood.…
Throughout the book Bless me, Ultima your understanding of her character progresses and changes according to her actions. Ultima is constantly displaying three universal traits throughout the book loving, kindness, and wisdom. She uses these traits to help others throughout the book, particularly Antonio. Ultima's wish is to make Antonio her spiritual heir, by that I mean that she wants him to carry on what she did on earth. That does not mean however that she limits her talents and gifts to Antonio, she helps anyone who asks.…
In the novel, Bless Me Ultima, Antonio Marez has personal endeavors that provide him with his outlook on life. The author, Rudolfo Anaya sets this up beautifully by putting the protagonist, Antonio, through a riveting and exciting plot. In the novel, Antonio Marez has multiple exposures of maturity, such as being raised in a rural area, experiencing death firsthand, and learning the act of forgiveness.…
Hi my names Rudolfo Anaya, and I am the author of the story Bless Me, Ultima, and I would like to answer some commonly asked questions about this story. I will answer questions numbered 8 and 10 today.…
Dreams can often predict what will happen in the future. In Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, the protagonist, Antonio, lives in a small town in New Mexico. Written from the point of view of Antonio, the story begins when Ultima, a curandera or traditional healer, comes to live with Antonio’s family. As Ultima constantly teaches Antonio life lessons to satisfy Antonio’s curiosity, their relationship greatly strengthens along with Antonio’s understanding of the world. Antonio also witnesses the deaths of many people throughout the novel, causing Antonio to continuously seek answers relating to morality, which is reflected in his dreams. These dreams are often about events that happened in the past or events that occur when Antonio is older. His dreams also display the inner thoughts and feelings of Antonio. Throughout Bless Me, Ultima, Antonio’s dreams foreshadow events and reveal the changes of Antonio as he matures into an adult in order for the reader to develop a better understanding of his character.…
In the novel Bless Me, Ultima, Antonio has many dreams but there is on dream that changes him completely. The author of Bless Me Ultima is Rudolfo Anaya. In this dream Antonio watched all of the people he cared about die and experiences the presence of the three men that are an important part of his life.…
Family happiness is simply known that the parents and their children can live together, share their fun, difficulties and sadness with each other. As a matter of fact that nothing’s perfect; there’s still a lot people don’t have a happy family as they wish, there’s still many broken homes around us and the children is always the victim of the conflict from their parents, particularly here is the family in the short story “Gaston” by William Saroyan. Throughout this story, the author gives us about the importance of a discipline and an influence of the parents to their children. They both have the responsibility to help their children shaping a good characteristic for themselves, to educate them to be a good person in the future.…
Candida and Paula the daughters of Don Lorenzo (the artist) remains in the place of Intramuros with their father. Surprisingly, Bitoy the son of their father’s very good friend arrived, Candida and Paula felt so amused with the return of Bitoy. The three then talked about the younger memories they had, how much they adored the Friday “tertulias”, but it was no more. Candida and Paula could hardlyt accept the fact that Bitoy is now a grown up man, who before they only accompany him to the small room, and added by the fact that they already arrived at the very extreme far age. Paula and Candida showed Bitoy the painting of their father, the splendid masterpiece painted by their father for them, the strange thing about the painting is that it shows the burning city of Troy, with a man carrying an old man, on which the two men represents their father, he is carrying himself also, and behind them is the burning city. It was magnificent as Bitoy described it, Candida then told him about the several media men and artist who visit and look at their father’s painting.…