Literature Analysis #4

1. Bless Me Ultima takes place in Guadalupe, New Mexico, during World War 2. The main character Antonio Marez. His curandera Ultima tries to stop the madness between the daughters of Tenorio (antagonist). Antonio struggles throughout the story when he witnesses the death of people. He ponders religious questions as well as moral problems. He has to choose between two lifestyles: crazy and wild or calm and sane. Religion becomes and issue in this decision because Antonio tries to figure out who he is and what religion he chooses to follow, if any at all.

2. Theme: Influence on family and religion: Antonio has to make a lot of decisions throughout the story when it comes to religion and how his family tries to make decisions for him. Different cultures try to mess with his identity and that had a big impact on who he was in life.
Personal Values: Antonio has to decide what he wants to value in life whether it is family, religion, or morals. He has to make his own decisions and balance them out with the ideas of others. He has so many people trying to change who he is that it becomes a challenge to keep his identity.

3. The tone the author used was very casual.
"God! Why did Lupito die? Why do you allow the evil of the Trementinas?"
"Hell, Andy,' Gene said softly, 'we can't build out lives on their dreams."
"Why did you allow Narciso to be murdered when he was doing good?"

4. Literary Elements/ Devices:

Tone: The author used a very casual tone that was easy to understand.
Direct Characterization: The author did a great job of directly describing characters with enough detail where I was able to imagine what the characters were like as people as I was reading.
Indirect Characterazaion: Antonio is a good example of a character that was indirectly described. He was described through actions, but in such a strong way that I felt like I knew him just as well as the other characters.
Imagery: The description of setting made me think of where it was and when I closed my eyes I felt like I was there. I felt a sense of imagery within the characters as well, and it helped with my imagining of their character.
Syntax/diction: "we can't build out lives on their dreams."
Implication: "He knows nothing; and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career."
Narrator: "Sometimes I felt like Jason, like I wanted to shout and cry, but I never did."
Metaphor: "The sun was good. The men of the llano were men of the sun. The men of the farms along the river were men of the moon. But we were all children of the white sun."