Bless Me, Ultima Literary Analysis Essay

In the novel, Bless me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a little boy named Antonio struggles with knowing what he wants . He’s protected and guided by a wise elder lady whose name is Ultima. But Antonio is the only person that can make a decision about who he wants to become. The book “Bless me Ultima”, Anaya uses strong connotation and symbolism to describe the dark and terrifying revelation in Antonio's dream about his internal beliefs being completely shattered in his mind.

“Bless Me Ultima, is a critically acclaimed novel of all time”(NEA); however, it is also one of the most banned books in American literature. People enjoy the book a lot, but there are also some people who want the book to be banned for good. For example, in 1992 Bless Me Ultima, was banned at Porterville high school for “many profane and obscene references, vulgar Spanish words, and glorifies witchcraft and death"(banned library). Bless Me Ultima, is a story of a boy named Antonio who lives in a village of Las Pasturas with his mother, father, two sisters, and a curandera named Ultima who cures the sick and evil, but people see her as a witch. Antonio sees a lot of death and learns about life in Bless Me Ultima.Ultima shows Antonio many

“’It is because good is always stronger than evil. Always remember that, Antonio. The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world and it will emerge triumphant’” (Anaya 98). In the beginning of Bless Me Ultima, Antonio’s inquisitive nature is revealed after his innocence is threatened by the evil committed in the murder of Lupito. He struggles to choose a path of life that pleases both of his parents’ sides of the family. Furthermore, Tony experiences the loneliness of growing up in an English-speaking school where he does not fit in or understand the language. Near the end of the novel, Tony still holds the child-like belief that all his questions about evil will be answered by God once he makes communion, but he is disappointed. Through indirect characterization, Rudolfo Anaya reveals Antonio’s questioning nature as well as his struggles with conflicting beliefs in the coming-of-age novel, Bless Me, Ultima, to make a more relatable and believable character.

Through Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, the reader notices many themes. One central, and very important theme is the repetition of the number three. For example, there are three sources of understand for Antonio, three deaths that Antonio witnesses, and Antonio's three prophetic dreams. These all play crucial roles in both Antonio's life and serving to further the plot.

Revenge is often a prominent element present in numerous plots. Characters like Heathcliff or Chillingworth have sought retribution in the strongest ways against those who have wronged them. In Rudolfo Anaya’s novel Bless Me Ultima the concept of revenge also plays a hefty role. Through the eyes of Antonio, a young boy who starts making inquiries about the world, the audience can make a connection between the forces of good and evil. In order to show that life is more complicated than the two categories, Anaya uses the contrasts of the characters Ultima and Tenorio in a battle of revenge to show that the line between good and evil does not always exist.

Bless Me, Ultima has many recurring motifs that surface during key points in the book, such as Antonio losing his innocence. After his brothers returned he had a dream of them entering a local brothel and in his dream, he pleads for them to not enter this evil place. His brothers ridiculed him for not entering and only his brother Andrew said he will not enter until Antonio has lost his innocence. His mother was also in this dream and she said "You are innocent when you do not know, but you already know too much about the flesh and blood of the Marez men". (Anaya 76) His priest tells him you are only innocent when you do not know, innocence is lost with the arrival of understanding. Antonio has seen 3 deaths, you can begin to say that he is no longer pure of innocence as it has become tainted by those deaths he has witnessed firsthand.

Query, bewildered, agnostic; perceiving owl. Magic evolving from earth’s compressed sediment layers. The hardest battles are given to its’s strongest soldiers, we question why and it’s among comprehension. Antonio the protagonist in one of Rudolfo Anaya Novels Bless me, Ultima overwhelming questions what he doesn’t understand throughout the telling of the story, having a difficult time connecting. A venerable woman who eases Antonio’s pain giving him a shoulder to lean a sense of caring contentment.

