Of Forgiveness In Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

The duality of judgement and forgiveness, the latter often seen as virtuous, yet impossible without the less-admired former, is present in the blood of many diverse religions from a variety of cultures and time periods, with none perhaps exemplifying it as well as what remains the world’s largest religion by number of followers, Christianity. The religion, built upon a group of holy books known as The New Testament, acts as a forgiving addition to prior Jewish holy books by offering exoneration for Earthly sins for those who embrace the teachings of Christianity’s central prophet, Jesus. Rudolfo Anaya heavily explores these themes of judgement and forgiveness within Catholic Christianity in his seminal work, Bless Me, Ultima, through the struggles

During the first of many church scenes within the novel, Antonio describes that, as a child, “[he] loved none as dearly as the Virgin…God was not always forgiving. He made laws to follow and if you broke them you were punished. The Virgin always forgave” (44). In other words, Antonio views the Virgin Mary with even greater admiration than that of God, due to the greater appeal of her compassionate nature in comparison to God’s harsher disciplinary role in the Catholic faith. In this statement, Antonio expresses resentment and fear of God in this role, adopting the somewhat blasphemous stance of bestowing greater love and affection upon the Virgin than upon the creator due to her forgiving values. As Antonio serves as more or less of a Mary Sue character for Anaya within the novel, this statement is directly reflective of Rudolfo Anaya’s similar beliefs on the superseding virtues of forgiveness over those of judgement, and serves as a key expression of this theme within the novel. Later in the novel, Antonio furthers his statements concerning the Virgin Mary with the assertion that, “perhaps the best God would be a woman, because only women knew how to really forgive” (137). This demonstrates the drastic