Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya - Essay Example

Bless Me, Ultima 2008 Outline: Introduction Thesis: The outer and inner conflicts of the novel triggering Antonio’s maturation are built on dualities: the Lunas vs. the Marez (subtopic 1), the Catholic Church vs. the curanderismo (subtopic 2), Western culture vs. Chicano culture (subtopic 3), mythic vs. historic reality (subtopic 4). The questions: How do conflicts determine Antonio’s coming-of-age? Body Paragraphs: Subtopic 1: the Lunas vs. the Marez What critics say The conflict provides Antonio with new understating of his destiny Subtopic 2: the Catholic Church vs. the curanderismo What critics say Antonio is a priest of new generation Subtopic 3: Western culture vs. Chicano culture What critics say Antonio integrates the elements of two cultures Subtopic 4: mythic vs. historic reality What critics say Antonio integrates two ways of cognition Conclusion Antonio fuses all the elements together acquiring a new understating of life Bless Me, Ultima, considered the classical Chicano novel, is the first in Anaya’s trilogy of the trials and troubles of adolescence in New Mexico. Moving in an episodic, seasonal and cyclic fashion the novel represents Antonio’s rite of passage from innocence to knowledge and self-awareness, which occurs through a serial of inner and outer crises. Starting with Ultima’s arrival and ending with her death, the novel follows the outer and inner tribulations and conflicts stimulating Antonio’s spiritual search. For almost two years, from the age of seven to nine, Antonio struggles through dialectical conflicts, certain that he has to choose only one side. His coming-of-age is connected with the realization that he can simply fuse dualistic elements by means of love. The outer and inner conflicts of the novel triggering Antonio’s maturation are built on dualities: the Lunas vs. the Marez (subtopic 1), the Catholic Church vs. the curanderismo (subtopic 2), Western culture vs. Chicano culture (subtopic 3), mythic vs. historic reality (subtopic 4). Antonio’s spiritual search is conditioned by the burden of his family’s heritage. His mother, coming from a Catholic family of farmers, wants him to become a priest, while his father, a vaguero from the llano, dreams of Antonio being a free shepherd as well. This conflict is represented in Antonio’s dream of his birth in Chapter 1. In this dream Antonio’s mother’s family brings him gifts of earth – “fresh green chile and corn, ripe apples and peaches, pumpkins and green beans” (Ch. 1, p.5), while his father’s family smashes and replaces them with “a saddle, horse blankets, bottles of whiskey, a new rope, bridles, chapas, and an old guitar” (p.5). Both families are in love with the earth. Yet their attitudes are quite opposite. While the Marez want to “live free upon the earth and roam over it”, the Lunas “live tied to the earth and its cycles” (Lamadrid 1985, p.498). Antonio asks Ultima: “Now we 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?” (Ch. 2, p.38). As Debra B. Black (2000) suggests, Antonio’s coming-of-age is actually a process of separation from his family, yet acquiring the fusion of the two clans’ features. First of all, Antonio is to separate from his mother. This what his brothers do. Though they occupy little place in the narration, they play a significant role in Antonio’s life. Feeling the pressure of their mother but preferring to follow the free life dreamt of by their father, they perceive Antonio as a scapegoat who is to embody their mother’s dreams. They do not want to live by the dreams of their parents. In chapter 8 they hold a conversation: “I mean papa’s dream about moving to California, and mama wanting us to settle along the valley”— he (Andy) said. They looked at each other uneasily. All their lives they had lived with the dreams of their father and mother haunting them....” – “Hell, Andy,” Gene said softly, “we can’t build our lives on their dreams. We’re men, Andy, not boys any longer. We can’t be tied down to old dreams“(Ch 8, p.62). They leave home finally, and that it is what Antonio is supposed to do when he grows up. Caught into the bind of dualities, Antonio needs to overcome numerous stresses to eventually find his own way. However, unlike his brothers Antonio will combine “both waters” into something new instead of rejecting his heritage or choosing only one side. As Gabriel puts it in chapter 22 summarizing the spiritual search of his son, “every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may reform the old materials, make something new” (Ch 22, p.236). The second duality Antonio has to fuse into a unity is that of Catholic faith and the native Chicano traditions. Antonio’s spiritual search starts within the frames of the Catholic Church. He begins to lose his innocence in Chapter 2, when Lupito kills the town sheriff and Antonio witnesses Lupito’s death, taking his last confession. Antonio becomes preoccupied with problems of sin and punishment, for the first time having to deal with an adult dilemma. His mother’s Catholic beliefs are confronted by the actions of the men of llano, who as Ultima assures him would not kill without reason. For the first time he is healed by the curandera, while the message of the Act of Contrition stays obscure for the boy. The deaths of Narciso, Florence, Tenorio’s daughters, Tenorio and Ultima, the inability of the El Puerto priest to cure Lucas, make Antonio to question the teaching of the Catholic Church and God, good and evil. The conflict between Ultima and Tenorio, the shamanic experience, awareness of his brothers’ sins, father Byrnes’s unjust punishment of Florence, the disappointment at Communion, the realization of the nature of confession force Antonio to reconsider his dualistic perception of the world. Meanwhile, he gets initiation into curanderismo and assists Ultima in her healing practices and is introduced into the tradition of the golden carp. As he sees the golden carp he experiences the moment of revelation: “This is what I had expected God to do at my first holy communion! If God was witness to my beholding of the golden carp then I had sinned!” (Ch. 11, p.105). Disappointed with the Catholic religion, Antonio still remains a kind of a priest, yet the one his people are not ready to follow at once. Not for nothing does Anaya put the words of Jesus Christ into