This story was very odd but was a good book. The fiction of this story is tied to reality in a very unique way, that is very effective in making the story not feel very fantasy. This feature made the book truly more enjoyable. Other writing techniques like not having any foreshadowing. The book keeps you guessing until the very end. Even within the story parts that I had never seen coming, Like releasing the prince. Allowing Alix to run away and eventually return on curiosity.…
Mixing locations and time periods allowed Díaz to create a novel with high political and cultural significance. The characters challenge the social norms of their place and time, for example Lola presenting herself as a “Banshees-loving punk chick” to the dismay of her mother, and in a completely different time period Lola’s grandfather doing the unspeakable and challenging the rule of the Dominican dictator (54). For characters like Beli and Abelard, Oscar and Lola’s grandfather, their storylines draw on the impact that the government, especially the ruthless ruler, Trujillo, has on their lives. Further down the line though Oscar, Lola and Yunior do not have to live under a harsh dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, they do have to cope with the always-increasing social pressures of growing up in America as Hispanic immigrants, exhibiting the deviations in social and cultural aspects of life as time…
1. In this chapter I get the idea of why Assata is the way she is, she takes us to her childhood, she makes us see the way her grandmother practically trained her and showed her to be the independent and strong woman she is now. I like how she compares her life in the south with her grandparents and the life in the north with her mother, in the south you can tell by the chapter she learned how to work hard and be very observant person. I really like reading this chapter because I imagined myself in those beautiful places she described like the beach her grandparents owned.…
Now that I have finished the novel my thoughts are directed towards the ending realization of Antonio’s perspectives and how Ultima faded from life. I thought the conversation between Antonio and his father during the car ride was quite interesting with the resolution of Antonio at last finding a way to forge himself from all perspectives. I liked how Gabriel explained how people can only understand for themselves from life experiences. I agree that we truly understand life from experiences and cannot understand just by what someone else tells us such as Antonio’s parents telling him there indifferent perspectives thinking he would understand. In the final chapter when Ultima is lying on her bed gradually fading from life after the murder…
It had humor, real life events, sadness, and suspense. I would most definitely recommend this novel to someone because although it’s very long, you won’t want to stop reading it. This book will make you wonder, cry, even laugh. It’s a book that I think had great meaning and was put together very well. In my opinion, there is no flaws about this book except how long it is.…
THE BOOK IS SPLIT IN TWO HALVES. THE FIRST PART IS ESSENTIALLY THE BACKGROUND STORY OF GARCIA AND HIS TRAVELS. I BELIEVED THIS PART TO BE LEAST EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IT DID NOT HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF THE AUTHOR’S OPINION OR EMOTION INVOLVED.THE SECOND HALF IS THE AUTHOR'S DEFINITION OF THE TRUE HARD WORKING MAN, AN INDIVIDUAL TRULY WORTH HIS SALT. IT FULLY ENCOMPASSES THE MAIN POINT OF THE STORY…
I like how its really intense and calming and also some parts funny. I like how it talks about teen pregnancy because some young teens will want to get pregnant at such a young age and if they read this book it may help them change their mind and wait till they get older, thats very important to me. I really like the chapter where Bobby was talking about the wall when he was trying to get everything back in place and try to see who he really was, i thought that part was really good. I like how it goes back and fourth for the chapters like then and now, it makes you want to read more because in one chapter it tells you really good information and you just want to read even more till the…
This book was very different than anything I have ever read. I am still deciding whether I liked it or not. It was hard for me to follow because it kept jumping back in forth in time. The first three chapters I hap kept re-reading to focus and grasp what was going on. I was extremely confused and it went from the opening scene in 1931 to Milkman being four years old in one paragraph. I do feel this is a book you need to read over and over again to fully gain an understanding of the messages and symbols the author was displaying through each character. I thought the book was interesting that although it dealt with racial issues and focused on how characters such as Guitar and Milkman had different views of status and discrimination, their was very little mention of white characters in the book. The majority if not all the characters were black decent and it was purely one sided view on how the black race dealt with racial issues in a small town at that time. I think Pilate was a crazy character and I didn't like how long it dragged out to find the true nature of why her relationship was the way it was with her brother Macon Dead Jr. I feel like the author was changing the subject and jumping around so much that you never fully get to know any one character. I didn't like how the author killed Milkman in the end, it was as if you finally made some self discovery and then he jumps to his death. The book just builds and layers and builds, and when you finally feel like you might understand where it's leading three of the main characters die within the last pages. Aside from racial views and Milkmans self discovery from his life as his fathers son, to discovering his family history and where he wants to be in the future, I didn't really connect with any other character in the book, or understand their significance in his discovering…
This novel has been oversimplified, attempting to make not only the setting but also the characters and plot simpler than what they really are. This novel is a fairly straightforward read for a young adult. The story is narrated in third person, gives the reader details of the entire world where the story takes…
Reading this novel was a definite wakeup call if you ask me. I can tell that when Rodriguez turned sixteen and decided to get out of the gang that he was serious. He was kicked out of his house and put in the garage which is when he begins writing on a typewriter about his life. In the novel the policemen were portrayed as “pigs” as they so called them but in truth they acted like them the provoked the gangs to fight and it was always the Mexicans being treated unfairly. This novel is endearing and heartfelt and definitely one of the best books I have ever…
This book is capable of influencing individuals to become who they wish to be and not what others expect of them. We all have a collective struggle, when we are reading literature. The author should be commended for his ability to write such a beautiful piece of literature during such hard times. Rudolf Anaya was able to capture the full essence of a moral identity crisis and help the readers better understand their own meaning in life. A weakness in the book is that there is not a glossary to translate the slang Spanish words, and overall Spanish words for the non-Spanish speakers. I believe it is important that readers could refer to the same book to be able to find out what a specific word means. Instead readers are left with the task of going to look for an external source to define specific words. We have “Jesus, María y José” for example, that is a slang expression for a moment of…
Things can be very difficult for some people to choose their own destiny. “Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with when fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” (Marcus Aurelius) What this quote is saying is that people should accept things in which fate binds people. Rudolfo Anaya’s novel Bless Me Ultima takes place in Guadalupe, New Mexico after World War II. This novel is about a young boy named Antonio. He does not know what his destiny is going to be when he grows up. So his mother and father have already planned his future. His mother wants him to become a priest and his father wants him to be a vaquero.…
Islam and Christianity share similar ideas as the abstract religion in the coming of age novel “Bless Me, Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya. Islam and magic each have stigmas connected to them from personal assumptions. Pagan beliefs in the novel and Christianity share the same concept of afterlife and symbolism.…
What I enjoyed most about reading this book was the way the author introduced and described all of the characters. I had a great picture in my mind about each and every character and I felt myself thinking about some of them even when they were absent from a page or two. It became so interesting that before I could finish the book, I had to turn to the internet to look up the characters of the movie. I just had to see them in the flesh!…
“El camino” is a Spanish novel written by Miguel Delibes where the main character is Daniel, the son of the town’s cheesemaker. He is eleven years old and his friends are Roque, “el Moñigo” and Germán, “El Tiñoso”. This novel is a bildungsroman because it focuses on Daniel’s progress as the story develops and how he interacts with the other characters.…