Literary Analysis #1 Bless Me, Ultima

1. Briefly summarize the plot of the novel you read.
     Antonio Marez is almost seven years old when he has the cuarandera, Ultima, come to live with him and his family. She is a healer and the family has taken her in because of her known magical powers and healing ability. Antonio's mother really wants him to be a priest when he grows up because she is so into her Catholic religion, but his father wants Antonio to follow in his footsteps and also become a farmer. Throughout the weeks Antonio and Ultima spend a lot of time together and when they are out on the land picking plants, Antonio witnesses the death of Lupito, a soldier. That moment is when he essentially loses his innocence and from there on out has many questions about life.
     Antonio has three older brothers who are fighting in the war, when they come home, the father is excited so they can all work hard and eventually move out to California. Unfortunately, the brothers are traumatized from war and each want to do their own thing. This saddens papa. Antonio asks his mom why there are so many conflicts and she says that he will understand when he takes his First Communion.
     One day Antonio meets Samuel, they become friends and Samuel takes Antonio down to the river to tell him about the golden carp. The golden carp is a huge carp who is a river god who looks out for mankind. The things that Samuel tells him conflict with his Catholic religion and he wonders a lot about his beliefs. Another thing that challenges him is when his Uncle Lucas is cursed by the Trementina sisters who worship Satan. Ultima is the only one who could cure the uncle and Antonio realizes that there is no way to explain Ultima's powers through the Catholic Church.
     Antonios other friend tells him that only people who believe in the golden carp get to see it and that if people do not stop sinning that that the carp will flood the world to get rid of all the evil. An example of the sinning would be that one day Antonio sees Tenorio, the father of the three satanic sisters, and he is going to kill Ultima but Narciso intervenes and tries to stop him. Tenorio shoots Narciso right in front of Antonios eyes. He keeps having bad dreams and thinking about what he saw. The day is getting closer for Antonio to have his communion as different voices flood his head. Everyone seems to push him away from the Catholic way and he is confused. When Antonio finally eats the communion bread, he feels no different and still wonders how there could be so much sin.
     Ultima continues to teach Antonio of good and they realize that Tenorio made his girls do the haunting to get revenge. Ultima clears all of the spells from the house but once Tenorio's second daughter also got ill he started threatening Ultima even more. That summer, Antonio goes to live with his cousins and learns to tend to the land and on his walk back home, Tenorio is chasing him. Ultima intervenes and saves Antonio but Tenorio shoots Ultima's owl. The owl is her guardian and her spirit, when the owl dies, she dies. Immediately, Ultima got very ill and past away. Antonio buried the owl as she requested.

2. Succinctly describe the theme of the novel. Avoid cliches.
     The main theme of this novel is the loss of innocence. Antonio views things that make him lose his innocence several times. The first incident would be when Antonio witnesses the death of Lupito with Ultima. That was his first interaction with death and it stuck with him for a long time. Also when Antonio started to realize that people were not purely good was a big eye opener for him. The Trementina sisters haunting his uncle's house was also a confusing topic for Antonio. He wanted to believe that everybody was good but in such a short time he was exposed to many evils. Antonio also wanted to believe that the church would answer all of his questions but he found out that it did not.

3. Describe the author's tone.  Include three excerpts that illustrate your point(s).
     The author of Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya, writes the novel with a serious and lyrical poetic tone. He refers a lot to nature since they are farmers and Ultima is a cuarandera.  Since Antonio is the narrator and he is telling a story of the past when Ultima was alive, he is sad when telling the story. The tone matches how Antonio feels throughout the story.

1) "I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her (Ultima) I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things" page 15

2) "The sun was good. The men of the llano were men of the sun. The men of the farms along the river were men of the moon. But we were all children of the white sun." page 27

3) "There are so many dreams to be fulfilled, but Ultima says a mans destiny must unfold itself like a flower, with only the sun and the earth and water making it blossom, and no one else meddling in it." page 223

4. Describe five literary elements/techniques you observed that strengthen your understanding of the theme and/or your sense of the tone.  Include three excerpts (for each element) that will help your reader understand each one.

Translational Dialogue (Many of the quotes have Spanish words or phrases. It is a bilingual book.)

Use of didactic (refers to literature of other types of art that are instructional or informative, in this case the bible when talking about God and religion)

Symbolism (Golden carp, Ultimas owl, Virgen de Guadalupe)

Use of Nostalgia (written by narrator about events of his early youth)

Use of Figurative Language