Narciso tries to stop him, and in front of Antonio, Tenorio shoots and kills Narciso. Antonio comes down with a high fever and has frightening and symbolic dreams.
At last, the time comes for Antonio to begin preparing for his Communion. But he seems to be surrounded by dissenting voices—that of his father, who seems to worship the earth more than he does the Christian God, and that of his friend Florence, who incisively points out the failings in Catholic thought.
When Antonio finally takes Communion on Easter Sunday, he feels no different than he felt before. He still does not understand how there could be evil in the world or what kind of forgiveness is possible in a world of sin. Ultima continues to teach Antonio lessons about moral independence and goodness.
He goes with her to dispel the ghosts in a haunted house, and they discover that Tenorio has caused the haunting in order to take revenge on the man who owns the house.
Not long after that, Florence drowns while swimming in the river. Ultima sends Antonio to stay with his uncles to recover from the shock, and he spends a happy summer with them, learning how to tend a farm. When the owl dies, Ultima is doomed to die as well because the owl is her spiritual familiar, or guardian.
Antonio sits with her at her bedside and buries the owl as she requests after she dies. Ace your assignments with our guide to Bless Me, Ultima! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. He hopes that his first communion will finally answer all of his questions but is disappointed when God remains silent to him. Antonio's mother associates the loss of innocence with sin and corruption, but Antonio eventually understands that loss of innocence is a crucial part of growing up.
While the Luna are devout farmers who worship the earth and the moon, the Marez are free-spirited cowboys who are devoted to horses and the sun. However, Antonio is unwilling to make a decision either way and feels a great deal of pressure weighing on his destiny. Eventually, Ultima teaches Antonio that identity can be a combination of cultures and that he does not have to pick one side of the family to follow.
At home, Antonio speaks only Spanish and follows the cultural expectations with which he has grown up. When Antonio goes to school, he is forced to experience the English-speaking academic world of the rest of the United States.
He must learn to speak English and interact with children who are not from the same culture as he is. Antonio ultimately learns that he is able to accept elements of every culture when he creates his own identity and follows his own path to adulthood.
Ultima assures him that not every type of faith is mutually exclusive, and Antonio is able to use the same lesson in dealing with the conflicting cultures in his life. The conflict between good and evil in the novel is characterized through the relationship between Ultima and Tenorio.
From the start, Ultima is described as the moral compass for the novel, protecting her community from the curses of evil witches. However, as Antonio himself discovers, good and evil are not so easy to distinguish.
In some novels, a mourning father who seeks revenge would be the hero, rather than the antagonist. In both cases, neither character is easy to define as wholly good or wholly evil.
Near the end of the novel, Anaya explains that the goodness of a person is determined solely by his or her actions. Within this framework, Ultima still possesses much more "good" in her nature than Tenorio does. However, it is clear that good and evil cannot be distinguished in a clear-cut way, and this is one of the more important lessons that Antonio learns about life.
Myth is a very important theme in the novel because it is an underlying presence in the culture that surrounds Antonio. He comes across many different kinds of myths over the course of the book.
The combination of these myths with Catholicism is a direct result of the colonization of New Mexico by Spanish colonists. As the colonist communities began to blend with the communities of Native Americans, the result was an amalgamation of cultures in which these myths maintained their importance alongside Catholic doctrine. The myth of the Golden Carp, in particular, outlines a new set of beliefs for Antonio that he had never considered before.
This distance conveys the reverence that the carp inspires in the boys, who observe the carp in transfixed silence. Cico even puts his hand on his heart, a subtle gesture that conveys the depth of feeling that the carp inspires in the boys. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Character List Antonio Ultima Gabriel. Themes Motifs Symbols. Important Quotes Explained. Mini Essays Suggested Essay Topics.
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