Analysis Of Coming Of Age In Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

As stated in several articles with research conducted, the average child in America begins school at the age of three. A child may begin to mature at a around 12 years old, unlike Antonio who starts school at the age of seven. Though he started school later than the average child, he matured at a rate that subsequently affected and changed his life.
Coming of age by the process of maturing is an important and well addressed topic in the novel Bless Me, Ultima. Rudolfo Anaya addresses this throughout the book to focus on Antonio Marez’s coming of age as he experiences both harmony and conflict during his upbringing. Rudolfo Anaya adequately provides various factors relating to Antonio’s coming of age throughout the whole novel. Marez becomes involved in many situations that shape his future both in a positive and negative way, thus forcing him to make fast decisions during intense moments; for this, Antonio’s life and future are shaped by his coming of age made by the decisions that he proposes.
As Antonio …show more content…
Though the incidents that he went through were not anything close to something a young boy would encounter at such an age, there were many aspects that did help him through the hardships that he was going through, those resulting from his coming of age. As stated by Anaya in Bless Me, Ultima, “Had I already lost my innocence? How? I had seen Lupito murdered...I had seen Ultima’s cure...I had seen the men come to hang her...I had seen the awful fight just now…”, thus showing the readers how Antonio’s fast coming of age was affected by both aspects that were both positive and negative (Anaya 172-173). The positive outcome was when he had seen Ultima’s cure as it did not contain anything evil and it provided him with more insight and