Bless Me, Ultima (Chpts 13-16)

After the question left at the end of Doce, la Ultima's fate is less safe with the death of Narciso. The irony surrounding that particular event really troubled me. First, Narciso's fight with Tenorio, and how the people from inside the bar only intervened to stop the fight, but they did not think to warn the Marez family about the trouble Tenorio might bring. Then, when Narciso approaches Andrew at Rosie's house, Andrew does not want to even go to his family's aid! He tells Narciso, "Oh, is that all. You had me worried for a moment, amigo," (Anaya 165) in response to the news about Tenorio. When Andrew says that, I knew he didn't care to even go home to protect his family and his life in Guadalupe was not going to be permanent. Another aspect of this journey home from the play involves Antonio. Seeing Andrew at Rosie's with a girl is not something that Antonio intended to realize. This makes him question how he has sinned since Andrew made a promise not to enter until Antonio's innocence was lost. Another part of Narciso's death that impacted Antonio was that he gave Narciso confession before he died. This action really makes me believe that Antonio's fate is more towards the role of a priest or a similar leadership, make-a-difference role. Anaya also writes a lot of Antonio questioning his beliefs and religion in this section, with regards to an all-forgiving god. When Anaya writes of Antonio's questioning and dream about this issue, it becomes somewhat hypocritical when Antonio does not wish for Tenorio to be forgiven, but the god is all-forgiving. Anaya is not only trying to convey to his audience that there can be no exceptions with gods, but also that forgiveness can be given to everyone. It is not always easy to give it to those whom you don't think deserve it, but forgiveness can be given to everyone. Anaya definitely cues the theme of forgiveness in Bless Me, Ultima through Antonio's dream.

One rhetorical technique that was particularly effective in this selection was when Anaya wrote about the boys taking all of the roles in the school play. If slowly read and with efferent reading, the audience can understand every little humorous detail of the play. Since I managed to read slow and catch all of the  names of which boy was doing what, I found the scene quite humorous. However, with the numerous different names thrown around and the humor with each name was only fully understood with recall. Other than the predictions written above, I predict that Jason will witness a murder or has already witnessed a murder because Anaya writes, "I even lost touch with Jason, which was too bad because I learned later that he would have understood," (Anaya 186). I look forward to completing the final chapters of Bless Me, Ultima.