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.