In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, one of the main characters, Ultima is accused many times of being a witch. Ultima is a curandera who uses herbs and medicines to cure people. She goes to live with Antonio Marez, a young boy who lives in the llano with his parents and two sisters due to the fact that she cannot live by herself and had nowhere to stay. Although many people think she is a witch, her use of herbs, medicines, and scapulars show that she is merely just a curandera. With her use of chants and having her spirit in her owl, many are led to believe that she is really a witch. Ultima goes to stay with Antonio Marez, a young boy who lives in the llano with his parents, two sister, and three brothers. This is because Ultima is too old to live on her own. Antonio and Ultima grow very close. Antonio helps Ultima cure his uncle Lucas and lift the curse on the Tellez home. Ultima collects herbs from the mountains and uses these to make remedies and medicines. She used remedies and medicines to cure Antonio’s uncle, Lucas. Ultima uses her medicines and remedies she...
Anaya’s novel fits in the category of a bildungsroman. A bildungsroman is a story that deals with a person’s spiritual education, such as Tony’s education in school on how to be a preacher. An expectation of a reader of a bildungsroman should be to almost feel as if you were there with the character, going through the same spiritual experience with them. The reader should also see a growth in the character whether it be mental or spiritual. The character should share his or her thoughts and feelings. Bless Me, Ultima fulfils these expectations in easy to see and understand ways.
As a young child, Rodriguez finds comfort and safety in his noisy home full of Spanish sounds. Spanish, is his family's' intimate language that comforts Rodriguez by surrounding him in a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed using the Spanish language. "I recognize you as someone close, like no one outside. You belong with us, in the family, Ricardo.? When the nuns came to the Rodriquez?s house one Saturday morning, the nuns informed the parents that it would be best if they spoke English. Torn with a new since of confusion, his home is turned upside down. His sacred family language, now banished from the home, transforms his web into isolation from his parents. "There was a new silence in the home.? Rodriguez is resentful that it is quiet at the dinner table, or that he can't communicate with his parents about his day as clearly as before. He is heartbroken when he overhears his mother and father speaking Spanish together but suddenly stop when they see Rodriguez. Thi...
1. Tita Quote: "Tita was so sensitive to onions, any time they were being chopped, they say she would just cry and cry; " (Pg. 5) Write-up: Tita is the main character of the story, also the narrator, who suffers from unjust oppression from Mama Elena, her mother. She is raised to excel in the kitchen and many entertaining arts where she is expected to spend her whole life taking care of her mother. This is following the family tradition that the youngest daughter takes care of the mother until she dies. With her frivolous wants, Mama Elena denies her marriage and happiness to any man especially Pedro.
Antonia's mom smokes and she has been really sick lately. Her mom is that antagonist in this story because she can't even get out of bed unless she feels good. Since her mom has been sick, Antonia has to take care of everything around the house, including her brother. So one day Antonia was at a freind's house and her mom and brother decide to go on a picnic and when they were done she took her son to a motel, and then left to go to a bar down the road. When she was done at the bar, she went back to the motel and passed out on the floor. So when Antonia got home, nobody was there. About a half an hour later, her brother called and said that their mom had passed out and that they were at a motel. Her brother didn't know the name of the motel so he looked around and remembered the bar. He told his sister the name of the bar that their mom had gone to and then she knew right where they were.
In Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, the author uses Tony’s dreams as a way of displaying various symbols. Three symbols that are used often are weather, water, and the Golden Carp. Weather is used to represent conflict. Water represents cleansing, and rejuvenation. The Golden Carp symbolizes religion and Tony’s beliefs. Because dreams are not an exact mirror of reality, they become the perfect tool for introducing symbolism. The author uses the dream as a way to access the recurring themes of the book.
Witchcraft is the most illogical and despised practice involving the supernatural power. “It implies the ability to injure others”. A witch usually acquires his power through an inherent physical factor, or through the power of another witch. Witch possess a special organ called mangu, located somewhere behind the sternum or attached to the liver. ”[11]
Underneath, he then sees a Ziploc bag filled with notes but wasn’t able to read it because he might miss the train. Every time they do this kind of shenanigan, where they play who’s got the guts staying right near the train as it passes by them. But, as the train was leading up to them, Loc then remembered about Norma’s poem thinking about it and wondering when will it be read. The author then brings the reader to a scene where Norma and her mother are reminiscing about old photos or her great great grandmother Rosa Constante de Felix or “La Morena.” As a little girl, Norma always see her dad and mom showing affection to one another in public not caring about other people’s judgment because they 're madly in love with one another. As for Norma, who is still in high school with her boyfriend Lupe it was all good. But, a note on the the next day showed that Lupe had left Catela but also left her. As she was going back through the photographs, the pictures then made sense to her and that she has inherited La Morena’s lonesome characteristics. Back in the day, when Arturin and Jacky were left behind while their mother goes off to Mexico to deal with business, Arturin was responsible for taking care of his
The story begins with Titas birth prematurely when Mama Elena was chopping onions. Tita grows up with Nacha the most dominant figure in her life, and follows Mama Elenas routine of cooking, cleaning and sewing. At every incident she can, Mama Elena criticizes Tita and even beats her if she tries to speak up. One day Tita tells her mother that Pedro wants to come and ask for her hand, but according to the family tradition she cannot marry because she is the youngest daughter. Mama Elena tells Pedro he can marry Rosaura- one of her older daughters, and Pedro agrees to the arrangement just to be closer to his true love- Tita.
Crops failure, dying livestock, strange illnesses, or injuries were often believed to be the result of a spell cast by a witch or a neighbor practicing witchcraft in retaliation resulting from an argument over land boundaries, an unpaid favor, or other insignificant civil matters. “Witches” were accused of “pricking, pinching, or choking” their accusers without actually being physically present or “appearing as an apparition” as in the case of Elizabeth Hubbard against Tituba Indian (Godbeer 90). Men, women, and children were accused of being witches; however, women were more often the accused. Any sarcastic remark or spiteful comment said in private, public, or social circles, would sometimes manifest into an accusation of a spell or curse cast upon an unsuspecting
Arredondo exposed Luisa as a dynamic character because during the story the readers can see the changes that her personality had over the time. At the beginning of the story the reader can see how Luisa takes care of her uncle with devotion and love, but after they married she considered it as a disgusting duty. Ines Arredondo described Luisa as woman who has the power of “purify everything” (81), but after suffering the physical abuse of her uncle, all her innocence disappear. She was an innocent girl that was reserving herself for marriage. However, after married her uncle, she started seen the things in a different way. Now, she thinks of herself as “the vilest of harlot” (87). The way that the author exposes Luisa is like happy young lady that thanks to the circumstances enter to a deep depression that changes her life and she “was not able to go back to who I [she] was”
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is a coming of age story about a young boy named Antonio Marez. The novel takes place in New Mexico where Antonio tries to fulfill his parent’s expectations while struggling with religion. Through Antonio, Anaya defies the some of the principles in religion and expresses her interpretation on the system of beliefs. Antonio’s religious confusion suggests that man should be able to choose his own religion and destiny. In the Bless me, Ultima, Antonio experiences conflict in his religious beliefs because of the deaths he witnesses, the new ideas that he learns, and his open-minded mentality.
For the young Dulce Rosa Orellano, life is great being the beautiful daughter of Senator Anselmo Orellano. She has people waiting on her hands and feet, and is even crowned jasmines of Carnival Queen for another consecutive year. That is until “rumors of the beauty who was flourishing in the Senator Orellano’s house reaches the ears of Tadeo Cespedes” (Charters 43). Given that he was “only concerned with the Civil War”, everything is a fight for him. So Tadeo made it his mission to seek out the young beauty and have her as his own. This mission consisted of shooting up the home with all of his men, murdering Senator Orellano, and unwillingly raping Dulce Rosa. Before being in he hands of the Tadeo, she says before her father, “let me live so that I can avenge us both” (Charters 44). In doing so, Dulce Rosa grows up to forget about her high fame and beauty, to a woman to live alone and whose only mission on Earth is vengeance (45). Tadeo how ever, gets old and leaves his violent days. He actually comes to his sense and searches for Dulce Rosa to apologize for his past behavior so that he may “attain a certain degree of happiness” (Charters 46). To his own dismay he ends up falling for Dulce Rosa, who in turns kills herself as her revenge for her father to him.
Beli’s impulses allow her to ignore the fact that falling atomically in love with the Gangster, a man she meets in a luxurious nightclub, is wrong. In a world where no one gives her such feeling, the Gangster makes Beli feel beautiful. But, the Gangster is a pimp and exploits women, which shows the degradation of women such as Beli. The Trujillo system in the Dominican Republic, under which the Cabaral’s are associated with, exploits women and the Gangster, just like Trujillo did exactly that. This path of life that Beli embarks on is the wrong choice because it is plagued with the fukú. She sees the Gangster as an escape out of her current life because he is extremely rich. The Gangster promises her a house in Miami with as many bedrooms as she wants. Beli is naïve and does not realize that the Gangster cannot help her escape her life that she is unhappy with. Instead all the Gangster can bring to Beli is bad luck. The Gangster ends up being married to Trujillo’s sister, who is extremely cruel and lives up to the name of Trujillo. The Gangster’s wife has Beli beaten until she almost dies. Beli is vulnerable because the Gangster has power over her; she truly believes that he is an escape from her Dominican world. All along La Inca sees otherwise and tells Beli that she is crazy. La Inca also implies that a man cannot save her, but Beli continues to make
The climax of the story has a few layers of drama that really bring out the problems between the characters. We see Santiago and his half brother Cheche battle about the future of the factory; this affects Santiago's relationship with his wife who doesn't know about all the debt and risks he has taken. Then there's Conchita and her husband Paloma, who are experiencing marital issues which become heightened by the seductive lector Juan Julian. Both couples have personal conflicts with one another as well as external issues that affect their lives. The play had interesting parts to it such as infidelity and abuse of sexual nature. some very sensual parts; like infidelity and sexual abuse but were carried out by the cast with immense care and genuineness. Gomez does a really good job of bringing out emotional performances from the actors. This really took me on an emotional/visual roller coaster. The characters moved from happy to angry and from night to day with great ease. Scenes were so realistic and I found myself really engrossed in the story. Gomez interpreted the script really well and I think he related to the story. The story felt natural and cohesive,like it was his
Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action, including “ancestors who can intervene by blessing or cursing the living.” Witches, on the other hand, harm because they want to destroy life.