Theme Of Antonio In Bless Me Ultima

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The Growth in Ones Life As Rudolfo Anaya places social change, cultural conflict, religion, ethnic identity formation and many other themes together into a coherent and believable story about a young boy called Antonio in Bless Me Ultima. Anaya’s themes in the book are interoperated through rhetorical strategies of contrasting situations to people and as well using them metaphorically. Through Antonio’s experience in the Adulthood, he becomes sensitive to his dangerous physical surroundings outing him a hold in situations where he hold knowledge sooner causing him to question his life and destiny in the world. Anaya uses metaphors and binary opposition to emphasize Antonio’s life situations and the reactions or his thoughts. Anaya portrays moments in Antonio’s life where he is beginning to grow maturely and question his future in life and what he is destined to do. ‘“Now I have come to live near the river, and yet near the llano. I love them both, and yet I am of neither, I wonder which life I will choose?”[Antonio says]. “Ay hijito,” [Ultima] chuckled, “do not trouble yourself with those thoughts. You have plenty of time to find yourself”’ (41). Ultima assures him to not hurry in life that it will all come to him, what he is destined in life. As Antonio takes on adventures with Ultima he beings to question what he is to become as he grows up. Antonio is confused wondering which lifestyle he is to follow, his father’s dream to become a Vaquero or mother’s dream to be a priest. Antonio views Ultima as wisdom and guidance and relies upon her judgment in determining the course of his life. Anaya uses Ultima to teach Antonio metaphorically through examples of nature, that there are life forces to trees, winds, and the earth but the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ped out the room without looking back. I rushed past my worried mother who cried after me then ran to tend Ultima. Sometime in the future I would have to build me own dream out of those things that were so much a part of my childhood” (261). When Ultima dies, Antonio is finally able to understand this link between change and violence. His time working on the Luna farm has taught him the importance of harmony in nature, and he realizes that Ultima’s death establishes the natural harmony of the world. He no longer fears death because he knows that it is a natural cycle of life and a change that is necessary for life to continue. He now placed him in the center of taking care of himself from that moment on and leading himself on what he is to become as a grown man. From that moment on he wont be given anymore advise from Ultima and has to live with that given fact.

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