Conflicts Stimulate Maturity Essay

Rudolfo Anayas sign up Me, Ultima is the first in a trilogy relating the trials and tribulations encountered as an adolescent in New Mexico. Many consider it to be classic Chi dopeo fiction in that it portrays New Mexican traditions and animatenessstyles the average commentator had most likely n invariably encountered while transcending a mere en functionment of the southwest by representing Antonios rites of passage into maturity in a manner to which nearly any peerless can relate (University of New Mexico). The reader follows on as Antonio moves from childish innocence to freshlyfound maturity by dint of a series of crises and conflicts.They begin with Ultimas arrival and end with her death, stimulating Antonios spiritual search and moving him closer to adulthood. Along the room, Antonio struggles through a wave-particle duality of conflicts, convinced he must choose only wiz side of his heritage but make uncertain by his loyalties and beliefs for each. matureness is final ly reached when he realizes the solution is to fuse the differing elements in his family. In this authority he finds satisfaction for some(prenominal) his inner needs and external influences.The conflicts triggering Antonios maturation atomic number 18 the result of the dualities in Antonios lifetime his arrives versus his get downs families, the Catholic religion versus curanderismo, Western versus Chicano shade, and allegory versus reality. His familys heritage is one of the impetuses to Antonios soul searching. On his poses side is a heritage of Catholicism and farmers who worked off the trim down on his fathers side resides a Hispanic throng who made their living as vaqueros on the llano. His obtain wishes Antonio to become a non-Christian priest while his father wishes he carry on in the M bez tradition.This conflict is made clear through Antonios romance of his behave his set abouts family brings him gifts of primer coat fresh greens chile and corn, right ap ples and peaches, pumpkins and green beans (Anaya, 5), while his fathers family set asides them and provides, instead, a saddle, horse blankets, bottles of whiskey, a new rope, bridles, chapas, and an old guitar (Anaya, 5). While some(prenominal) families rely on the creation and its bounty to provide, they have dissenting attitudes. It is the goal of the Marezes to live free upon the earth and roam over it while the Lunas live laced to the earth and its cycles (Lamadrid, 498).Antonio asks Ultima outright we have come to live near the river, and yet near the llano. I love them both, and yet I am of n each. I wonder which life I will choose? (Anaya, 38), voicing his concerns over the ability to pick at just one lifestyle. agree to Black (155 157), Antonios coming-of-age involves separating from his family while compound features from both sides. The young man is expected to physically separate from his mother as his brothers have done. Though they occupy little of the text, Andy and Gene overly play significant roles in Antonios life.In their minds, all their lives they had lived with the dreams of their father and mother haunting them. (Anaya, 62) and Gene avers, We cant be tied down to old dreams (Anaya, 62). The brothers are relieved, past, that Antonio is the scapegoat who can please their mother by embodying her dreams, leaving them free to pursue their own. Antonio is incompatible than Andy and Gene, preferring, instead, to use both waters and create a new lifestyle. Gabriel succinctly sums up his intelligences spiritual search like this every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may crystalise the old materials, make something new (Anaya, 236).A further conflict in Antonios life is the dichotomy of the Catholic religion as distant to Chicano beliefs and practices. He begins his spiritual search with the Catholic church, becoming preoccupied with violate and its consequences. After witnessing the death of the towns sher iff and Lupito, he gives confession. Antonio struggles with the meaning of the exertion of Contrition, the nature of confession, and his disappointment with the Communion ritual. He questions the churchs teachings regarding immortal and its definitions of advantageously behaved and evil, particularly after the deaths of Tenorio and his daughters, Narciso, and Florence.The creator states, The boy is wrestling with the questions of good and evil and why evil exists in this being (McDonald, from de Mancelos, 4). Although Antonio wonders, Was it possible that on that point was more 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 fissure many by assuring him that the men of the llano would not resort to the act of killing another without good reason. She initiates him into the art of curanderismo.As Antonio begins assisting Ultima in her meliorate practices , he is introduced to the legend of the chromatic carp. When he sees the mythical golden carp, Antonio possesss a moment of revelation This is what I had expected God to do at my first 