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Bless Me Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

1182 Words5 Pages

Developing one’s own ideas amidst tradition and self-discovery presents a challenge in Mexican culture. In the novel Bless me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio, the protagonist, grapples with personal beliefs while growing up in his traditional New Mexican household. When Ultima, a curandera, moves in with his family, she becomes instrumental in guiding Antonio through childhood trials and complex adult concepts, leading him to maturity. Anaya expresses the difficulty of approaching maturity through the conflicting ideas of magical realism and religion. Christian belief is strict because of it’s practices in reward and punishment. For example, when Antonio remembers the story that Cico tells him about how the Golden Carp came to be, and how …show more content…

If God was witness to my beholding of the golden carp, then I sinned! I cashed my hands and was about to pray to the heavens when the waters of the pond exploded” (Anaya 114). This shows that Antonio sinned against the Christian God, yet, didn’t care for the consequences of worshiping the golden carp. Antonio expected more from God and sought out the reassurance that the golden carp gave him, from God. As Antonio moves away from Christianity he begins to dispute the capability of God, therefore, demonstrating that he is able to compare the conflicting ideas. For example, since, Cico brought to light the origins of the golden carp and the burden that all men sin, Antonio was left to ponder the differences between the golden carp and God. He says “I walked away from that haven which held the pond and the swimming waters of the golden carp, feeling a weight in my heart. I was sadder by what I had learned. I had seen beauty, but the beauty had burdened me with responsibility” (Anaya 119). Antonio feels a sense of responsibility come upon him after learning the origins of the golden carp. Antonio analyzes the differences between how the golden carp and God burden

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Then the Virgin tells Antonio that she will also only forgive both and not only Narciso (Anaya 173). Antonio never bothered to see Tenorio in a good light and was thus always critical of him. His good half wanted Narciso forgiven but overlooked that in being critical of Tenorio he forgot that wishing forgiveness of all means all the people. In an earlier part of the book, Antonio says “It is not easy to forgive men like Tenorio” (Anaya 138). Antonio was once again being critical just showing that he is also human and he is like the God and Virgin in that he is composed of a caring and critical personality.

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The Ordinary in Magical Realism The events that occur in magical realism seem like very peculiar events compared to events in the real world.. Typical events and people in magical realism, like giants and magic spells, are seen as events or people that would never appear in the ordinary world everyone lives in. The way characters react to magical moments with no fear of the event, makes it seem like it’s all too normal. Ordinary events in magical realism will never be seen as ordinary in the real world.

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Antonio has been given choices in life and it's up to destiny to decide what he is going to do. Bless Me Ultima, written by Rudolfo Anaya is a coming of age novel. A little boy named Antonio has two completely different parents, they have different cultures and want different thing for Antonio. Antonio's parents fight about his destiny when Ultima, a magical person, comes to live with them for the summer. He starts to get interested with the magical world.

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Rudolfo Anaya's novel "Bless Me, Ultima" is a coming-of-age story that traces Antonio Marez's early years in a remote area of New Mexico. When we first see Antonio in Chapter 1, he is a small child who is looking forward to Ultima, a curandera (healer), coming to live with his family. The family relationships of Antonio are introduced in Chapters 2 and 3, as with his contacts with Ultima, who ends up serving as his spiritual mentor. In Chapter 4, Ultima introduces Antonio to her spiritual practices and assists him in coming to terms with a man's death. Chapter 5 explores Antonio's struggle with his Catholic upbringing and the indigenous beliefs he encounters through Ultima.

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Therefore, Antonio has been indoctrinated or forced to say rosary because his family is Catholic. As Antonio thinks about the Virgin and compares her to God, he is showing his own independence by hinting that he prefers her over his traditional God. Antonio is again spiteful of his moral independence and his own choice in gods whilst completing catechism. Although there are many

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In Bless me, Ultima, Antonio is on the journey to discover what he believes and who he is supposed to be as a man. His experiences throughout the book make him question his beliefs and took away his innocence. The Golden Carp plays a considerable role in shaping Antonio's life both religiously and physically. Antonio is already confused about his identity, what he is supposed to be, a priest or a farmer, world of Ultima's magic versus religion, and the Golden Carp is a sign of yet one more root for his uncertainties and questions about Christianity. According to pagan myth, in IIano when the gods had turned the people into carp because the people irritated their gods, the king of the god who loved the people was very depressed (84).

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In Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima", the young Antonio Márez goes through hardships during World War II. His journey of self-discovery and inner peace comes to light in the end. Antonio’s journey symbolizes his development of morals and spirituality, in his self-discovery journey. With having a difficult time finding his true self, with the guidance of his mysterious mentor, the Curandera Ultima, his spiritual awakening starts to grow. He finally dares to challenge the strict morals, and traditions of his community.

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While there are numerous examples of conflict throughout Bless Me, Ultima, the most prominent examples are the “Man vs. Self” conflicts Antonio faces. One such conflict—a multifaceted struggle that ultimately becomes one of the most prominent in the novel—concerns his religious beliefs. Antonio’s mother is a devout Catholic and raises her children to be followers of the religion as well, but Antonio struggles with the concept of the all-powerful God and the fact that such a God would punish good people while forgiving those whom Antonio deemed “evil,” and at one point thinks that perhaps God does not help him because He is “too busy in heaven to worry or care about” Antonio and his friends and family (187). Antonio also doubts that God truly is all-powerful, as He couldn’t alleviate the Téllez family’s curse, and He could save neither Lupito nor Narciso, and therefore thinks it “doesn’t seem right” that He has “the right to send you to hell or heaven when you died.” (236) Yet despite his doubts, some part of Antonio clings to his upbringing and what his mother taught him, as he is seen desperately clinging to his religious beliefs, such as when he restrains himself from seeking too much knowledge despite his curiosity, for fear that he might commit “the original sin of Adam and Eve” (197).

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God claims that Antonio is selfish because he believed that Tenorio deserved to be punished, for his own personal whims. Now there is disorder on the land because people want to drink the blood on the land and Ultima’s, that’s supposed to cure all sins. Antonio's brothers ask him for forgiveness because they have sinned but he tells them that he is not a priest because he has sinned too. As Antonio reaches out to them he is surrounded by the evil Trementina sisters who curse him and he begins to die. An angry crowd that was followed by the sisters, burn down their house killing his mother, his father, and sisters.

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His struggles became particularly evident when he witnessed the hanging of the pipel, what he saw that day rattled his faith to its core. Subsequently, he felt abandoned by his God, “What does Your grandeur mean, Master of the Universe, in the face of all this cowardice, this decay, and this misery?”(p.66), “Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him?” (p.67). Furthermore, he wondered why God would allow such suffering and remained silent in the face of evil.

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Antonio watches as a priest defiles and altar by pouring pigeon blood on it, Cico defiles the river by spearing the golden carp, and Tenorio murders Ultima by killing her “night-spirit.’ Antonio must learn to accept that violence brings change, and in fact, that change is a kind of violence. This supports the novel’s argument that the transition into adulthood requires a person to develop the kind of faith that can accept doubt, contradiction, and loss in the absence of absolute answers. Ultima reiterates the novel’s concern with violence as a part of change when, before Antonio leaves, she advises him that he must learn to accept change and make it a part of his strength. Antonio begins to understand the spiritual value that Ultima places on harmony.

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