Bless Me Ultima Research Paper

Water and Fire

“The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood” (Anaya 1). The transition from childhood to adolescence is dotted with self discovery, and the experiences that the earth provides shape individuals in this search. In Rudolfo Anaya’s novel “Bless Me, Ultima,” the protagonist Antonio is faced with the challenge of growing up, and through his key experiences, he finds out a lot about himself. Author Rudolfo Anaya uses dueling allusions from Catholicism and traditional Chicano culture to demonstrate how his novel “Bless Me, Ultima” is an example of a religious bildungsroman.

Over the course of the novel, Anaya places important people, symbols, and moments that define Antonio’s personal religion and show how the novel represents his spiritual growth. At the beginning of Antonio’s life, Ultima has him “choose” the objects that will define his future and he chooses “the pen and paper” (Anaya 54). Since the old Luna priest was a scholar, this key moment represents the beginning of Antonio’s spiritual journey because it shows his initial position: aspiring priest. Antonio assumes the mindset that his family puts on him and believes that he will “hear the confessions” of the people in his town (Anaya 9). These

As he takes communion, he laments over not being able to just “sit and discover Him” like he had done in the presence of the golden carp (Anaya 221). All of the questions that he hoped would be answered by communion are left unheard and only result in silence. “The God [he] so eagerly sought was not there, and the understanding [he] thought to gain was not there” (Anaya 222). From this experience, Antonio has a spiritual change of heart and begins to accept that his “god” can be the Catholic as well as the god that he found in the golden