Essay/Term paper: Bless me ultima: the growing up of a young boy

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Literary Essays

Bless me Ultima: The Growing up of a Young Boy


Throughout the book Bless me Ultima, Tony, the young main character in
the story, lost his innocence when exposed to the harsh world since he learned
what life is really like. Ultima is a good whitch whom tries to guide Tony by
teaching him morals and lessons. Narsico is percieved as the town drunk, but is
a good person. Tenorio is the demon in this story, as he wants to destroy
Ultima. This book is about Tony's experience in adjusting to the rough world at
a relatively young age.

Narsico's death with Tenorio's desire to kill Tony made him realize his
limitations and acknowledge the reality. Before these incidents, Tony imagined
he could control incidents that happened in real life. He thought he could
effect events in life in a posotive way. After these events and experiences
with people, Tony realizes that good people get bad things. When Tony was
playing a game with his peers in which he was the priest, he forgave his freind,
Florence, for his sins, even though he stood up to all his peers to do so. When
Tony ran 10 miles home to warn Ultima, a kind whitch about Tenorio, whose desire
is to destroy her spirit, he realized he or Ultima could both be exterminated.
During the run, Tony thought of the future, which he hardly thought of before
this event. Almost every child Tony's age was preoccupied with activities, such
as playing and horsing around, and certainly not thinking what the future could
pertain. This proves Tony understood the aknowledgement of reality, unlike most
of his peers. When Florence, his freind, questions God, it made Tony gain
skeptisicm. Before, Tony's parents, especially his mother, forced the religion
of Christianity upon him. Tony believed it, since his parents did and he
thought they were always right. Tony's parents did not him to question
Catholisicm, but Florence made him realize you must question all beliefs' at all
angles. I personally think Tony will still believe in Catholisicm, but this
event made him realize you must listen to all beliefs and question. Ultima told
Tony he had to live to understand, since some questions are not answerable, and
are only answerable through experience. Also, Tony learned from Ultima that
recognition of your childhood is part of your future, and you must face the
truth no matter how much agony you can suffer. When Tony was on his Uncle's
farm one summer, his Uncle told him to overlook differences, and evil is not
evil, it is what you percieve of it. He also said people are not evil, they
just have bad influences. If someone influential has a persuasive argument that
seems to have a logical solution, people are influenced in a negative way since
they do not know the whole story. In ways, Tony wishes Florence was with him,
but he knows he can not look back on his life. He knows he must remember
Florence, but if he kept dwelling on mourning for him, he would never be able to
get on with his life. Yet, this made Tony realize he must wade through life,
and you must not ever let evil overpower you.

Throughout this whole book, Tony learned lessons. He realized he must
think of the future. Tony realized it is all right to be skeptic and question
for answers. He lived and he understood you must overlook differences and evil
is not evil, but what you percieve of it. Throughout the whole story, it seemed
like Tony waded through it, with trust and freindship being very important to
him. Tony learned to question something if you believe in it, not because
someone who you love or trust dearly believes in it. Tony realized he was not
thinking for himself early on in the book, but his parents were thinking for him
in certain cases like religion. In the end, Tony realized everyone must think
for themselves and judge on what they think is the best choice. This book was
about Tony's experience growing up and learning what the real world can be like.