Literature Analysis "Bless Me Ultima"

Vinnie Cruz

Lit. Anal.

Bless Me Ultima

Bless Me Ultima

Rudolfo Anaya

1. Rudolfo Anaya wrote a novel by the title of Bless Me Ultima, published in 1972, was written about a boy trying to find himself, as an individual. Ultima came as a girl to help guide Antonio to find his way of spiritual independence. Now, what did you see Ultima and her owl seemed to symbolize for Antonio, was she just someone on Antonio's trail or what was your take?...interesting, Ultima seemed to symbolize a lot more then just a form of guidance for Antonio, she symbolize his other side. Antonio has two parts to him that are obvious to a reader, his rebellious side that seems to question everything his parents and family wants his to believe spiritually. Ultima is the type of character that reflects a different side of a character, on the other hand is Antonio's “Spiritual” side. Antonio's part of his mind that questions things, and wants to find his spiritual independence.While the owl represents what Antonio's spirit wants to do: fly free in the wide open world as an individual. That being said it shows that freedom, and wounder seem to go about hand in hand with each other. In order for Antonino to feel like an individual he needs to find his own way of deciding his way to live, and how to run his spirit as himself instead of spitting images of his parents (which he doesn't want). With questions come answers, and with answers come a sense of understanding and interpretation of the world around you. In order to be an individual you must ask questions, and find your own way of interpreting your world around you (which I came to think is the them). Coming with these ideas what could this show the tone to be?..... Yea, the author shows multiple tones through the book, but he seems to stick to two main tones, curiosity, and Reborn. For the first half of the book it was all about Antonio asking why? Why do I listen to my parents about my spiritual way of living? He wanted to be his own person spiritually. His curiosity lead to Ultima holding a significant position in his life, a new beginning to who he is. She guided him the whole way through of becoming a spiritual individual. Once the owl of Ultima begins to die, and starts to take Ultima's life, because Ultima is kept alive with her owl: Ultima starts to die because the owl is dieing he really figures it out. Through out the novel he slowly broke free from his parents way of doing things. He had sight break throughs here and there that seemed to have him reborn in several minor ways, but at the same time, he was only just starting to break through the glass keeping him in. It wasn't until he started to lose Ultima, that he really broke free of his spiritual chains and became an individual. Before Ultima dies she request Antonio to burry the owl. Since Antonio has found his spiritual individualism, he no longer needs Ultima to symbolize his spiritually free side because he now is spiritually free. Now that he is spiritually free, he can now fly around the world in his own mind as free as the owl was, being able to do so, he no longer needs the owl either, he can burry both of them, and have completed his goal.
2. Now, on the technical side of things, what kind of literature elements did you recognize while you read, and how did it help your understanding of the text?....Yea, the author not only had a sense of tone that helped show the reader his purpose of writing a scene, but it also helped to understand what type of turn or twist the author was setting up, but he had a keen sense of using his characters in a way to show, and mean more to the story then just the basic character who supported the character through the story. He would use his side characters as a form of indirect characterization for the main character. Ultima and the owl showed different sides of Antonio like I previously said, but there were more cases of indirect characterization the author used through the book... any ideas of what they were?.. The obvious one to me was the usage with Antonio's parents. The author showed that Antonio's parents were kinda controlling weren't they? They sort of pushed their spiritual belief onto Antonio, which forced him into wanting his own spiritual individualism. Some direct characterization, the author showing that Antonio was a young boy, and also explaining that Antonio was a curious young man. When describing these things, what differences did you notice when the author was using dialogue as opposed to describing a character or a scene?... The author seemed to appeal more to a tone when he would use dialogue. His dialogue seemed to want more drama. Was Antonio static or dynamic?.. yea he was definitely static, the entire story was about Antonio changing. Which began when he was a little boy, and he grew older, while he learned how to be a spiritual individual. Reading about how Antonio changed, did it bring you close to him at all, in a way that he ment more then just a character in a book?.... Yea to me I felt like I related to the idea of him changing as he got older and wanted to find himself because I have been there, and we all have been there. Definitely a relatable topic.

Whats The Story

Dickens wrote the novel to show his view on the topic, as discussed in class. He wrote the story to show that some people see things in way that they want to see things not in the way that reality really has them as. Pip always saw things as he thought them to be, not as they were. Then again, why does anyone write anything? Maybe because they are told to in school, or are inspired by something in life. Sometimes when I write something I don't really show why I wrote what I did in the text. All I can do as a reader is guess. My thought is that Dickens wrote Great Expectations to show that even though, in life, you have great expectations from when you are a child, to when you are an adult. The people you go through life with may seem to have one type of intention for you, but they could have a complete different intention, so go through life with your expectations, not others.

Dickens Map

• Is Pip happy that he is given the opportunity to kiss the beautiful Estelle? Why or why not? (http://jpdrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/02/great-expectations-study-questions.html)

•  How does Estelle behave towards Pip? What is her disposition, character motive towards the main protagonist? (http://jpdrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/02/great-expectations-study-questions.html)
• Works of literature often depict acts of betrayal. Friends and even family may betray a protagonist; main characters may likewise be guilty of treachery or may betray their own values. Select a novel or play that includes such acts of betrayal. Then, in a well-written essay, analyze the nature of the betrayal and show how it contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. http:/sb169.k12.sd.us/Prompt%20list%20for%20IR%20with%20AP.htm]
• Miss Havisham is heart broken and left in a disarry on her wedding day when her fiance leaves her at the alter.  Coincidently this "fience" is none other than Compeyson.  In her rage at this situation Miss Havisham adopts Estella to use her to get back at men.  Do you think that this justifies how Estella acts or is her manner just naturally how she is? Do you believe that Miss Havisham has the right to corrupt someone elses life and use them for her own selfish purposes?

  (https://sites.google.com/site/mrpipsgreatexpectations/essay-time)

• Is Pip happy that he is given the opportunity to kiss the beautiful Estelle?
  http://jpdrhsenglitcomp.blogspot.com/2012/02/great-expectations-study-questions.html

Refined smart goal

My new smart goal is to better my communication skills, and learn how to communicate my ideas in a better, more affective way, to help my hope of later teaching profession.

POETRY ANALYSIS

Escape    https://www.aprweb.org/poem/student-poems

Juliet Williams, Central High School

I thought I was young and free,

but now,

now I am only

an empty cage.

Time,

you stole the animal

within me.

A Dream

In visions of the dark night                                      http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-fairy-song/
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star? 

Edgar Allan Poe

A Fairy Song

William Shakespeare

Over hill, over dale,
Thorough bush, thorough brier,                              http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-fairy-song/
Over park, over pale,
Thorough flood, thorough fire!
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon's sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green;
The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those be rubies, fairy favours;
In those freckles live their savours;
I must go seek some dewdrops here,
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 

Hand Shadows

Mary Cornish

My father put his hands in the white light
of the lantern, and his palms became a horse
that flicked its ears and bucked; an alligator
feigning sleep along the canvas wall leapt up
and snapped its jaws in silhouette, or else
a swan would turn its perfect neck and drop
a fingered beak toward that shadowed head
to lightly preen my father's feathered hair.
Outside our tent, skunks shuffled in the woods
beneath a star that died a little every day,
and from a nebula of light diffused
inside Orion's sword, new stars were born.
My father's hands became two birds, linked
by a thumb, they flew one following the other.

Nights

Kevin Hart

There’s nothing that I really want:
The stars tonight are rich and cold
Above my house that vaguely broods
Upon a path soon lost in dark.

My dinner plate is chipped all round
(It tells me that I’ve changed a lot);
My glass is cracked all down one side
(It shows there is a path for me).

My hands—I rest my head on them.
My eyes—I rest my mind on them.
There’s nothing that I really need
Before I set out on that path.

LIT TERMS 1-5

Allegory- Platos allegory of the cave, when in henry the V speech, he says, "crowns of convoy be put into his purse."
That there shows a symbol saying more then what's written.

Alliteration- Martin Luther Kings " I have a Dream" speech http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=14358231

Allusion- I was surprised his nose was not growing like Pinocchio’s.” This refers to the story of Pinocchio, where his nose grew whenever he told a lie. It is from The Adventures of Pinocchio, written by Carlo Collodi. 

Ambiguity- "Thanks for dinner. I’ve never seen potatoes cooked like that before."
(Jonah Baldwin in the film Sleepless in Seattle, 1993)

Amplification- ' I am so incredibly hungry, I could eat a horse. I haven't eaten a thing since breakfast. My stomach is making weird growling noises, like it's screaming 'food food food!'. I can't concentrate on my work and when I walk my knees go wobbly. If I don't get something to eat soon, I may simply starve to death.'

SPRING SEMESTER PLAN 1

My plan for this semester is to become a better writer in my mechanics. This will be achieved by review in class, and visually seeing what needs to be done and where, and then applying those rules to my writing.

AP PREP POST 1: SIDDHARTHA

1) If you were the river, would you be enlightenment or would you know enlightenment? In other words, what’s up with the river? What is it’s relation to enlightenment?

- (http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.html)

- This question tells me that the AP test will require a lot of critical thinking, and deep understanding of a text.

- If I was the river I would know enlightenment. The river seems to symbolize the way enlightenment is, serene and flowing in one direction, "going with the flow."

2) What does enlightenment look like in Siddhartha? Is it a feeling? An attitude?

- (http://www.shmoop.com/siddhartha/questions.html)

- This question tells me that you don't only need to understand text, but you also need to be able to understand the main point of a main character, and make connections between the character, his/her meaning, and its relationship.

- Enlightenment in Siddhartha looks more like a goal or a personality. It appears to me that the whole book he seems to be trying to compare himself to being enlightened, and he tries to better himself to get him enlightened. Like when someone has a tendency to act a certain way, but wants to act a different way so they work hard to act the way they want.

3) Siddhartha features substantial activity and narrative action. At the same time, it is about one man’s largely internal spiritual quest. What is the relationship between the internal and exterior worlds of Siddhartha? How does Siddhartha negotiate these worlds?

- (http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/siddhartha/)

-This question shows me that it is important to know what makes a character, that character. When analyzing a character there is several things that make a character act, and appear a certain ways. The author will give you several different clues that will help depict the character, and you need to be able to recognize them, and make connections.

- The relationship between the two worlds is one world shows where his in the mind, the external, and the other shows where he wants to be, enlightenment, the internal. Siddhartha negotiates these two worlds by comparing where he is in the external world as compared to his internal world.

4) Discuss this quote: “One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must

possess it. Everything else was seeking—a detour, error.”

- (http://mrsvernonsapclass.blogspot.com/2011/09/siddhartha.html)

- This question shows me that it will be important to be able to take i short excerpt, and make connection to a given.

- This quote is saying that one must find there own reason for doing something, and own that, make it personal and meaningful to them. Every other reason was going to lead you down the wrong path or toward a false answer.

5) Why does he fear that he will not find it in prescribed religious teachings?

-http://www.studymode.com/essays/Siddhartha-Reading-Questions-641015.html

- The question shows i will need to be able to identify meaningful passages in a text, and write about them in an effective way to show understanding.

- He doesn't think he will find what he is looking for in other religious views because he thinks that they have done what they were intended to do for him, and still needs help finding enlightenment.