Analysis on the Roles of Gender in Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya narrates the story of Antonio Márez y Lunas, a seven year old boy who lives to learn that the journey to manhood is about learning to make decisions on his own. In the story, his mother hopes for Antonio to become a priest, while his father desires him to become one of the llano. Anaya cleverly uses the contrasting views of both genders to highlight Antonio's struggles of making sense that his life was a development from being an innocent young boy to being a man of wisdom and understanding. During the time of Bless Me, Ultima's writing, as in most traditional systems, women were primarily firm believers of religion (in this case, Catholicism). The teachings of Catholicism has a tendency to place women as inferior and an accessory in
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Her sphere and focus go no further than the family home, and she appears to be satisfied with her role as a wife andmother and is not much of a use outside the family home. For Antonio, Maria's role has always been that of keeping the family functioning; he remarks that she most often appears in the hears of our home.. (her) ketichen. She is easily labeles as a powerless wife, given that her usual responses to family crises is to retreat to a room in prayer. Antonio himself describes her as a "devout catholic" and a woman who believed that "the salvation of the soul was rooted in the Holy Mother Church" One would say that she was a faithful and loving housewife despite the contradictory behavior of her husband; she is powerless when it comes to family arguments, choosing to flee the scene and to pray ahaihfklalkj. As a housewife, she is constantly around Antonio, causing different aspects of her personality to influence his beliefs of growing up, especially the thought of how "it was a sin to grow up and be a man …. (and) life destroys the pureness God gives"