Cultural, Religious and Language Conflicts in Bless Me,...

Cultural, religious and language conflicts in Bless Me, Ultima Bless Me, Ultima, written by Rudolfo Anaya and published in 1972, has become one of the most widely read as well as critically acclaimed novels in the Chicano literature. It is first in the trilogy of novels by Anaya, with Heart of Aztlan (1976) and Tortuga (1979) following it. This novel can be viewed from many angles as well as layers, as it intertwines issues or themes of psychological maturation, social changes, identity crisis and importantly cultural conflict, all into coherent and interesting story of a young boy and his guide. Antonio Mà ¡rez y Luna or Antonio is the young protagonist who with the guidance of his curandera (Traditional Native American healer) and mentor,†¦show more content†¦Antonio feels so much pressure from both the sides that it gets reflected in his dream, where again the conflict between his father and mother reaches an ‘incensed’ state, with Antonio being ‘facilitated’ to adopt their respective sides. His internal co nflict gets managed in a positive direction, when Ultima makes the entry and tries to solve his predicament, by suggesting him to combine best of both his parents’ culture as well as their wishes. The second cultural plus religious conflict happens when Antonio tussles mentally to believe and accept Catholic God. This is an extension of the above conflict, because Antonio gets torn between his mother influenced Catholicism based Spanish culture and his father’s indigenous roots. However, after learning about the Golden Carp story and from his experiences, Antonio questions the existence of Catholic god. He further doubts god’s presence, as many evil things are going on under his watch, without any stopping. Towards the end, with the guidance of Ultima, Antonio comes to the understanding that one can form their own religion based on their beliefs from various religious sources. The third language conflict makes the appearance when Antonio goes to school, where English is the medium of instruction. With Antonio being raised in the ‘hotbed’ of indigenous cultures, where he was taught only Spanish, he struggles to grasp and learn English. He finds the behaviour of the children in his classroom quite alien toShow MoreRelated Bless Me, Ultima: The Cultural Distress Of A Young Society Essay example3164 Words   |  13 Pages Bless Me, Ultima: The Cultural Distress of a Young Society An answer to the discussion question of whether or not there is a defined border culture would need a great number of years in field research, but we can also observe a few of the characteristics of such border culture just by looking at scholastic essays and books related to the topic. Within the research that I did, I found a number of scholars who, while defining the border, mention all the specific or special characteristics of thisRead MoreEssay Prompts4057 Words   |  17 Pagesor play of comparable literary merit. All the King’s Men King Lear Anna Karenina Madame Bovary As I Lay Dying The Mill on the Floss The Awakening Moby-Dick Billy Budd Mrs. Dalloway Bleak House Native Son Bless Me,Ultima One Hundred Years of Solitude Catch-22 Othello Crime and Punishment The Scarlet Letter The Crucible Slaughterhouse-Five A Farewell to Arms Song of Solomon Ghosts The Stone Angel The Great Gatsby The Stranger