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Choice In Bless Me Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

847 Words4 Pages

In the novel, Bless Me Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya uses Antonio, Andrew, Eugene, and Leon to show how when people have the ability to choose, when someone has the ability to choose, sometimes they don’t choose what others want them to choose. Antonio has to choose between religions and also had to choose his future. Andrew had to choose whether to leave with Eugene and Leon, or stay with the family. Eugene and Leon had to choose if they wanted to help their father move west, or start their own life. If people are given a choice, sometimes they will choose a path that others might not agree with, negatively impacting others. Throughout the book, Antonio is given many situations where he has to choose between many given options. In the beginning of the novel, Antonio’s mother wants Antonio to become a priest. After thinking about it, he says, “I was to …show more content…

After coming back from the war, his father’s dream of moving to the west lives on, until his sons are given a choice to stay or to start their own lives. Before confronting their father about their choice, “They had talked long into the night, and finally he had given up the idea of going with them.”(73). “Given up” suggests that he disagrees to the choice. After discussion with Eugene and Leon, he chooses to stay with the family. After coming back from their trip, Eugene and Leon talk about their future plans. After talking with Andrew about their future plans, they let their father know their decision. After telling the family that they will start their own future, “Next day Leon and eugene left. This time, they took Andrew with them.”(185). This time, Andrew had decided to leave with Eugene and Leon. Andrew saw this as an opportunity to escape from the house after the many strange events occurred. His father was not happy at this choice. Andrew is given the choice to stay or leave twice. The second time, he took the chance to leave, destroying his father’s

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First of all, Anaya used juxtaposition while Uncle Lucas was cursed to demonstrate the absence of God’s power and the presence of Ultima’s powers in times of need; therefore, causing Antonio to question the religion he was born with. Specifically, when "the holy priest at El Puerto had been asked to exorcise el encanto, the curse, and he had failed" after Uncle Lucas got cursed by brujas in the forest (Anaya 84). Uncle Lucas was on his deathbed, dying from the curse inflicted on him for interrupting the brujas ' dance for el Diablo. He attempted to defend God by punishing the sinful, non-Christian actions of the brujas. However, when the Christian priest attempted to heal Uncle Lucas, he did not have the ability.

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Throughout the novel Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya utilizes juxtaposition between the unique characteristics found in Luna family and Márez family for the purpose of indicating that in the end, there always is a way of choosing a destiny that fits the both family bloodline no matter what family one belongs to since they all are

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Is there one real god? Are all gods ideally perfect? The main character Antonio in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is torn between which god he must choose. On one hand there is the Virgin, a forgiving god, or God, a wrathful and critical god. In Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima he uses juxtaposition to reveal the differences between God and the Virgin to show the two halves of Antonio’s personality thus revealing that in life people need to be critical and caring towards others.

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In Bless me Ultima, Antonio struggles to choose what path in life he wants to take. Antonio’s parents come from very different families and both think Antonio should follow the lifestyle of their family’s side. Antonio’s mother wants her son to follow in the footsteps of the Lunas and become a servant of God, a priest. On the other hand, his father dreams of him and his son venturing to California and starting a new life full of adventure. His parents’ constant disagreement about Antonio’s destiny causes an internal conflict that wreaks havoc on him throughout the book.

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Bless Me, Ultima is filled with Antonio's dreams. In these sequences a lot of the boy's fears and perceptions about religion and his family are vividly portrayed. These dream sequences are imaginative and beautifully written. They add a great deal to the novel. They allow the reader of Bless Me, Ultima inside the mind of this little boy, we can now see what he is dealing with.

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Antonio is torn between three destinies. His mother wants him to become a priest while his father wants him to explore and be free. Ultima who comes to live with Antonio becomes his caretaker and his teacher. Antonio’s three religious choices, the church, myth

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Chapter three of Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo begins with Antonio realizing that his innocence is fleeting, especially after having experienced the death of a man the night before. It’s Sunday which means the family will attend mass, but before heading out Antonio’s parents have a brief dispute about their son growing up. Antonio’s mother believes that it’s a sin “for a boy to grow into a man” because they will lose the pureness that was bestowed onto them from birth. Yet, Antonio’s father and Ultima disagree with that notion. That Sunday Antonio knew that town would be mourning the two deaths of Chavez’s brother and Lupito, along with the other sons and husbands that were directly caused by the war.

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One of the many themes in the novel, Bless me, Ultima is Antonio’s “loss of innocence” throughout the months upon the arrival of Ultima, the curandera. At the beginning of the novel, Antonio is an innocent boy, protected from reality thanks to his age and parents. As the novel progresses, Antonio becomes aware of the bad and the good in life. Antonio’s transition from innocence to experience is shown through particular events.

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“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom,” is a quote by Aristotle, providing a vivid understanding that if someone knows who they are as a person, it is difficult to persuade them into thinking otherwise. However, if one is ignorant of their identity, it is easy to provide them with conflicting thoughts as well as confusion toward their culture, customs, race or anything particularly having to do with their background. In Bless Me, Ultima, the author exhibits the most frequently used cultural conflict from the Chicano culture in rural Mexico in the 1940s and purposely clashes it with Catholicism and the English Language. The book introduces Antonio who can be described as a young boy who is prone to moral questioning, in search for

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He makes it very obvious at the fact that he is proud of himself, his accomplishments that he had made, as well as expressing how deeply excited for the great adventure he was going to have in Alaska. However, it also presents that he probably intends on gaining a citizenship again, even though he says that it’s like poison for him, mainly because he would call this his final adventure, which will conclude his spiritual revolution. And though he writes that he would not return back, he is trying to imply that he doesn’t want to walk in the wild to die but that he will not go back to the East. Finally, the passage shows how intertwined his need for independence and freedom is with his inability to let people too close, as he likens his entrance into the wilderness to fleeing and emphasizes that he is alone, and that only now can he enjoy “Ultimate

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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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Blissful Ignorance If I were to know what was inside Area 51, I would be most likely be dead. Despite Area 51’s infamous conspiracies, for instance, being a secret alien base, no one is fully aware of the location’s secrets. Perhaps for society’s sake, it is better to be remain unveiled to our knowledge in fear of the potential consequences. Similarly, there is certain information in this world that are better left unknown.

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Is there a lack of freedom in stability or a lack of stability in freedom? In the novel Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio’s coming of age is challenged domestically by the father/mother tension of freedom versus stability through their parental expectations. Generally in life, children seek to please their parents in everything they do. It is often conflicting parental expectations that send a child into an overwhelming state of distress wondering why they try so hard to attain the standards of both but inevitably end up disappointing one or the other. Maria and Gabriel are prime examples of parents that are completely disconnected from their family as a whole but most importantly detached from their son due to their unwillingness to compromise.

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The main driving point is Bless Me Ultima is Antonio’s coming of age. In the novel, Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio is spiritually and religiously tested which leads him to a bildungsroman. Throughout the novel, Antonio encounters religious doubts like the golden carp and spiritual events like the deaths of others. Although Antonio’s purpose in the story is to fulfill his prophecy, along the way he experiences life changing grows more as a spiritual and religious person. Antonio spiritually grows when he experiences the deaths of Lupito and other dear friends.

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