Ultima is a curandera and is partially responsible in Antonio’s everlasting life-changing experiences. Ultima is revolved with endless misunderstandings based on how she lives and what she does. Ultima plays an important role in Antonio’s choice of character and identity. Ultima teaches Antonio to think more in-depth about certain situations and to think for himself. She believes that a person has complete control of what or who they want to be as long as they take innitiative. Antonio states, “ I think I understood then what Ultima said about things changing…” (Anaya 246). That statement is when Antonio would analyze what ultima said and when his way of thinking started to change as the story progressed. Antonio also states that, “Many years later, long after Ultima was gone and I had grown to be a man, I would awaken sometimes at night and think I caught a scent of her fragrance in the cool-night breeze.”(Anaya 13). This can help the reader acknowledge just how important Ultima was to Antonio’s childhood and how she still influences him in his adult

Bless me Ultima Chapter 1-10 summary Chapter 1: - Antonio lays in the attic listening to his parents recount the life of Ultima, of how she started as a healer and ended as a homeless on the Llano. Antonio is an amazing lucid dreamer and is able to relive his birth and experience with Ultima. Antonio meets Ultima, greeting her with the term Grande, as she says that they have always had a close connection. Antonio dreams that Ultima’s owl carriers the Virgin of Guadalupe as well as all the babes of heaven. Chapter 2 - Antonio and Ultima grow even closer as she moves into the house with permission from Maria, Antonio’s mother.

Although Bless Me, Ultima is widely celebrated for its authentic description of Latino culture and folklore, it is also a fine example of buildings roman, or coming of age story. The main character, Antonio, experiences trials, descents into darkness, heroic feats and achievement of new knowledge. By the end of the story he has learned the struggles of what life has to offer that caused reconcile of making a man of himself. The first stage of Antonio's coming of age are the trials he undergoes.

Many factors such as the witches and mythical practices in Bless Me Ultima is what makes the magical description fit the novel. One major archetype that can be identified in Bless Me Ultima is the religion being inherited in the race and in the unconscious

Often times, people tend to find no meaning in works of art such as stories, while in reality they fail to capture the true essence and deeper meaning these creations. Most notably, the novel Bless Me, Ultima is a perfect example of how much impact literary device have on a story. Bless, Me Ultima is a novel which depicts a boy named Antonio trying to adapt to his ever-changing world after meeting the curandera Ultima. As a result of Ultima’s guidance, Antonio finds light through the tough tragedies that occurred during his childhood. In Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses symbols such as the Virgin of Guadalupe, the river and the Golden Carp to depict Antonio’s gradual spiritual development, which demonstrates his shift in moral decision-making throughout the novel.

Bless Me Ultima, a novel by Rudolfo Anaya, is one that is difficult to categorize but which manages to blend a number of different writing genres in telling the story of a young man who must leave adolescence behind and takes a spiritual journey into adulthood. In writing this book, Anaya interweaves legendary and mythic details, including a number of dreams, which gives the book a surrealistic feel reminiscent of the Latin American writing style. He combines this with a realistic depiction of the New Mexican landscape to create a rich picture of the lifestyle of the characters. Ultimately, Bless Me Ultima is a coming of age novel in which the main character, Adolfo, will undergo a number of difficult experiences and conflicts, including the death of his friend and spiritual teacher, as he goes about the process of self-discovery and growing into adulthood. In the end, it is Antonio’s striving to reconcile the complexities of those experiences that leads him to conclude that he cannot depend on others to answer the fundamental questions of life, but instead must learn to be his own man and arrive at his own conclusions about morality and the human experience.

Rudolfo Anaya 's Bless Me, Ultima, is a novel concerned with the nature of individual and cultural identity. Commentators on the book argue that one of its most significant aspects is its ability to communicate a uniquely Chicano experience at a formative point in world history. The role of myth is key to the production of this voice. Not only do myths play a major role within the action of the novel itself, but they also contribute significantly to the uniqueness of the Chicano voice as it is developed in the book. In this sense, myth is integral to both the action and the texture of the novel as a whole. Most importantly, it is the myth which enables the protagonist, Antonio, to both reconcile his past and to move forward with his voice. Myth functions within the novel as a way of breaking with the past, but also as a way of preserving it. It is possible to demonstrate this by paying attention to the myth of the golden carp as it functions as both a plot element and as a thematic concern within Anaya 's novel.

1. Magical realism is the occurrence of abnormal or illogical scenarios appearing in an otherwise realistic or normal setting throughout a work of literature. In Bless Me, Ultima the two characteristics are meshed together and not displayed as questionable in the character’s world while the reader realizes that the rational and irrational are opposite and conflicting. For example, throughout the novel, Antonio learns about the myth of the golden carp in which the newly settled pioneer tribes of the grasslands began to anger their gods, as a punishment the gods turned all their people into carp. However, one of the gods loved his people so much he asked to be turned into one as well “but because he was a god they made him very big and colored him the color of gold.