Bless Me Ultima

General :

The novel is about a Mexican boy names Antonio Marez who lives with his family in New Mexico. Antonio's mom and dad have two complete ideas for what they want him to be. She was him to become a priest to the community of farmers and his dad wants him to be a cowboy. The reason that Ultima comes to live with the Marez family because she is a good friend to his mother. Ultima knows a lot about good and evil. She knows how to cure people with herbs and grains. Antonio is questions his future life. Ultima tells him stories and legends of his ancestors and so he comes to understand how the history. He learns that theirs more powers from those taught by the catholic church. His dad killed lupito an now he is worried that he is going to hell. He wants to find out a way to help his dad. Antonio learn's so much from Ultima that when her spirit dies he know what that means to his future.

2. The theme in the novel was religion and culture. Antonio was starting his first communion which taught him about god. which lets the reader assume that he was catholic, so his family and him believe a lot in god. Also Ultima also taught him a lot about his real culture. She told him stories and legends about his ancestors to let him know where he came from.

3. The authors used a lot of foreshowing. We get hints, clues, or symbols that represent what will happen in the future. For example when the sheriff got killed and Antonio's dad was there so we knew that he was going to get in trouble because he was there. Also when Narciso killed Ultima's owl, the owl signified Ultima's spirit, so we can assume that she was going to die.

4.Allusion: When Narciso kills the owl we know that Ultima is going to die because the owl is symbolizes her spirit which dies as well as the owl. Aphorism: Someone to bewitched can be an opinion and sometimes it can be true base on someone's beliefs.Irony: It was an irony when Antonio and Cico when to see the golden carp. This is an irony because those fishes dont exist. It's just a believe by people.Diction: The diction the author uses throughout the novel is very simple to understand. Conflict: The conflict of the novel was that Ultima had something to do with the evil. Flashbacks: The author uses a lot of these to make the novel more interesting. For example Antonio have a lot of flashbacks about his family and events about his own life. Point of view: This element was very important to the novel because we saw that plot from the eyes of six year old boy. It would have been different from Ultima's or someone else perspective.
Tragedy: In the novel see saw a few deaths the sheriff's, lupito, and most imprtantly Ultima's dead.

Characterization:

1.Antonio and Ultima are examples of direct characterization because they were the main characters and the authors always talked about them and their qualities. We are able to know the character by what the author has told use by the actions of character. Maria and Grabiel, (Antonio's parents) are example of indirect characterization because they were secondary characters, so not very much was said about them. As a reader you would have to make assumptions of what they were like by what they said or what other characters said about them.

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character
The author's syntax and diction stays te same through out the whole novel. The author uses simple and straight forward.

3. The protagonist was a dynamic and round character because at the beginning of the novel he didn't have a lot of knowledge and by the end he had the knowledge that Ultima taught him. Antonio was a round character. We see his transformation from the beginning to end.


4.Yes the character Antonio made the Novel very realistic because it can be relatable. When I was reading this novel I felt I was reading about a family members life because they were very similar.

Sonnet

A Dream Within A Dream by Edgar Allan Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow--
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand--
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep--while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

Vocab 11

affinity: a attraction to a person, thing, idea, etc.
bilious: cranky
cognate: related by birth
corollary: a preposition that is incidentally proved in providing another proposition
cul-de-sac: situation in which further progress is impossible
derring-do: heroic daring
divination: instinctive foresight
elixir: a sweetened, aromatic solution of alcohol and water containing, or used as a vehicle for, medicinal substance
folderol: trivial
gamut: the entire range
hoi polloi: the common people
ineffable: inexpressible
lucubration: laborious work, study, thought, etc.
mnemonic: assisting or intended to memory
obloquy: blame, or abusive language aimed at a person or thing
parameter: a variable that must be given a specific value during the execution of a program or of a procedure within a program
pundit: expert, or authority
risible: causing or capable laughter
symptomatic: pertaining symptoms
volte-face: a turnout