Rating: 
Summary: Bless Me, Ultima, please?
Review: Bless Me, Ultima is a book I would recommend because it deals with issues young adults can relate to, such as, developing our own personal identity. Not what our mother wants, our father wants, what our family expects, but, our "own." Antonio, the main protagonist of this novel, has to face the opposing forces in his life to create himself, a combination of all he has lived through. Ultima tells Antonio, "as you grow into manhood you must develop your own truths (112)." I agree, as we become older, hence wiser, we must take our own stands, make our own decisions, our own beliefs. We can not expect our parents to decide for us, tell us what to believe. We have to take responsibility for our actions. This one human universal concern was developed by Rudolfo Anaya, through the reoccuring theme of the loss of innocence in the novel. In order to develop a personal identity as young adults, one must lose their innocence, that is, leave their childhood behind (if at all possible). Antonio realizes that "the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever(14)." Here, Antonio recognizes that although we may mant to maintian the child within, full of innocence and no knowledge about the world, it is almost an impossible and inevitable event in life, that may not be improvised, posponed, or prolonged.
Ultimately, all in all, Bless Me, Ultima is a great novel easy to read, and to relate to as it deals with issues we have all encountered to an extent. That painful transition fron childhood to young adulthood, which results in the development of our own personal identity, through the loss of innocence.
Rating:
Summary: Bless Me, Ultima
Review: "Bless Me, Ultima" is an excellent book that many teenagers can identify with. The theme of faith is exposed throughout the entire novel and it is one in which all teenagers struggle to understand. Adolescents have a general tendency to question everything in their search to find their personal identity. Religion assists them in their understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Antonio is the main character of the novel, which as a young child constantly questioned the beliefs forced upon him. He was caught in between two different systems that to some extent tormented him. These two systems came from each parent. His mother Maria had high expectations of Antonio to become a priest. She was a devout Catholic who associated growing up with sin and punishment. Antonio became terrified of becoming a sinner:
"My own mother had said that losing your innocence and
becoming a man was a learning sin. I felt weak and
powerless in the knowledge of the impeding doom. When
would this happen...It could today, tomorrow, a week,
a hundred year, but it would happen." Antonio's father, Gabriel, on the other hand, was not a believer of Christianity. He believed in the land. He believed that the land was sacred and that hurting the land was a sin. He viewed growing up as a process that was neither good nor bad. Gabriel pressured Antonio to love the land so as to pass on the family tradition of becoming a cowboy.
It was these two conflicts that collided and emerged during Antonio's First Communion when he expected to literally feel a sense of communion with this Catholic God. Instead he felt nothing and from this day forward he was in search of the truth. Antonio had to make a decision through his life experiences that would utlimately help him decide which road to take and what to believe. He had to keep an open mind and come to the realization that these two different religions were just different ways of making sense of the same issues.
Rating:
Summary: Favorite
Review: This is an excellent book depicting the cuentos of our ancestry. If I could rate it higher than a 5, I certainly would. I recommend it to anyone who wants to touch base with the superstitions of their ancestors.
Rating:
Summary: One of the great 1970's books, eaisly comparable to Marquez
Review: Bless me Ultima is a very easy, but complex novel to read. It is perfect for teenagers because the main character goes through the same problems that all teenagers have to go through in the book. The book is about a boy who grows out of innocence, it is about a boy who has to make decoctions about his family and his life. Antonio is the main character, at the beginning of the novel he sees death for the first time, and when he sees death he becomes less innocent. Ultima tells Antonio in one of his dreams that, "Innocence is understanding", this means that when you understand, you are no longer innocent. Anaya uses great metaphors and beautiful language to prove this point to us. Innocence is a major part of the novel, but not the only part, and perhaps not even the most important part of the novel. Antonio is raised to believe that god is god and that you should never doubt him, but one day someone tells him about The Golden Carp, this confuses Antonio because The Golden Carp is a new god, and now he has to choose between what he wants to believe in, god, or the carp? This is a huge part of the book, but we must always look at the UNIVERSAL theme of the book, not just what the characters go through. So the book is about making decisions, we could believe in something, but something else might say its wrong, so the book is about finding out what you believe in, and not letting it go. So now, find out what you believe in, look deep inside of yourself and decide whether you actually believe in it, or if you are just believing it because others tell you it's right.
