Bless Me, Ultima

Rating:
Summary: Not that great!!!
Review: I recently finished reading Bless me Ultima as an assignment. The novel starts out by Ultima comes to live with Antonio and his family. Antonio is the narrator. Antonio's mother wants him to become a priest. Antonio does what his mother wishes and doesn't even think about not pleasing her and the family. Antonio spends all of his time doing what his mother wants. I don't think the author was realistic about real childs behavior. Anaya put so much pressure on Antonio about communions and family. Realistically, a seven year old boy is not seriously thinking about a life career being what his mother wants. Seven year old children are more interesting in playing with friends.

The book was extremely boring at the beginning, and didn't get the slightest bit interesting until the 15th chapter. Most of the whole book talks about the llano and Antonio's long drawn out dreams, which foreshadow some of what happens in the beginning. The book has ALOT of religion. The up side to the story was I was able to learn more about the Catholic religion. I don't recommend this book if you don't know some Spanish. I actually don't recommend this book at all.

Rating:
Summary: Bless Me, Ultima
Review: I would consider reading other books by Rudolfo Anaya; however, the chance of me actually reading one of his other books would be extremely low. There are so many good books out there waiting to be read that would interest me much more than anything by Anaya, that I wouldn't have the time or the will to read his books. For that same reason, I would only recommend this book to someone else if they asked about it. In that case, I would tell them that it was a pretty good book. It was thought provoking and deep, but it wasn't the most thrilling, upbeat, edge of your seat, can't wait to read more kind of book. This book would make a great movie. The slow or boring parts of the book could be cut out or spiced up to make the story more exciting. The direction and acting would have to be perfect in order to accurately depict the book. The actors would need to look rustic, act sort of rustic, and portray an almost solemn image. The book Bless Me, Ultima was well written, and the story was well thought out. This is an excellent book to read if you have nothing better to read.

Antonio is a young boy who begins his descent into manhood when Ultima, a wise and trusted friend of his mother's, comes to live with him. Antonio and Ultima are soul mates. She understands him and his needs like no one else does. Ultima is Antonio's mentor and protector. Ultima guides Antonio along his journey into manhood. She is someone he can talk to and ask questions to. When he does ask a question, Ultima gives him an answer that he does not completely understand so that Antonio can figure out the answer himself and in the process, learn something about himself or about life.

Anaya most effectively created the struggle of religion and faith. The reader could clearly see that Antonio was confused about what to believe in. For so long he had believed that God was the only god, and that at his first communion, God would enter him and answer all of his questions. When this didn't happen the way he had expected it to, he questioned his faith. When he saw the golden carp and beheld its beauty and when he began to learn the ways of Ultima's magic, he began to question his religion. This aspect of the story was the most thought provoking, to Antonio and the reader. The book also portrays the struggle between good and evil, growing up, and letting go of dreams.

Rating:
Summary: Bless Me Ultima Review Assignment
Review: I believe the major accomplishment of Bless Me Ultima was that it created a way for a reader to look through the eyes of a child who was very mature in the beginning, almost too mature, and even more mature near the end of the story. It takes you on a ride with a young man named Antonio and his mental growth during a period of two years. The literary element that stood out the most to me in this composition was tone. The tone of the book made the book. It's ideal was to guide on the thoughts of young, mature children and how they react to certain situations. Rudolpho Anaya chose to look at everything very maturely even though the main character was a young boy. It mentions that Antonio shall be a priest in the first chapter, but the opposition is that he will become a vaquero. Antonio must be mature to have such ideas about his future at his young age.

Ultima was a character who was brought into the story in the beginning of the book. She serves as a mentor to Antonio as their relationship is much like a teacher student relationship. Ultima teaches Antonio of how the world really is and about religion. She instills strong Catholic thoughts into him. Ultima also teaches Antonio how to make healing herbs and other remedies. Ultima is with Antonio the full time of his character progression. She actually develops his maturity level through the knowledge she passes on to him. After Antonio's witnessing of Lupito's shooting, Ultima cares for him and tells him things that help him to understand things. Antonio's question's were related to religion because they were also related to heaven and hell which were derived from the fate of the men shooting and the fate of the man who was shot.

The book, Bless Me Ultima, was an average read by my standards. I didn't think there was much of a wow factor in the book because the climax and action scenes were too slow to develop and weren't very promising due to the lack of actual events. The character developments were great though. This is one of the things that set the book above the rest. The character developments were long and thought out so that the reader could actually get and image of what the character would be like in real life and how they would react to certain situations. Another thing about the story was that it was difficult for me to get into. The book was more dramatic than action packed so it really isn't my type of genre. I found myself dosing off to sleep at times where the plot was thin. But I would recommend this book to fans of dramatic stories or fans of Rudolfo Anaya. I would rate this book as an average read for high school students which show much examples of literary elements and devices. I don't believe this should be a movie on account of movies don't do so well without some action or suspense. The book did none of this for me. But if it were a movie, I'd picture Antonio as a young man who gains much knowledge and matures at the same time. Ultima would be portrayed as an old wise lady who serves as Antonio's teacher, and Antonio's parents would be portrayed as having different backgrounds, thoughts, and ideas. All in all a good book.

Rating:
Summary: Thought provoking and insighting...
Review: As a requirement of our English II class for Ms. Roberts, we had to read Bless Me, Ultima. I know that many of my classmates found it to be a joke, but I quite liked the book. It was monotonous at times, but the action still kept coming. It showed the biggest differences between good and evil. Bless Me, Ultima made me realize that a person at a young age has to make very important decisions concerning his or her future. Tony, the main character, was always making decisions based on what he was taught and who taught him. For instance Ultima taught him how to use herbs and how to attain them with respect to the Earth. Later on in the book he had to attain herbs with Gabriel, his father, and he did not have Ultima with him.

Tony had to decide what his real religion was in a way. His mother wanted him to become a priest, but not only a priest. He would be the first priest in the family since his ancestors, the Lunas, came to Las Pasturas. Then again there was Cico, a friend, telling him about the Golden Carp and his godly ways. What was he to believe?

Bless Me, Ultima also showed the hardships that one could endure while they are growing into a young adult. Tony had to learn how to speak English, while he came from a Spanish-speaking family. He was well educated and he loved to learn. People were always encouraging him to go far. The gang, however, didn't pay any attention to his itelligence except for when he took his first communion and when he was skipped to the third grade.

The battle of good and evil in this book has been greatly portrayde. Ultima taught Tony what was good and what was evil. Tenerio was always threatening Ultima and the local townspeople that protected her. Tenerio's daughters were barujas or witches that do black magick. Ultima opposed their magick and brought peace to Las Pasturas and el llano (the llano is a large flat ground that is level.

The one thing that I did not like about this book is it left you hanging at the end. Rudolfo Anaya did not tell you what Tony became when he became an adult. I was interested to find out what he became since this is what the book is basically based on. I wondered if he followed his Marez blood and become a vaquero (a cowboy) or follow his mother's wishes and become a priest for the Catholic religion.

Rating:
Summary: Contradiction of Religion
Review: Reading this book from the perspective of a person who has been raised an atheist, I was not at all impressed with the strong use of Catholic rituals and beliefs that were littered so freely through the first half of the book. In fact, had we not been required to read it for English II, I would have given it up in disgust. At first I was completely put off by the vehement use of controlled religion that seemed to be pushed on the characters in the book and, therefore, on the readers.
Once the book seemed to take off, after much anticipation, I began to not hate the forcefulness of God and strict religious reference quite so much.
Towards the end, the spiritual developments that the main character has gone through seem to make the book worth the long suffering wait. The climax between good and evil seems to be directed towards the unorganized aspect of religion, as God and the Church are questioned. The author seems to realize that there are flaws no matter what religion you are, and that you cannot push your beliefs onto anyone.
I am against censorship of any kind. I believe that a person can write whatever he/she wants, and I realize that is what enables me to write this short essay now. But I do not think that such a religious book should be read by any who have been surrounded by religion pushers and atheism-haters their whole life. And I definitely do not think that such a book should be read in school, as life teaches us lessons, and I doubt any student got much of an enlightenment out of it. I may be wrong, but school is supposed to not have anything to do with God, am I correct?
Overall it was a decent book, and I probably would never have touched it had it not been given to me as an assignment. Maybe I am being too harsh on the whole religion aspect, and I suppose that everyone will have their own personal views and problems or benefits from the book.
I cannot write good reviews because I am too set in my own opinions.

Rating:
Summary: Boring yet Deep Novel
Review: This review is an extra-credit assignment for my English II Honors sophomore class. This book shows the hardships of the WW2 era, although not much affected by the war, these poor families of New Mexico are struggling to develop on a culturally-changing country. This novel had a lot of tense moments in it, but to me, these moments are hard to impress on me through writing. Perhaps because I grew up on movies, lazily making the action sequences come to me, reading an action sequence is like a chore to me. So therefore I didn't exactly like this book as much as the next one, but there is a lot, I mean a LOT of symbolism in this novel, giving you a fresh look at all of its points of view. To tell you the truth, I would consider reading some of Rudolfo Anaya's books, although I didn't like Bless Me, Ultima, he could do a lot better, and I have room for him to see his other work. I would rate this book (on a scale of one-ten), a six. The reasons I took off four is because it was boring at most parts, but the symbolism and the emotions in it really saved this sinking ship. I do not believe this novel should be turned into a movie for multiple reasons: the book is far too extensive to try to portray in film, and it is best to leave it as a book and let the reader imagine what the characters look like and act like. I portray the characters as dull pieces of work that need a severe tune-up because they just bore the heck out of the reader. Yet, the writing style partly makes up for them.

Rating:
Summary: Bless Me Ultima...
Review: I would not suggest this book. It puts you to sleep

Rating:
Summary: Boring yet Deep
Review: This book shows the hardships of the WW2 era, although not much affected by the war, these poor families of New Mexico are struggling to develop on a culturally-changing country. This novel had a lot of tense moments in it, but to me, these moments are hard to impress on me through writing. Perhaps because I grew up on movies, lazily making the action sequences come to me, reading an action sequence is like a chore to me. So therefore I didn't exactly like this book as much as the next one, but there is a lot, I mean a LOT of symbolism in this novel, giving you a fresh look at all of its points of view. To tell you the truth, I would consider reading some of Rudolfo Anaya's books, although I didn't like Bless Me, Ultima, he could do a lot better, and I have room for him to see his other work. I would rate this book (on a scale of one-ten), a six. The reasons I took off four is because it was boring at most parts, but the symbolism and the emotions in it really saved this sinking ship. I do not believe this novel should be turned into a movie for multiple reasons: the book is far too extensive to try to portray in film, and it is best to leave it as a book and let the reader imagine what the characters look like and act like. I portray the characters as dull pieces of work that need a severe tune-up because they just bore the heck out of the reader. Yet, the writing style partly makes up for them.

Rating:
Summary: It kinda left me hanging...
Review: I just finished reading "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya a few weeks ago for my English class, and I don't really find the book very interesting. The book is written from Antonio's point of view, talking about his childhood(when he was only turning 7).