Tony’s mouth, suggests Bridget Kenava (2003). Antonio’s final cry in his dream in Chapter 22 is that of Jesus on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” (Ch., 22, p.233). No separate view can provide him with answers. That is why Antonio combines different perspectives within his heart. Step by step Antonio becomes “a man of learning” as Ultima predicted. He acquires adult knowledge and understanding, losing his innocence. Antonio realizes that life is not stable, but a flow of constant changes, all of which are its natural part. He comes to accept his parents’ imperfections, and witnesses his brothers’ sins. He learns that the world is full of prejudices, that not all the people are able to stand for their beliefs, and that he is also sinful. The conflict of the Western and Chicano worlds is another duality to be integrated by Antonio. Debra Black (2000) argues that Anaya represents three types of acculturation in the novel: assimilation, integration and rejection. She states that Antonio’s brothers “are assimilated into the Anglo world in ways that result in their desire to leave la familia and move into the dominant cultural sphere”, their rejection of their heritage making them lost to the culture. Unlike his brother, Antonio does not desert his past in total assimilation into the Anglo world. He equally resists assimilation and retains his ethnic identity. Talking of the time spent with Ultma before school, Antonio shows that he has to adapt to the new conditions: “But the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever, and the affairs of the town began to reach across our bridge and enter my life. Ultima’s owl gave the warning that the time of peace on our hill was drawing to an end” (Ch 2, p.14). Antonio’s assimilation begins as he goes to school. He speaks Spanish and feels different from other boys. His lunch, brought from home, is traditional Chicano food: “My mother had packed a small jar of hot beans and some good, green chile wrapped in tortillas. When the other children saw my lunch they laughed and pointed again. Even the high school girl laughed. They showed me their sandwiches which were made out of bread. Again I did not feel well” (Ch, 6, p.54). Here at school Antonio learns ethnic prejudices. However, Antonio soon finds friends of Latino origin thus overcoming his loneliness and learning to live in both worlds. Attending school and learning English Antonio separates from his family, while his parents never went to school and his mother cannot speak English. Through education Antonio assimilates into the Anglo culture. However, his education is continued at home by Ultima, who shows him the beauty of his land and teaches the ancient wisdom of curanderas. Antonio continues learning from his family. Standing by his father’s side, he learns valuable lessons of personal integrity. Father teaches him important lessons about Chicano and life. Antonio lives in a dualistic reality combining myth and historic events. Enrique Lamadrid (1985) argues that myth serves as the way of cognition for Chicanos. Ane Rogers (1986) underlines that motif of la llorona (a wailing woman) “figures both on a literal mythological level and as an integral part of Antonio’s life”. The motif emerges in Antonio’s relations with the nature and his mother. This mythic personage accompanies Antonio through this period of two years, representing an evil and yet native and clear power. La llorona tries to lure the boy, but he resists her charms and leaves death behind him. Instead, he learns to accept the greater reality of life, understands that “the tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart” (Ch 22, p.237) and chooses to “take life’s experiences and build strength from them and not weakness” (Ch, 22, p.248), as Ultima taught him. Bridget Kenava (2003) points to the fact that “Anaya juxtaposes Antonio’s evolution with World War II and the dropping of the atomic bomb; both represent the end of an idyllic period.” The women in the village wear black mourning clothes (Ch 3, p.29), declare that the atomic bomb looked like “a ball of white heat beyond the imagination, beyond hell” and blame men for that: “Man was not made to know so much… they compete with God, they disturb the seasons, they seek to know more than God Himself. In the end, that knowledge they seek will destroy us all” (Ch 17, p.183). Almost every woman in the village has lost her son or husband at World War II, Antonio’s brothers return from it traumatized, New Mexico becomes the site of the first atomic bomb test. Yet, Antonio maintains ties to the landscape and the Virgin of Guadalupe, la llorona and the brotherhood of the golden carp. His conflicts are resolved through Ultima’s belief that the sense of life is to do good. In her final blessing she proclaims “I bless you in the name of all that is good and strong and beautiful, Antonio. Always have the strength to live. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle and the owls sing in the hills” (Ch 22, p.247). Antonio’s coming-of-age is the journey away from and back to his heritage. The conflicts of dualities make him question the values and beliefs imposed on him by his family and the surrounding world. Antonio does not refuse his heritage, but fuses different elements together, acquiring richness and strength of various manifestations of life. Together with his new understating comes a new future built on the lessons of the past and open to changes. References: Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima. New York: Warner Books, 1999. Black, Debra B. Times of Conflict: Bless Me, Ultima as a Novel of Acculturation. Bilingual Review, Vol.25 (2), 2000, pp.146-159 Kenave, Bridget. The Fiction of Rudolfo Anaya: Bless Me, Ultima (1972). In Latino Literature in America: Literature as Windows in the World of Cultures. Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut, London. 2003. Chapter 2, pp.33-45 Lamadrid, Enrique R. Myth as the Cognitive Process of Popular Culture in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima: The Dialectics of Knowledge. Hispania, Vol.68, No.3 (Sep.1985), pp.496-501. Rogers, Ane. The Function of the La Llorona motif in Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. 1986. In Hispanic-American Literature, Book by Harold Bloom, Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1998, pp.3-8 Read More

As Debra B. Black (2000) suggests, Antonio’s coming-of-age is actually a process of separation from his family, yet acquiring the fusion of the two clans’ features. First of all, Antonio is to separate from his mother. This what his brothers do. Though they occupy little place in the narration, they play a significant role in Antonio’s life. Feeling the pressure of their mother but preferring to follow the free life dreamt of by their father, they perceive Antonio as a scapegoat who is to embody their mother’s dreams.

They do not want to live by the dreams of their parents. In chapter 8 they hold a conversation: “I mean papa’s dream about moving to California, and mama wanting us to settle along the valley”— he (Andy) said. They looked at each other uneasily. All their lives they had lived with the dreams of their father and mother haunting them..” – “Hell, Andy,” Gene said softly, “we can’t build our lives on their dreams. We’re men, Andy, not boys any longer. We can’t be tied down to old dreams“(Ch 8, p.62). They leave home finally, and that it is what Antonio is supposed to do when he grows up.

Caught into the bind of dualities, Antonio needs to overcome numerous stresses to eventually find his own way. However, unlike his brothers Antonio will combine “both waters” into something new instead of rejecting his heritage or choosing only one side. As Gabriel puts it in chapter 22 summarizing the spiritual search of his son, “every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may reform the old materials, make something new” (Ch 22, p.236). The second duality Antonio has to fuse into a unity is that of Catholic faith and the native Chicano traditions.

Antonio’s spiritual search starts within the frames of the Catholic Church. He begins to lose his innocence in Chapter 2, when Lupito kills the town sheriff and Antonio witnesses Lupito’s death, taking his last confession. Antonio becomes preoccupied with problems of sin and punishment, for the first time having to deal with an adult dilemma. His mother’s Catholic beliefs are confronted by the actions of the men of llano, who as Ultima assures him would not kill without reason. For the first time he is healed by the curandera, while the message of the Act of Contrition stays obscure for the boy.

The deaths of Narciso, Florence, Tenorio’s daughters, Tenorio and Ultima, the inability of the El Puerto priest to cure Lucas, make Antonio to question the teaching of the Catholic Church and God, good and evil. The conflict between Ultima and Tenorio, the shamanic experience, awareness of his brothers’ sins, father Byrnes’s unjust punishment of Florence, the disappointment at Communion, the realization of the nature of confession force Antonio to reconsider his dualistic perception of the world.

Meanwhile, he gets initiation into curanderismo and assists Ultima in her healing practices and is introduced into the tradition of the golden carp. As he sees the golden carp he experiences the moment of revelation: “This is what I had expected God to do at my first holy communion! If God was witness to my beholding of the golden carp then I had sinned!” (Ch. 11, p.105). Disappointed with the Catholic religion, Antonio still remains a kind of a priest, yet the one his people are not ready to follow at once.

Not for nothing does Anaya put the words of Jesus Christ into Tony’s mouth, suggests Bridget Kenava (2003). Antonio’s final cry in his dream in Chapter 22 is that of Jesus on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!” (Ch., 22, p.233). No separate view can provide him with answers. That is why Antonio combines different perspectives within his heart. Step by step Antonio becomes “a man of learning” as Ultima predicted. He acquires adult knowledge and understanding, losing his innocence.

Antonio realizes that life is not stable, but a flow of constant changes, all of which are its natural part. He comes to accept his parents’ imperfections, and witnesses his brothers’ sins.

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