Although Antonio loves to learn, his dream about the brothel reveals his anxiety about the morality of desiring knowledge. In this dream, he clearly associates knowledge of the flesh with sin. Antonio’s refusal to enter the brothel on the grounds that he may someday want to become a priest results from his anxieties over whether not fulfilling his mother’s wishes is immoral. In other words, he wonders if it is a sin not to fulfill her wishes. Anaya begins to link some of the thematic anxieties that have troubled the novel’s characters from the beginning: growing up, becoming independent from one’s parents, learning, and finding a clear moral framework in which to live one’s life. Seen within the context of cultural identity, these concerns
