Bless Me UltimaRudolfo Anaya

• What are some places you lived/visited in (cities, states, countries, lakes, wilderness area, etc.)?

• Which places are your favorite? Why? • When you think about some of these

places, do you associate them with calmness? A homey feeling? Excitement? Boredom? Beauty?

Activating Strategy

• Literary Genre• Magical Elements blend with the real

world• Originated in Latin America• Jose Luis Borges-La Historia• Examples of MR plots– Character stays alive longer than feasible–Magical abilities– Unexplainable ties between characters or

characters/places

Magical Realism

1. Hybridity — (Creating a hybrid)Illustrated in the inharmonious arenas of such opposites as urban and rural, and Western and indigenous. The plots of magical realist works involve issues of borders, mixing, and change.

2. Irony re: Author’s Perspective — The writer must have ironic distance from the magical world view for the realism not to be compromised, but he must strongly respect the magic, or else the magic dissolves into simple folk belief or complete fantasy.

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html

Characteristics of Magical Realism

3. Authorial Reticence —Authorial reticence refers to the lack of clear opinions about the accuracy of events and the credibility of the world views expressed by the characters in the text.

4. Supernatural and Natural —The supernatural is not displayed as questionable. While the reader realizes that the rational and irrational are opposite and conflicting, they are not disconcerted because the supernatural is integrated within the norms of the fictional world.

http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/MagicalRealism.html

Characteristics of Magical Realism

1. Each group has information that will help us understand Bless Me Ultima.

2. Read/Skim your set of information.3. Create a “poster” with the important

information for the class.4. Be ready to present

it in 30 minutes.

Jig Saw

ArchetypesArchetype - Greek meaning “original pattern,

or model.” They reflect universal characteristics of human

experience. They apply to all people, regardless of time or culture.

Example:Quest = LifeLong Trips = Finding yourselfChoosing a Path = Choosing a direction in life

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Archetypes1. The legend of the golden carp (79-81) 2. Archetype of the forbidden fruit (80)– “I do not fish for the carp,” Tony tells Samuel.

“It is bad luck” (79).3. Archetype of the forbidden fruit (108-9)4. Archetype of la llorona (118-9)– Tony feels responsible for warning the town

that their sins will result in all of the residents drowning (119).

5. The archetype of modernization: The fate of the vaqueros (125)

More

Archetypes more…• Loss of innocence (archetype) Tony

continues to follow Narciso, thinking to himself, “I had somehow lost my innocence and let sin enter into my soul, and the knowledge of God, the saving grace, was far away” (167).

More

Father v. MotherGabriel’s beliefsFreethinker: Vaqueros not very religious (29). The church is too controlling. Priests are feminine. Gabriel is compared to the devil (31).Life gives strength, helps a boy become a man.

More

María’s beliefsDevout Catholic: Lunas were led to their valley by a priest (29). The church is the center of the community. Life destroy a boy’s innocence, the purity given by God (30-1).

Symbols• Water: birth-death-resurrection;

creation; purification and redemption; fertility and growth.

• Sea/ocean: the mother of all life; spiritual mystery; death and/or rebirth; timelessness and eternity.

• Rivers: death and rebirth (baptism); the flowing of time into eternity; transitional phases of the life cycle.

• Sun (fire and sky are closely related): creative energy; thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision.

• Rising sun: birth, creation, enlightenment.

• Setting sun: death. 11

More

More

The River• Rio Pecos What does the river symbolize? • Tony admits, “I had been afraid of the awful

presence of the river… But the innocence which our isolation sheltered could not last forever, and the affairs of the town began to reach across our bridge and enter my life” (15). Later, he witnesses a man’s death on the banks of the river (21-3).

• Compromise between mother and father: The location of their home

More

More

Motifs in the novelA recurrent thematic element in an artistic or literary work.• Owl

– Represents Ultima’s life force and religious mysticism

• Dreams– Antonio’s dreams

show how his character changes.

