Throughout Bless me Ultima, the protagonist Antonio experiences intensive trauma that would paralyze most children in fear. He preserves through his childhood trauma and instead of submitting and quitting due to the traumatic events of his past, Antonio instead embraces his experiences, learning from each one. Although all the traumatic experiences Antonio went through were traumatic and impactful, a particularly impactful event Antonio experienced which allowed great development of his personality was witnessing the death of his friend Florence. Witnessing the death of Florence caused the most trauma to Antonio, which led to the biggest changes of Antonio’s character.
One example of why Florence's death was so traumatic was because of his close relationship with Antonio. A quote showing Florence and Antonio's close relationship is in chapter 17 where Antonio
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In the story Florence is depicted as a longing atheist at heart, questioning religious ideology with strong diction. A quote displaying Florence's religious views is in chapter 14 where Florence states, "There ain't no such thing as a virgin birth," Florence said looking down at the decapitated doll." The concept of virgin birth is apparent in Catholicism and Christianity with the birth of Jesus proving the theory. Florence not believing in virgin birth shows he is atheist because he is saying the birth of Jesus could not have been possible. Antonio although a ‘true Christian' relates to this questioning of religion Florence experiences. When Florence dies, however, it serves as a waking to Antonio. In a distorted way, Antonio’s faith is reinforced by the death of Florence. It can be interpreted by the reader that Antonio views Florence's death as a punishment by god because of the heresy Florence Preaches. Antonio is saddened because his childhood friend would be damned to hell, but due to his faith realizes he cannot save