A young boy of Hispanic decent is torn between two worlds. Both his adventures and experiences serving to be guides for interpersonal awareness. This boy is the star of a bildungsroman themed novel entitled Bless Me, Ultima. As the reader follows Antonio Juan Marez y Luna on his journey for existential understanding, they witness him transition from a young carefree adolescent to a self-content child.
Furthermore, after reading and analyzing the novel one will notice the clear internal conflict possessed by Antonio. The young protagonist finds himself entangled in a family dispute over who he should become as a man. Gabriel Marez, Antonio’s father, strongly believes that Antonio should become a man of the llano. Llano meaning flat
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Being the youngest male member of the Marez family, Antonio was born with the burden of fulfilling his parent’s dreams. In Mexican culture women and girls tend to stay inside the house, cook, clean, and do other traditionally female occupations. However, since Antonio is a male he is more inclined to go out into the world, explore, and pursue an education. In doing so, Antonio has life changing experiences that begin molding him into a ‘man’. Aside from this, Antonio possesses a closer relationship with Ultima because he is the youngest, and because he is male. Males are typically favored in Mexican households; often receiving special treatment and leniency from women, but extraordinary pressure from men. Young boys are given freedom with the expectation that they will learn to become strong, independent, hardworking and value-oriented men. This freedom nevertheless, gives Antonio opportunities and experiences not presented to his sisters; therefore, making him the star of the novel. Antonio flexes his cultural-given independence at the beginning of the novel when he has his first life-changing encounter. The altercation happens when his father goes to hunt down the man who killed the police chief. The man being hunted is named Lupito, and Antonio find himself hiding in the river where Lupito inevitably gets shot by the town’s men. Antonio listens in fear as Narisco declares, “Let …show more content…
As stated before, Antonio’s parents are divided over the man that Antonio should become. Antonio even states that he does not understand how two people so different could have ever married. Nevertheless, his mother wishes for him to bring honor to his family’s name by becoming a priest, while Antonio’s father encourages him to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors and become a man of the llano. Throughout the novel we see Antonio conflict with his parent’s desires as he seeks to find himself and develop his own aspirations. Antonio’s initial family values are to be a puppet of his parent’s creation and do whatever they want him to do. He is completely obedient to their demands and could be described as a ‘people pleaser’. This value inevitably becomes difficult to uphold due to the opposing desires of his parents. Antonio must “decide upon [his parents] importance and allow or disallow their influence as he grows into adulthood” (Klien 23). At first Antonio struggles to decide if he wants to follow one of the paths laid out for him by his parents, and if so which one. We experience Antonio feel the rush of the llano and occasionally have the spirit of a vaquero but suppress these emotions so that he may obtain his mother’s validation. The internal confusion caused by Antonio’s parents drive him find his identity and serves as
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.
The matriarchal structure of Juan and Lupe’s families are key factor in the molding of each of them into each a unique person that just so happen to fit with each other perfectly.
Throughout the book Antonio is introduced to many new ideas. The first is the experiences he has with Ultima. Ultima is a healer who learned her techniques from an old wise man on the prairie. She is sometimes called a witch. This confuses Antonio because in his heart he knows Ultima represents good and not the evil she is sometimes blamed for. Antonio learns some of the ways of Ultima and begins to understand his surroundings. He knows the name of almost every plant and what medicinal uses each has.
The book, “Y no se lo trago la tierra” by Thomas River grasp a point of view of a migrant community, as manifestations of Chicano culture, language, and experience as understood by a first person point of a young male protagonist. The setting of the book takes place of a year during the 1950s and uses a variety of perspectives and voices to follow the boy’s passages into adolescence. As the setting of the book moves from Texas to upper Midwest to the ye...
Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima is a magical-realism novel about Antonio, a young boy at the mere age of six turning seven, realizing the many cruelties the world has to offer. As he matures, Antonio is conflicted while trying to choose between the career expectations from his two divergent families and attempting to figure out a true religion. Anaya depicts hidden messages to help the reader comprehend a perceptive insight of Antonio’s inner schism through symbolism.
