Juxtaposition In Bless Me Ultima

The underlying truth is that yet a young and innocent child commonly endeavors to achieve the dreams of their parents, and Antonio is no exception. In Bless Me, Ultima, parents of Antonio, a six-year-old boy, invite Ultima, a curandera, to live with them. During her stay, Ultima sees Antonio internally struggling to find his destiny since his parents each wants him to choose only his or her path. Due to this, Ultima constantly advises Antonio to prepare him in deciding his destiny as he grows up. Throughout the novel, Rudolfo Anaya uses the juxtaposition between the unique characters in the Luna and Márez blood, thus indicating that a child’s identity is only chosen and found by the child, not his or her parents.
Rudolfo Anaya differentiates
As Antonio converse with his 3rd grade teacher on growing up, he reflects onto one of Ultima’s word: “… a man’s destiny must unfold itself like a flower with only the sun and the earth and water making it blossom, and no one else meddling in it—”(Anaya 223). At this moment, Antonio seems to have fleeting flash-back, in which he starts to analyze the words of Ultima and understand what she intends to tell him. He now knows that his identity can only be chosen by himself. On the way to El Puerto, Antonio realizes significance of his identity from a conversation with his father, “…every generation, every man is a part of his past. He cannot escape it, but he may reform the old materials, make something new—” (Anaya 247). It is not odd for Antonio’s parents to want Antonio to achieve the certain dreams, nevertheless, the final decision is only done by Antonio. Therefore, depending on his preference, he may choose to fuse the parents’ cultures, follow one, or go on his own way. As shown previously, despite the strong opinions of Gabriel and María, only Antonio can make it to his destiny. To prove that a child’s destiny is only chosen and determined by the child no matter what others say, Rudolfo Anaya utilizes juxtaposition in Bless Me, Ultima. Antonio’s parents are distinctive from each other since María is from the Luna family of education and farming while Gabriel is from the Márez family of wondering blood. Due to this, Antonio struggles to choose his destiny that will please both of his parents. Later, Antonio realizes the final answer of Ultima's lessons and steps toward his own destiny. “That is what Ultima meant by building strength from life”—“make something new” (Anaya