Rating:
Summary: Best Ever
Review: I first read Bless Me, Ultima 20 years ago and recently re-read it. I loved it then and I loved it even more this time around. It reminds me of the "cuentas" (stories) my mother used to tell us of the brujas and curanderas in our little northern New Mexico town. I recommend it to everyone!
Rating: 
Summary: Just didn't get it
Review: Although the characters, the general story line, and the writer's style kept me engaged, I guess I just didn't "get" this book. I just never figured out what Anaya was trying to tell me. It seems clear that all the characters and events are allegorical in some way, but I simply couldn't make the connections. I found the juxtaposition of catholocism and mysticism interesting, but the young narrator's wisdom and enlightenment was simply off-putting. I mean, come on, the kid is supposed to be 5 years old when the story starts, and what--6 or 7 at the end? His level of self awareness and reflection rivals that of a philosophy grad student. If the main character had at least been adolescent, I MAY have believed he existed. . .
Rating:
Summary: Hypnotic and Magical... a true chicano work of art
Review: I read this for a class almost ten years ago... and I have shared this book with everyone from my brothers and sisters to my cousins, grandmother and even work collegues ever since. This book awakens every ounce of magic you have in your mind, body and soul. It's a great work of fiction with every aspect you could ever want in a story: Action, Good vs. Evil, History, Love, Family, Pride, Justice... You name it, it's got it. The best character I've ever met in any novel... Ultima... guides us through building our own sense of pride for our culture and allows us to grow as she shows us the most important things to live for. This is a story for the entire family and crosses multitudes of cultures... Read this to yourself or to your kids, and I'm telling you -- YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: If you grow up Hispanic, you know what Anaya is telling us.
Review: Antonio Marez reminds me of the child I once was. Growing up with the mix of cultures and superstitions of Spaniards and Native American makes you wonder about the true god. I have also known other "Ultimas" and other stories of curses and witchcraft; stories that are kept quiet for fear of ridicule. The reality of the relationship of many Hispanics with the occult, and how Catholicism is often mixed with Santeria, and espiritismo is exposed in this book.
Anaya is a great writer, very easy to read, but you do need to know some Spanish, and some Spanish Culture to really understand this book.
I wish that this book would have helped some to break free from superstition and occultism. But Anaya is almost preaching his belief in the old religions.
Rating:
Summary: A Life of a Boy
Review: Through one's journey, one will face and overcome all the hardships and conflicts, as the consequence, one will attain knowledge, maturity, and experience through those conflicts and live upon it. The theory has been testified through the everlasting history, and also Rudolfo Anaya shows it explicitly in his novel, Bless Me Ultima. The novel, Bless Me Ultima, basically is about a six years old young boy's, Antonio, journey to the world he has never believed in before, to the world between good and evil, where no one is innocent and pure virtuous, to the world where everyone sins against each other. Antonio, the main character, as the apprentice of Ultima, the curandera or the healer, he learns the knowledge of goodness and power of nature, from his mentor and also as a close friend, Ultima. While Antonio learning the ethic and moral behavior from Ultima, he also sees and interferes with the sinister evil that exists within people's deepest desire and greed. On the way of dealing with evil, Antonio loses his innocent and also he comprehends that "nothing in the world is fair", everyone has to deal everything with his or her every own power. At the end, Ultima is devoured by the evil, Antonio loses people he cares about, but the things he will never lose again is the fact that there is no absolute power that will devastate and ravage evil and the knowledge he receives from Ultima and the world. Evil will never end as long as the greed in people's heart will not to be destroyed.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging
Review: Rudalfo Anaya's novel captures very clearly the dualities of life. The innocence of childhood and its difficulty, paganism and organized religion, the need for personal freedom and the desire to please those around you/feel secure, etc. I think the complaints about the lack of realism are not well founded. Anaya has not set out to write a realistic novel. The childhood events are seen through a sort of magical lens that allows them to morph into literal visions of symbolic ideas. And, yes, there is a good amount of Spanish in the novel, but it does not hinder a non-Spanish speaking person's ability to comprehend the action. There is a perfect blend of free-spirited adventure and fun, mixed with the difficult decisions that children must make concerning what they will believe and what ideology with govern their lives. It is true that the main character is extremely mature for a child, but we must allow Anaya a little poetic license to make the story complex enough to be truly engaging for adults. Anyone interested in an entertaining story that is not afraid to tackle big questions (particularly religous issues; why doesn't God listen? Why do people have to suffer?) should enjoy this work.
|
