Raymond J. Rodrigues
SOURCE: Rodrigues, Raymond J. Review of Bless Me, Ultima,by Rudolfo A. Anaya. English Journal 65, no. 1 (January 1976): 63-4.
[In the following review, Rodrigues comments that "Bless Me, Ultima is an important contribution to literature in a pluralistic United States."]
Bless Me, Ultima portrays the conflicts which result from the changes wrought by forces outside one's culture. Ultima, a curandera or healer, living with the boy Antonio Marez and his family, introduces Antonio to mysteries of faith and nature. Antonio's parents each want different futures for their son. His mother, from a family of farmers, wants him to be a priest. His father, who reflects his background of free horsemen or vaqueros,dreams of the time when he and his sons, the oldest three having left to fight in World War II, can move to California and become wealthy. But the father does not count on the influence of war and travel upon those who have left their homes. The novel reveals numerous conflicts: those caused by the differing backgrounds of the parents, the forces of evil vs. those of good, the encroachment of the outside world upon the life of a rural community, organized religion vs. individual beliefs, the dreams of the old vs. those of the young, and Antonio's seeing the world as a beautiful place, yet filled with horrors.
Appropriate for more mature students, this novel easily fits into such units as those on faith, multicultural literature, future shock, man against man, the search for identity, and the generation gap. Among those issues which can be considered by a class are: how much loyalty does one owe his or her parents? Does nature control our lives more than God does? Do we have any choice in deciding our future? If the world is a benevolent place, why is there so much corruption? Does education free or imprison an individual? Can different cultures exist together, or must one overcome the other?
Allied activities leading from or in conjunction with Bless Me, Ultima include collecting examples of "folk medicine," interviewing those whose lives have been influenced by war to determine what changes have ensued, studying why one picks some peers as friends and rejects others, considering ways in which another culture has influenced one's own, investigating different religious beliefs, studying additional Chicano literature, interviewing people of generations older and younger than one's own to determine how their values may differ and why, studying the nature of dreams and whether they influence our lives, learning as much as possible about a culture different from ours, and collecting nicknames to determine why they were chosen and how accurate they are.
Because so many issues are developed in this novel, allied readings may vary widely, but a few which involve similar conflicts and which form a compact unit are Richard Adam's Watership Down, Fred Bodsworth's The Sparrows Fall, J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, Frank Water's People of the Valley, Thomas Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again, and Richard Wright's Native Son. All treat individuals who, as a result of outside forces, must choose among vastly different ways of life. Whether considered in conjunction with other works or by itself, Bless Me, Ultima is an important contribution to literature in a pluralistic United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment