Conflicts Stimulate Maturity Essay

Rudolfo Anayas Bless Me, Ultima is the premiere in a trilogy relating the trials and tribulations encountered as an girlish in New Mexico. Many calculate it to be classic Chicano fiction in that it portrays New Mexican traditions and lifespanstyles the average ratifier had most likely never encountered patch transcending a mere portrait of the southwestern by representing Antonios rites of passage into due date in a hu existencekindner to which closely any adept can relate (University of New Mexico). The reviewer follows along as Antonio moves from childish artlessness to upstartfound maturity through with(predicate) a series of crises and involutions.They begin with Ultimas arriver and end with her death, stimulating Antonios weird search and moving him closer to adulthood. along the way, Antonio struggles through a duality of impinges, convinced he must choose tho one side of his heritage nonwithstanding made uncertain by his loyalties and tactual sensations for each. maturity is terminally reached when he concreteizes the solution is to priming the differing elements in his family. In this way he finds satisfaction for both(prenominal) his inner needs and external influences.The conflicts triggering Antonios maturation be the bequeath of the dualities in Antonios life his induces versus his comes families, the Catholic religious belief versus curanderismo, western sandwich versus Chicano culture, and romance versus reality. His familys heritage is one of the impetuses to Antonios soul searching. On his engenders side is a heritage of universality and farmers who worked off the shoot down on his fusss side resides a Latino citizenry who made their living as vaqueros on the llano. His m early(a) wishes Antonio to become a non-Christian priest musical composition his father wishes he carry on in the Margonz tradition.This conflict is made clear through Antonios dream of his birth his m some others family brings him gift s of acres fresh green chili and corn, ripe apples and peaches, pumpkins and green beans (Anaya, 5), while his fathers family destroys them and provides, instead, a saddle, horse blankets, bottles of whiskey, a new rope, bridles, chapas, and an old guitar (Anaya, 5). While both families rely on the landed estate and its bountifulness to provide, they have dissenting attitudes. It is the goal of the Margonzes to full of life free upon the earth and roam oer it while the Lunas jazz tied to the earth and its cycles (Lamadrid, 498).Antonio asks Ultima Now we have come to sustain near the river, and yet near the llano. I love them both, and yet I am of n either. I wonder which life I pass on choose? (Anaya, 38), voicing his concerns e trulyplace the ability to pick just one lifestyle. fit to Black (155 157), Antonios coming-of-age involves separating from his family while integrating features from both sides. The young man is anticipate to physically separate from his mothe r as his brothers have done. Though they submit little of the text, Andy and Gene likewise move significant roles in Antonios life.In their minds, all their passs they had lived with the dreams of their father and mother persistent them. (Anaya, 62) and Gene avers, We cant be tied d have to old dreams (Anaya, 62). The brothers ar relieved, whence, that Antonio is the scapegoat who can please their mother by embodying her dreams, leaving them free to succeed their own. Antonio is variant than Andy and Gene, preferring, instead, to use both wet and manufacture a new lifestyle. Gabriel succinctly sums up his sons ghostlike search like this every man is a part of his past. He cannot break off it, but he may see the light the old materials, make something new (Anaya, 236).A further conflict in Antonios life is the dic warmingomy of the Catholic religion as opposed to Chicano beliefs and practices. He begins his uncanny search with the Catholic church, becoming preoccupy w ith sin and its consequences. After avowing the death of the towns sheriff and Lupito, he gives confession. Antonio struggles with the meaning of the dress of Contrition, the nature of confession, and his disappointment with the Communion ritual. He head words the churchs teachings regarding divinity and its definitions of safe and evil, particularly after the deaths of Tenorio and his daughters, Narciso, and Florence.The author states, The boy is wrestling with the questions of good and evil and why evil exists in this world (McDonald, from de Mancelos, 4). Although Antonio wonders, Was it realizable that there was to a greater extent power in Ultimas magic than in the priest? (Anaya, 99), it is Ultima who consoles him when the Catholic priest fails to heal Lucas. Ultima reaffirms Antonios faith in his fellow some by assuring him that the men of the llano would not resort to the act of killing another(prenominal) without good reason. She initiates him into the art of cur anderismo.As Antonio begins assisting Ultima in her healing practices, he is introduced to the legend of the favorable carp. When he sees the mythical golden carp, Antonio receives a moment of revelation This is what I had expected God to do at my initial holy communion If God was witness to my beholding of the golden carp then I had sinned (Anaya, 105). Antonio does not give up his dream of being a priest, even up though is severely disappointed by the Catholic religion. He becomes a assorted kind of spiritual leader, one his people ar not quite bustling to behave.In a dream, Antonio cries out to messiah as he suffers on the regulate My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Anaya, 233). He is ineffectual to fully believe in either Catholicism or curanderismo and consequently decides to trustfulness the two unalike perspectives to gain his own answers. Antonio ultimately becomes a man of scholarship as Ultima had predicted. He acquires bonkledge and soul along the way to maturity. Antonio appreciates that life is course ever changing. He accepts his pargonnts flaws as salutary as his brothers sins.He realizes the extent of damage and accepts that others, too, are not firm in their beliefs, while recognizing his own sins. The duality of Western and Chicano cultures in his heritage is another conflict Antonio must resolve. The author represents three different acculturations assimilation, integration and rejection (Black, 146). According to Black, Antonios brothers are assimilated into the Anglo world in ways that response in their desire to leave la familia and move into the dominant cultural welkin because they reject their heritage, they lose their culture (149).Antonio does a better job of assimilating his social identity with Angle culture through adaptation the innocence which our isolation render could not last forever, and the affairs of the town began to reach across our bridge and work out my life (Anaya, 14). Antonio begins hi s assimilation in school. He retains his heritage by speaking Spanish and eating his traditional Chicano lunch of hot beans and some good, green chile intent in tortillas (Anaya, 54). Although, as he says, the other children saw my lunch and they laughed and pointed again, the experience reminded him of the existence of prejudice (Anaya, 54).It makes him feel different until he finally finds friends who share his Chicano root and he is able to cover his loneliness. This also helps him to realize that he can live in both worlds. Antonio strives to learn slope and stay in school, in involve contrast to the rest of his family. At home, he is educated about Chicano culture through Ultimas teachings. She urges him to appreciate the beauty of the land and embrace the ancient wisdom of curanderas. His family are the instructors in such things as in the flesh(predicate) integrity and the Chicano way of life.Belief in myth as opposed to the reality presented by history also create a con flict in Antonio. According to Lamadrid, there is an important relation amongst myth and the socio-cultural identity of traditional Chicanos (497). He uses examples such as that of la llorona (wailing woman) to dress myth as the collective exposition and mediation of the contradictions in the historical and ecological experience of a people (Lamadrid, 496). This assumption becomes clear in examining Antonios government agency of evil and native power he believes La llorona is luring him, but he resists and escapes death.Ultimately, Antonio learns to accept that life is the greater reality and understands the tragical consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human heart (Anaya, 237). He remembers Ultimas teachings, which help him to take lifes experiences and build strength from them and not helplessness (Anaya, 248). As de Mancelos states, Antonio must understand the other side of the myth, the legends, the indigenous beliefs and the p ower of the earth as well as more traditional religious beliefs (5).An apocalyptic return the development of the first atomic flop for use in World contend II combat juxtaposes with Antonios increase awareness. According to Lamadrid, the awareness of the characters of the apocalyptic bane of the atomic bombdemonstrates a real and historical dimension of revelation (500). Upon its arrival, the resolution women dress in mourning clothes, wander that the bomb resembles a ball of sportsmanlike heat beyond the imagination, beyond snake pit and lay the blame on sensual Anglos Man was not made to know so muchthey compete with God, they push the seasons, they seek to know more than God Himself.In the end, that knowledge they seek will destroy us all (Anaya, 183). The settlement witnesses the loss of a large estimate of husbands and sons during the war while the state hosts the very first test of the atomic bomb. sluice Antonio is affected as his brothers return from avail t raumatized. According to the villagers, these are all signs of an apocalypse requiring the need for a synthesisin this new time of crisis (Lamadrid, 500). Antonio is fortunate comely to create his own synthesis by continuing his ties to the desert and La Virgen de Guadalupe, la llorona and the brotherhood of the golden carp.His cultural conflicts are settled because of his synchronicity with Ultimas belief that the purpose of his life is to do good. Her final blessing, Always have the strength to live. admire life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the flatus is gentle and the owls sing in the hills are the words he will live by(Anaya, 247). Antonios maturity comes as the result of completing a journey which alternately takes him away from, and then back to, his heritage. The conflicts of aggressive factions in his life cause him to question the values and beliefs of each and come up with his own explanation.Rather than refusing his heritage, Anto nio fuses the differences and acquires a stinkiness of experience and strength of character. Along with this new understating, Antonio looks forward to a future base on the past but open(a) to new possibilities a mature watch indeed. Works Cited Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima. New York Warner Books, 1999. Black, Debra B. clock of Conflict Bless Me, Ultima as a Novel of Acculturation. Bilingual Review, Vol. 25 (2), 2000, pp. 146-159. de Mancelos, Joao. Witchcraft, Initiation, and Cultural Identity in Rudolfo Anayas Bless Me, Ultima.Revista de Letras, serie II, 3, 2004. 129-134. Lamadrid, Enrique R. Myth as the cognitive Process of Popular Culture in Rudolfo Anayas Bless Me, Ultima The Dialectics of Knowledge. Hispania, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Sep. 1985), pp. 496-501. Stone, Dan. An Interview with Rudolfo Anaya. National Endowment for the arts The Big Read. January 4, 2007. Retrieved October 15, 2008 from the NEA website http//www. neabigread. org/books/blessmeultima/anaya04_about. ph p. University of New Mexico. Writing the sou-west Rudolfo Anaya. Retrieved October 15, 2008 from the UNM website http//www. unm. edu/wrtgsw/anaya. html.