– At first about destiny, later about more grown up things like morality

• Virgin of Guadalupe– Represent forgiveness,

understanding, and the resolution of cultural conflict

• Golden Carp– Represents religious

mysticism not related to the Catholic church

• Family– Antonio’s identity– Underscores moral

independence

In groups of 2, work to complete the thematic information about symbols and themes in the book on page 2 of your study guide.

Possible themes include (but are not limited to:)

Partner Work

• Moral Independence• Effects of Culture on Identity• Innocence to Experience/Coming of Age• Man’s and Nature

• Quest for Understanding• Choosing Your Own Path• Collective Nature of all Mankind• Faith and Religion• Modernization versus culture

• Moral Independence• Effects of Culture on

Identity• Innocence to Experience/Coming of Age• Man’s Connection to Nature• Quest for Understanding• Choosing Your Own Path• Collective Nature of all Mankind• Faith and Religion• Modernization versus culture

Themes

Man’s destruction of the natural world

• Tony finds out about atomic testing at White Sands, New Mexico, and about the destruction of the llano by modern machinery (190-2).

More

More dreams…• Dream #6 Marìa, Gabriel, and Ultima all

appear in Tony’s dream about a great lake and the destruction of the village (119-21).

• Dream #7 Tony sees Ultima’s face in a witch’s coffin (140).

• Dream #8 The dream begins with Tony begging a wrathful, cruel God for mercy, but he is forsaken, his hands “bloodied” (172-4). The devil-worshipers kill everyone Tony cares about, but the golden carp returns and brings rebirth (174-6).

More

Veinte y Veintiuno• Dream #9: Tony dreams again of his

three brothers, who seem lost, like tortured, lost ghosts. They call to him for help, and he obliges them (235).

More

More dreams and themese• Dream #10 Tony is visited by Lupito,

Narciso and Florence. “Everything I believed in was destroyed” (244).

• The sadness of life: When Tony is about to leave for the summer, Ultima tells him, “Life is filled with sadness when a boy grows to be a man… Be prepared to see things changed when you return” (245).

More

“Always have the strength to live. Love life, and if despair enters your heart, look for me in the evenings when the wind is gentle and the owls sing in the hills. I shall be with you” (261).

More

“Sometime in the future I would have to build my own dream out of those things that were so much a part of my childhood” (261).

WORLD RELIGIONSIntro to:

Definitions – Page 30• Myths• Legends• Epics• Hymns, prayers, and psalms• Wisdom literature– Proverbs– Parables

• Folk Tales

AllusionsAn allusion is a figure of speech that makes a

reference to, or representation of, a place, event, literary work, myth or work of art. It is left to the reader or listener to make the connection.

Types– Biblical Christian Bible– Historical factual events– Classical from Greek or Roman

mythology

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Summerians

Invented Writing

AkkadiansWorld’s 1st

Empire

BabyloniansCode of

Hammurabi1st laws

AssyriansDestroyed

Israel /Early Library

Neo-Babylonian

sCaptured

Remaining Jews

Egyptians

Early Facts about Literature• Early tokens used for writing as early

as 8000 BC• Sumerians – cuneiform• Mesopotamian literature

Gilgamesh epic• Egyptians – hieroglyphics

Rosetta Stone broke the code • Dead Sea Scrolls – oldest

surviving sections of the Bible.

Getting Started1. Get a brown World Literature book.2. Read pgs. 22-23 taking notes on

important information.3. Be prepared to discuss.

• Trace their history to Abraham• Hebrew – cross over• Exodus – Moses took the

Israelites back to Canaan.• Kings to Know –

Saul, David, Solomon• Divided Kingdom –

Israel and Judah• Center of Temple –

Holy of Holies contained the Ark of the Covenant

• Psalm – song sung to teach, worship, or to inform• Major Text – Torah• Type of Writing – Hebrew• Afterlife – Different Beliefs. “gathered to their people”

Then we get to … Hebrew Literature