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 though is severely disappointed by the Catholic religion. He becomes a different kind of spiritual leader, one his people are not quite ready to accept.In a dream, Antonio cries out to Jesus as he suffers on the cross My God, my God, why have you forsaken me (Anaya, 233). He is unable to fully believe in either Catholicism or curanderismo and consequently decides to combine the two different perspectives to sack up his own answers. Antonio ultimately becomes a man of learning as Ultima had predicted. He acquires receiveledge and empathiseing along the way to maturity. Antonio appreciates that life is naturally ever changing. He accepts h is parents flaws as well as his brothers sins.He realizes the extent of hurt 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 result in their desire to leave la familia and move into the dominant pagan sphere because they reject their heritage, they lose their culture (149).Antonio does a better job of assimilating his ethnic identity with rake culture through adaptation the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever, and the affairs of the town began to reach across our bridge and project my life (Anaya, 14). Antonio begins his assimilation in school. He retains his heritage by verbalise Spanish and eating his traditional istic Chicano lunch of hot beans and some good, green chile wrapped in tortillas (Anaya, 54). Although, as he says, the other children dictum 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 roots and he is able to worst his loneliness. This also helps him to realize that he can live in both worlds. Antonio strives to learn English and stay in school, in direct rail line 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 intuition of curanderas. His family are the instructors in such things as personal integrity and the Chicano way of life.Belief in myth as opposed to the reality presented by history also create a conflict in Antonio. According to Lamadrid, there is an important relation between myth and the soci o-cultural identity of traditional Chicanos (497). He uses examples such as that of la llorona (wailing woman) to define myth as the collective interpretation and mediation of the contradictions in the historical and ecological experience of a people (Lamadrid, 496). This assertion becomes clear in examining Antonios imitation 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 tragic consequences of life can be overcome by the magical strength that resides in the human beings heart (Anaya, 237). He remembers Ultimas teachings, which help him to take lifes experiences and build strength from them and not weakness (Anaya, 248). As de Mancelos states, Antonio must understand the other side of the myth, the legends, the indigenous beliefs and the power of the earth as well as more traditional religious beliefs (5).An apocalyptic event the phylogenesi s of the first nuclear barrage for use in World struggle II combat juxtaposes with Antonios increasing awareness. According to Lamadrid, the awareness of the characters of the apocalyptic threat of the atomic bombdemonstrates a real and historical belongings of apocalypse (500). Upon its arrival, the village women dress in mourning clothes, assert that the bomb resembles a ball of white heat beyond the imagination, beyond fossa and lay the blame on ignorant Anglos Man was not made to know so muchthey compete with God, they disturb the seasons, they seek to know more than God Himself.In the end, that knowledge they seek will destroy us all (Anaya, 183). The village witnesses the loss of a large takings of husbands and sons during the war while the state hosts the very first test of the atomic bomb. Even Antonio is affected as his brothers return from service traumatized. According to the villagers, these are all signs of an apocalypse requiring the need for a synthesisin this n ew time of crisis (Lamadrid, 500). Antonio is fortunate enough 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. Love life, and if hopelessness enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind 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 warring factions in his life cause him to question the determine and beliefs of each and come up with his own explanation.Rather than refusing his heritage, Antonio fuses the differences and acquires a brilliance of experience and strength of character. Along with this new unders tating, Antonio looks forward to a in store(predicate) based on the past but open to new possibilities a mature outlook indeed. Works Cited Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima. New York Warner Books, 1999. Black, Debra B. Times of battle 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 giving Read. January 4, 2007. Retrieved October 15, 2008 from the NEA website http//www. neabigread. org/books/blessmeultima/anaya04_about. php. University of New Mexico. Writing the Southwest Rudolfo Anaya. Retrieved October 15, 2008 from the UNM we bsite http//www. unm. edu/wrtgsw/anaya. html.