What Does The Legend Of The Golden Carp Mean

Response #1 Antonio’s parents have differing backgrounds, therefore their opinions can often be very contradictory. Antonio’s mom, Maria, believes that along with a boy transitioning into a man comes sin and loss of innocence, and this is proved when she blatantly says “and what a sin it is for a boy to grow into a man” in Chapter 3. Maria believes that as a boy grows, life destroys the purity that god have given them. To truly understand Maria’s frame of mind we have to remember that she often looks at things religiously, and she would rather her son live a pure life than one full of sin. On the contrary, Gabriel believes being a man is a part of life. He thinks that everything Antonio sees and does makes him into a man, and it’s up to him …show more content…
This experience made him question his previous religious beliefs. The legend of the golden carp begins a long time ago with some of Earth’s earliest people, these people wandered for many years but never gave up faith in their gods. The gods rewarded them for their faith with the fertile valley of the llano, but on one condition. They were not allowed to eat any of the carp, because carp were sacred to the gods. When a terrible drought hits and all of the crops and game die, they have no choice but to eat the carp. The gods are enraged that they broke their only rule, but before they could kill the humans, one god who truly loved the humans convinced them to spare their lives and change them to carp instead. The humans will live as carp in the river forever, but not without protection. The god who loved the humans chose to turn into a carp too and protect his beloved humans, but since he was a god he was changed into a large golden carp. To this day, it is a sin to catch and eat a carp, because they are the people of the …show more content…
Antonio is being raised in a very religious Christian family, but he has a acquainted a curendera with supernatural powers and witnessed an exorcism, so it’s obvious his views on the world have been stretched. For these reasons and more I believe that Antonio believes the golden carp a god. Even though he never explicitly admitted his thoughts, context clues point to him accepting the golden carp as a god. The first incident that pointed to this conclusion happened just before Cico showed Antonio the golden carp. Cico asked him if he believed the golden carp to be a god. Antonio jostled with this idea in his head, and he even thought to himself, “But maybe there were other gods? Why had the power of God failed to cure my uncle?” He then goes on to answer Cico’s question, “I am Catholic, I can believe only in the god of the church… But I want to believe”. With this verbal exchange, we realize Antonio wants to believe the golden carp is a god, but his religion is causing him to suppress his beliefs. The next instance that proves he believes the golden carp to be a god is right after he first sees it. When Antonio sees the carp he is so filled with wonder that he thinks to himself, “I could not have been more entranced if I had seen the Virgin, or God himself.” This tells us that Antonio thinks the presence of the golden carp greater than the