Tension In Bless Me Ultima And Everyday Use

Being undesirable and uncomfortable, tension tends to be avoided at all costs. Tension expresses itself through stressful conflicts and situations that one encounters throughout life. Although it may seem obvious that tension could have someone feeling confused or stuck, tension is a necessary element required for development and growth. In literary works such as Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya and Everyday Use by Alice Walker, this element of familial and inner tension are used in order to create characters such as Antonio and Maggie that drastically develop throughout their story. By having this notion of tension broken down from something negative into viewing it as necessary and helpful, one can develop in their own way.
Tension can be …show more content…
Throughout the book Antonio has this tension between his mother’s and father’s family, “This one will be a Luna, the old man said, he will be a farmer and keep our customs and traditions. Perhaps god will bless our family and make the baby a priest” (Anaya 5). The previous quote indicates his mother’s side taking over and creating an expectation for Antonio just seconds from birth. His mother’s expectations are joined with his father’s expectations, “Gabriel, they shouted, you have a fine son! He will make a fine vaquero” (5). Antonio’s father also has this expectation that Antonio will grow up to fulfill his own dreams that he didn’t get to live out through his other sons. His mother and father already have premade tension between their individual backgrounds due to separate traditions and values, this then causes Antonio to be born in the middle of all this tension. To burden Antonio even more, his older brothers enforce this pressure his parents have set up for him. “We can’t build our lives on their dreams. We’re men… And they still have Tony, Tony will be her priest, Tony will be her farmer. And her dream will be complete and we will be free” (68). The brothers place all of their parent’s dreams