It started with Ultima, a curandera, staying at the Marez household for she was invited to live with them because she is old and has nowhere else to stay. Ultima has helped many families, especially the Luna and Marez family. It continued with Antonio witnessing Lupito shot by the river. A few days later, Antonio's three older brothers came home from world war II, but two of them left for Vegas a few days later. Antonio was upset, but was still kinda happy because one of his brothers stayed home to work and go back to school. Later on in the story, Antonio's Uncle Lucas was cursed by the Trementina sisters because he witnessed them make their special dance to the devil himself. Ultima was asked to help Lucas for nobody else can heal him. The best doctors and healers have tried, but nothing changed in Lucas' condition. Ultima, with the help of Antonio, fought evil and turned the curse around. Antonio's family, together with the townspeople, were very glad and thankful that Ultima was able to win against evil. Fall started, and Antonio had to go to school for the first time. He was nervous, but he survived the school year very well. As a matter of fact, he even got to skip second grade and move on to third grade! His whole family, especially Ultima, were very proud of him. Tenorio Trementina became angry because one of his daughters died. He cursed and called Ultima a witch. He wanted to kill Ultima. Narcisco, however, tried to prevent this with all his might. He even risked his own life to save Ultima's. He died by the juniper tree. A little before spring, Antonio received his first confession, and a few days later he received his first communion. He thought after receiving first communion, all his questions will be answered by God. He wants to know why all the good people die, but the evil ones like Tenorio are still alive. Then his two older brothers came back home and left again a few days. This time, Andrej went with them. Antonio wondered if he'll ever be able to spend time with them. A few days back, Antonio's friend, Cico introduced him to another 'god'. It's the golden carp, the god who forgives and punishes those who deserves it. Very few people know about the golden carp. Cico and Antonio were about to tell Florence about the golden carp because he doesn't believe in God, but Florence drowned and died. Towards the end of the story, Tenorio's other daughter died. He is now determined to take Ultima's life away from her. Many people tried to save Ultima's life. There was Antonio, who walked some ten miles to warn Ultima, his mother's brothers to fight Tenorio, and his father. Unfortunately, Tenorio was able to kill Ultima's owl, who was her spirit. She died a few minutes later. Tenorio was immediately shot by one of Antonio's uncle.

I didn't really like the book because it kinda left me hanging. Many people wanted Antonio to become a priest, some wanted him to be a farmer, and others wanted him to bring out the true Marez blood. Anaya never said what Antonio became to be when he got older. Also, it got me upset and it made me feel sorry for Antonio. For such a young boy, I think it's just depressing that he witnessed so many deaths. There was Lupito, Narcisco, Florence, the Owl, and Ultima. That is just awful! The book is full of actions, and I will not want it to be a movie because I think it will be full of violence especially with all the cursing of the kids from Antonio's school! Does Anaya not like kids? The way I see it, he doesn't seem to like kids because they weren't good and cussed a lot in this book.

A pretty interesting book, full of proving love and thankfulness for each other, and of course, action. I will only recommend this book to a few selected friends.

Rating:
Summary: the book according to Josh's world
Review: I think when Ultima put a curse on the Trementina sisters, it made Tenorio hungry for revenge, and eventually killed her. "The curse of the Trementinas shall bend and fly in their faces." (p.97) That means Ultima put the curse on the three sisters. "Tenorio has blamed la Grande for his daughter's death!" (p.128) This shows that Tenorio was probably more than a little angry. "I have killed the owl [Ultima] with a bullet molded by the Prince of Death!...The witch is dead, my daughters are avenged!" (p.258) That means he killed Ultima by killing the owl, and had his revenge. It would seem that Ultima putting the curse on the Tremintina witches changed the course of the story.

The relationship between Antonio and Ultima is very close. They seem to share a bond that nobody else knows about. "This was the last child I pulled from your womb, María. I knew there would be something between us." (p. 12) Antonio was a changing young boy who was trying to decide who he was. "Oh please tell me which is the water that runs through my veins." (p.120) This shows his struggle of who he is more like, his mother or his father. Ultima's part in the story was to be the one to help Antonio along his way. "She took the thin and placed it around my neck... 'A small pouch of helpful herbs...It will keep you safe.'" (p.124) This shows her giving Antonio some magic protection to help him grow up. Antonio learned that Ultima's power was stronger than that of a priest. "Was it possible that there was more power in Ultima's magic than in the priest?" (p.99) Ultima had taken off the curse that the priest could not.

This book was okay, but it took way too long for the climax. It was really lacking energy for a large part of the book. I might consider reading another of his books, but I doubt it, if they're similar to this one, because I would probably skip to the end just to avoid the pointless parts. I would not recommend this book to a friend because I'm not that bad of a friend, I don't think anybody wants to read such a boring book, with only one or two interesting parts. I would rate this book a five out of ten because it's not horrible, it's just not good either. A movie version would be better, because it would be more interesting, I think. I believe that having the book partially in Spanish made it harder to comprehend, so having it all in English would have been better. Otherwise, it wasn't too bad.