Bless Me, Ultima (Chpts 17-22)

Today I finished reading Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima and honestly, I thought it was a wonderful book, but the ending disappointed me. From Diecisiete to Diecinueve, Anaya formated those chapters as three important steps of Antonio's faith: catechism, Ash Wednesday which included his act of being a priest to the other children and his first confession, and Easter Sunday which included his first communion. These steps were important to Antonio attaining understanding with God and finally being able to have God within him, able to answer his numerous questions. However, just as God failed to fight evil from killing Lupito, helping his Uncle Lucas, and killing Narciso, God fails to answer Antonio's questions and remains silent. Even after Antonio has received his first holy communion, God is silent. When God doesn't answer Antonio, he begins to doubt his faith and if God is really everywhere. At the end of Diecisiete, Anaya writes I a really detailed comparison of eternity that Father Byrnes tells the children. The astonishment it gave the audience was overwhelming. The startling truth of what a day of eternity was made the comparison easy to understand, and gave the audience an image.

In the last couple of chapters, Anaya used a couple of rhetorical techniques to hint to his audience of a bad future coming. Anaya foreshadows Ultima's death through Antonio's dream. Another time myself personally could tell something bad was going to happen was when Antonio's uncle left him and Antonio was walking to his grandfather's house alone. You know when you begin reading a passage and just the way things are happening, you know something bad is going to happen? Well, I had that feeling as soon as Antonio's uncle sent him to walk alone.

Finally, one of the few things I disliked about Bless Me, Ultima was how Anaya ended it. After reading the end of Ultima's death, I was still left wondering about Antonio and his future. After his act of being the priest to the children, the audience can tell he won't be their priest along with his unanswered questions to God. Maybe that was Anaya's reason though. He makes his audience decide who Antonio will become.