Over-Thinking In Anaya's Bless Me Ultima

The mind runs free in all children. Imagination is what carves a child and for Antonio, his imagination is at a higher level. Imagination is connected to dreams. Dreams are what makes a child curious and can build into experiences. Over-thinking in a child can lead to stress and it effects dreams by turning them into to nightmares. In Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima, young Antonio was influenced by the people around him early in his life that showed in his dreams and they brought internal conflict due to the fact of the pressure he had from his parents Maria and Gabriel. Antonio could only find his own path to determine his future, and the person who guided him, but not persuaded him, was Ultima. She is the one he goes to when afraid and he confides …show more content…
“I saw the Virgin draped in the gown of night standing on the bright, horned moon of autumn, and she was mourning for the fourth son.” This short sentence is filled with multiple analytical ideas. The “virgin” is the Virgin Mary that Antonio’s mother is praying to, praying to make him a priest. To say the word “make” is a demanding tone, and most times when you have a demanding tone you come off as selfish or rude. Her gown is conflicting because as an angel you expect to see white and purity, where as the “gown of night” can be seen as darkness meaning death. The weather of autumn can also relate to her gown because in the season, God’s nature and beauty starts to die or hide from the harshness of the unforgiving cold. Yet aside from all the darkness and perceived belief of death, maybe this can be seen as a lost of innocence. The Virgin was mourning for the fourth son… This doesn’t mean that death takes away the chances of Antonio being a priest; it could mean that as he grows older he loses his innocence or becomes a man with changed beliefs. Yet in my own eyes, the virgin is mourning because he already lost his innocence. Earlier he witnesses the death of Lupito, a man who was never the same after a war. He approached him as he’s dying and recalls thinking he said “bless me”, but all Antonio could do was run home, sobbing and reciting the Act of Contrition. In the moment of him fleeing, he had the innocence of a child, but I believe after seeing the murder of Lupito, it was gone. Death takes more than just life. Yet as he screamed into the darkness of his dreams, he said “I felt Ultima’s hand on my forehead and I could sleep again.” Ultima was the one who would calm him in his panic. He relied on her more than he did with his own mother. Ultima’s powers and strength comforted Antonio, and he built a level of trust into

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