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Title: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya ISBN: 0-446-60025-3 Publisher: Warner Books Pub. Date: 01 April, 1994 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (163 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The supernatural world in the Southwest
Comment: Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, is a story of maturation of a young Hispanic American boy named Antonio, during the 1940's. This story, though it sounds fairly straight forward, is anything but average. Bless Me, Ultima mixes the supernatural world and the traditional Catholic ideals. The young protagonist must choose for himself his fate whether to be a priest/farmer and follow his mother's wishes or to become a man of the flesh like his father's people. The boy is torn by his high morals and sins that are occurring around him. The novel tries to answer many of life's moral questions such as this. The author accomplishes this. His mentor and closest friend, Ultima, uses the spiritual world of herbs and medicine to counteract against the evil that had taken place in the small towns in New Mexico. Ultima represents pure goodness and the character named Tenorio is a representation of pure evil. The last "showdown", is the ultimate battle between goodness and evil, like in the book of Revelations in the New Testament Bible which depicts goodness to ultimately win over evil and the people are saved from the sins of the world. "It is because good is always stronger than evil... The smallest bit of good can stand against all the powers of evil in the world and it will emerge triumphant"(Bless Me, Ultima 98). In many ways, this novel has parallels to the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Much of the novel is spent chasing evil in the form of witches. As in The Crucible, innocent people are accused of witchery because the townspeople were fearful of things they could not understand. Antonio sums up human nature by saying, "I think most of the things we call evil are not evil at all; it is just that we don't understand those things and so we call them evil. And we fear evil only because we do not understand it. When we went to the Téllez ranch I was afraid because I did not understand what was happening, but Ultima was not afraid because she understood-" (248). The accuser who takes revenge against the pure goodness of Ultima takes her life but not her soul. The goodness is left in the form of young Antonio. Evil actions that takes place in the towns of New Mexico included: prostitution, drunkeness, witchcraft, having other gods, and murder. Through maturation Antonio is able to ask himself, must one lose their innocence? "Had I already lost my innocence? How? I had seen Lupito murdered... I had seen Ultima's cure... I had seen the men come to hang her... I had seen the awful fight just now... I had seen and reveled in the beauty of the golden carp! ...How had I sinned?" (165). This is a major theme important to people living in the 20th century. Antonio is witness to all of these sacreligious actions and questions where God is to let these things to happen. He is very unsure of his faith towards God since he sees three deaths, Florence, Narciso, and Lupito. Antonio goes on further on to ask himself, does one gain understanding by losing innocence? His father's answer was simply stated, yet with much truth, "understanding comes with life, as a man grows he sees life and death, he is happy and sad, he works, plays, meets people-sometimes it takes a lifetime to acquire understanding, because in the end understanding simply means having a sympathy for people" (248). How could we make sense of the deaths, though? Three of the towns deaths were beings who were evil: two of the witches who cursed Lucas, and their father Tenorio. As the deaths of the evil were necessary for the end of the witch hunt, the goodness is also believed to die to bring the town back to harmony. According to the Bible, this fight between goodness and evil is predicted to occur at the end of the world. At this time, the believers of the savior will be saved, while the unforgiven go to either Hell or Purgatory. A major question for the working class and Antonio is education help you in life? My answer to how I believe the author would answer this is that school education helps us progress in this world, but only the religion will help you get through the after life. This novel asks the major questions posed in humanity and deals with it in an innocent yet knowledgeable way. Looking through young Antonio's eyes, we can see from the perspective of the innocent what is wrong with our beliefs and in general, our world. Anaya does a fantastic job asking question and answering in his own way some of life's unexplainable happenings. I would recommend this book to everyone, but especially for those looking for answers to why bad things happen and how to overcome them.
Rating: 4
Summary: An excellent chicano story
Comment: Bless Me Ultima, is a book I would recommend for 6th graders and up. Bless Me Ultima deals with issues many young adult can relate to, such as developing an identity and religion. The novel focuses a lot on the theme of religion. Many teenagers struggle understanding what religion is all about. We grow up going to church with our parents every Sunday, wether we like it or not, and wether we are getting it or not. In Bless Me Ultima,Antonio stands between his mother Maria who is a devoutly catholic and his father Gabriel who is a cowboy. Antonio decides not to follow either one, but to stand by Ultima who is a Curandera (healer). Ultima tells Antonio,"As you grow into manhood you must develop your own truths." These are powerful words for any teenager. As a parent we often think for our children, decide for our children and take actions for our children. As children grow, it is important to allowed them to find their own identity,not what we want them to be. In the novel Antonio's mother wanted him to be a priest. That made Antonio terrified and afraid to do wrong. In the other hand Antonio's father wanted him to be just like him. I believe for some of us parents that is usually normal. We expect our children to be more like us and often better than us. I believe strongly that we need to set limits and allow children to be who they want to be as long as they are not harming themselves or others. Antonio had to make a decision through his life experiences that would ultimately help him decide which road to take and what to believe. He also had to keep an open mind, which for many teenagers is hard to do,but at the end it is them who benefit from it. Rodolfo Anaya's way of writing is powerful because it touches the reader in an emotional way. He makes it easy for the reader to understand the chicano culture.
Rating: 4
Summary: Mystic and Stunning
Comment: I was impressed by this book. I found the langnuage as goreous as ever, and the story was beautiful itself. It contains scenes I will concider forever some of the most beautiful I will ever imagine.
Strangely enough, this isn't my kind of book though.
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Title:Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima": A Study Guide from Gale's "Novels for Students" ASIN: B00006G3M4 Publisher: The Gale Group Pub. Date: 23 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $3.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $3.95 |
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Title: The House on Mango Street by SANDRA CISNEROS ISBN: 0679734775 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 03 April, 1991 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Ceremony (Contemporary American Fiction Series) by Leslie Marmon Silko ISBN: 0140086838 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: March, 1988 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Saanii Dahataal: The Women Are Singing: Poems and Stories (Sun Tracks, Vol 23) by Luci Tapahonso ISBN: 0816513619 Publisher: University of Arizona Press Pub. Date: February, 1993 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Woven Stone (Sun Tracks, Vol. 21) by Simon J. Ortiz ISBN: 0816513309 Publisher: University of Arizona Press Pub. Date: November, 1992 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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