Antonio is raised in a strict Catholic family, but after being shown the Golden Carp by Cico, Antonio begins to question his religion and everything he had been taught about God. Antonio is fascinated by the golden carp and says “I could not have been more entranced if I had seen the Virgin, or God Himself. ” This shows that although it is against his beliefs to behold another figure, Antonio is amazed to have actually seen the legendary carp he had been told about by Cico, and wonders why God never shows himself. Antonio also says that seeing the Golden Carp was “what I had expected God to do at my first holy communion”.
This shows that experiencing the golden carp in the flesh was more real and meaningful to him than even the most sacred rituals of his own church. Another one of the most important symbols in Bless Me, Utima is the Virgin because she is at the center of Antonio’s Catholic beliefs and keeps him from abandoning his belief in God. The Virgin represents kindness and comfort for Antonio. Antonio sees the Virgin as someone who is close to God, but also someone who he can talk to and will not be judged by. Antonio says when he prayed to the Virgin it was as if he could see her “turn and whisper into Gods ear exactly what I had just told her”.
This shows that he is much more comfortable talking to the Virgin directly than to God Himself because he doesn’t understand and he fears God. The Virgin seems much more human and approachable than the grand, powerful idea of God. Ultima’s owl is also one of the most important symbols in Bless Me, Ulitma because it represents Ultima’s spirit, who’s magical powers defy the beliefs of Antonio’s Catholic upbringing. The owl always seemed to be around while Ultima was performing important magical tasks. For example, while Ultima and Antonio were curing Antonio’s uncle, Ultima’s owl was outside the house fighting off coyotes.
The Essay on Bless Me Ultima Golden Carp 3
Bless Me, Ultima In Rodolfo Anaya's novel, Bless Me, Ultima the author uses different settings in order to develop Antonio's sense of good and evil. An example of this would be Rosie's, the local whorehouse. To Antonio, Rosie's tempted his brothers and was the cause of their sins. In one of Antonio's dreams, three figures "silently beckoned' (pg. 65) Antonio into the "house of the sinful women' ( ...
The book says “Then I heard it. It was the call of Ultima’s owl…” and “Her sharp claws found flesh because the evil laughter of the coyotes changed to cries of pain. ” At the end of the book when Ultima is dying she tells Antonio to “take the owl, go west into the hills until you find a forked juniper tree, there, bury the owl. ” The reason she tells him this is because the owl is really her soul and she wants Antonio to be the one to “really burry her. ” This shows that Ultima see’s Antonio as someone she can trust, and she wants him to be the one to know where her soul was truly buried.
The golden carp, the Virgin, and Utima’s owl are clearly the most important symbols in Antonio’s coming-of-age experience because they all symbolize his struggles with his beliefs. Each belongs in a different category of religion, as well as different parts of Antonio’s life, but all influence him in ways that make him question his beliefs and answer those questions. Each of these things were big parts of Antonio’s life, but symbols aren’t always very obvious. Look around at your life, there may be things that are influencing you without you even realizing it.