Throughout the time I spent between the covers of The Prince of Los Cocuyos, I was astounded by Richard Blanco’s dynamic relationship with the novel’s sole “antagonist”: his abuela. It seemed that no matter how many times he was chagrined at her attempts to negotiate the English language, or was forced to repress his very personhood to meet her traditional standards of manhood, she never ceased to be a pillar of support for a young Richard Blanco. But beyond his grandmother, Mr. Blanco made it quite clear that he was surrounded by a pueblo of family and friends throughout his childhood and adolescence, a village that would confound his “becoming” but foster his growth, make him question his identity and yet be intricately connected to it. It
How do we make the leap from child to adult? What obstacles must we overcome to finally reach the summit of all that we can be? Who can reform and influence our decisions, the very decisions that will shape who we become? In Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Antonio Márez must progress towards his own moral independence and choose his destiny. Tony is forced to endure difficult experiences too early in life, causing a premature loss of innocence. He is overwhelmed with a multitude of spiritual questions. To find the answers he seeks, Antonio must undertake a metamorphosis.
Maria, Antonio's mother, would always tell Antonio about how he was going to be a helper of the people. How he was going to be a priest. Not a Marez, like his father.Tradition doesn’t last forever. Antonio might be the one to break tradition. What you are taught as you grow up, whether it’s what you should be or how you should do something, doesn’t mean that’s what you have to pursue.
The story uses many motifs, symbols and themes. First the motif is Antonio’s dreams. In the beginning of the book his dreams are about what he will become when he grows up; the choice between priest or a vaquero. Later on his dreams change to more important matters, such as family questions and his duty in life. The second motif regards Antonio’s family. He has many family members such
He questions whether he belongs to his mother’s family, the Lunas, who live as farmers, or his father’s family, the Márezes, who freely wander the land. His care for his family demonstrates his maturity in attempting to always do the best he can for everyone. Although his parents each want him to follow their families’ paths, they remain absent from Antonio’s true journey of understanding his own thoughts and beliefs, leaving him “frightened to be alone” (Anaya 7); the lack of parental support through his personal conflict leads him to have trouble knowing how to address his confusion, but it also causes Antonio to develop an independence that most people do not possess. He sees hope for finding answers from the moment he meets Ultima when he “knew she held the secret of [his] destiny” (Anaya 13). She chooses him and sends him to save as she helps lead him on his path.
In the book “Bless Me Ultima”, by Rudolpho Anaya, there were two families represented, the Marez family and the Lunas family. These two families were very different, but were brought together by the marriage of Gabriel Marez and Maria Lunas. Through the eyes of their son Antonio one may see the comparison of the two. The differentiation of these two families is very clearly noticeable, such as in their personalities, the expression of their religion, and their everyday ways of life.
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.
In the novel, Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, a boy goes through many more experiences than any child in the hot summer days in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. He witnesses the deaths of his close friends and family. This boy expresses his emotions and grief through his dreams, only to wake up with fear and confusion in his mind. Antonio’s life is filled with dreams that foreshadow future incidents, as well as influences Antonio’s beliefs of religion and ideas of innocence.
His mother, Maria, introduces him to Catholicism by sending him to catechism and church. Maria dreams that he will assume a role in her family and become a farmer and even a priest to lead her people. However, his father, Gabriel, expects him to become a vaquero and hopes this free spirited persona will travel with him to California. Ultima is Antonio’s most influential role model. She is a medicine woman who guides and teaches him tolerance and the importance of making his own decisions.
Antonio is so mesmerized by Sebastian’s beauty that he states, “If you will not murder me for my love, let me be your servant” (2.1.35).Antonio is becoming obsessed with Sebastian and cannot stand the idea of not spending time with him, that he begs him to let him be his servant so he can accompany Sebastian and serve him in any way possible. His desire to serve Sebastian comes from his obsession with him. Antonio extreme obsession for Sebastian stems from the Elizabethan connection between good looks and a good soul. Sebastian tries to prevent this firm devotion but pleads with Antonio: “Crave[s] of [his] leave, that [he] may bear [his] evils alone”(2.1.5-6).(Insert Analysis for the previous quote). Sebastian advises Antonio to “Fare ye well at once”(2.1.39) in an effort to prevent him any injury that Sebastian’s venture might bring. After hearing this Antonio is still adamant about attending Orsino’s court as well; “B...