Identity Crisis In Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya

Decent Essays
One of the greater struggles in modern day life is solving one’s identity crisis. Everyone has had one at one point or another, and everyone, hopefully, has solved it. The idea of an identity crisis can be present in religious, personality, career, and so many other different ways. The book Bless Me, Ultima, written by Rudolfo Anaya, takes place including and following the end of World War II. The book is an excellent display of an identity crisis in a Hispanic community, as two colliding bloodlines become a family, leaving the young son, Antonio, struggling to choose a side, or adapt to the changing times. In Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, he utilizes a vivid dream to reveal Antonio’s internal struggle to find himself, through magical realism, …show more content…
The dream involves Antonio, talking and at one point, arguing with God. Antonio screams for God to forgive his brother. God responds to Antonio’s plea, a sure sign the dream is magical realism. The dream combines the nontangible, that being God, with our world, being tangible. Antonio pleads to God, “Forgive me, Lord! I have sinned, I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed. My thoughts have trapped me and made me flee from You” (Anaya 173). Anaya uses the literary tool of magical realism to convey Antonio’s struggle and difficulty in finding his identity. He says that his own thoughts had driven him away from God. Anaya felt the best way to present this difficulty is upfront and direct. The magical realism stands out and is there to further emphasize the idea of difficulty establishing individuality, a theme already made obvious through previous passages similar to this dream. Anaya’s usage of these ideals, beliefs, and religions that are present in the dream, as well as other parts of the novel often clash with one …show more content…
By establishing a dream and an argument of God through magical realism, he allows an honest character, that being God to point out all of Antonio’s flaws and inconsistencies. In the dream, God says that Antonio “would rather have a god who forgives all, but when it comes to [his] personal whims [he] seeks punishment for [his] vengeance.” (Anaya 173). Antonio has inconsistent ideas, one of which being the Virgin Mary forgiving his brother for sin, against sworn vengeance against Tenorio. Antonio wants his brother to be forgiven for whoring, but wants Tenorio to be punished for murder. This is Antonio’s conflict within himself. The two conflicting ideas show his inability to find an identity. Antonio wants the best of both worlds, and wants to choose who lives and dies arbitrarily. Antonio attempts to blend the Virgin Mary, the Catholic God, the golden carp, the Lunas’ and Marez’s beliefs, Ultima’s beliefs, and his own personal morals and thoughts into one idea. The problem is that this conglomerate of the beliefs and morals is extremely contradicting. Antonio is and will continue to struggle throughout the novel to find himself because of the conflict of these beliefs and

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