Well, I have finished the book and am not sort of at a loss for words on what to say about it. I have to admit; I am a little disappointed by all but the last chapter. I kept expecting something big to happen that would change everything. Don’t get me wrong, big things happened such as Antonio taking his first communion, Tenario’s curse on the Terrez’, and Florence’s death, but I still feel like there are a lot of loose ends left at the end of the book. What ever happened to Antonio’s brothers? I thought that this was the biggest question that went unanswered. Yes, all of us readers want to know the fate of Antonio but he almost says it for us when he was talking to his father and his uncle. Tony explains that he is a Marez first and then a Luna when talking to his uncle. Later on while talking to his dad he asks if you can make your own religion. If I were to write a “tying up loose ends” chapter to this book, I would write that Antonio makes his own religion and helps people to the best of his abilities, just like Ultima. But… I am not going to write this, so we’ll all just have to use our imaginations.
Anyway, at the beginning of this reading Father Byrnes was explaining eternity and if sent to hell, how long you would be stuck there. This really scared me. A huge pile of sand has to be moved grain-by-grain thousands of miles away by bird. And that is only one day of eternity. Anaya did a great job of capturing the students’ fear… and evoking mine. He writes, “We gasped and fell back in our seats, shuddering at the thought of spending eternity in hell. The story made a great impression on us. Nobody moved” (202). Yeah… I didn’t move either!
Continuing on the topic of Antonio’s maturity, I thought that he proved a lot about himself in the scene where the mob of students were pressuring him to give penance to Florence. Tony says, “I had stood my ground for what I felt to be right and was not afraid” (Anaya, 214). I thought that it was amazing how Tony stood up to his peers for Florence. He really believed that Florence was telling the truth when he said that he had not sinned against God. Florence believed that God sinned against him, and I believe it too. I thought it showed a lot about Tony because even though he is extremely religious, he was accepting of Florence’s beliefs and opinions. I think this would make Antonio a great leader and/or priest one day.
After Antonio’s first communion, he is expecting to know all the answers to his questions just because he has “eaten” God. It seems a little ridiculous to me to think that you’d know all of the answers just because you ate a wafer. I am not religious so I do not really feel the same significance but it just seems far-fetched. Tony should know that it would take time to figure out the answers.
It was very sad when Florence died. He was one of my favorite characters. I think that Florence taught Antonio a lot about life and religion. He taught him that sometimes life isn’t fair and sometimes it’s hard to believe in religion because of the hardships you might have to face. Both of Florence’s parents died and his sisters were whores at Rosie’s. He had a very unfair life and it is even sadder that he had to drown. I believe that Antonio became more accepting of other religions after being so close to Florence and learned even more that God cannot always help people.
My favorite quote of this reading is, “… life is filled with sadness when a boy grows to be a man. But as you grow into manhood you must not despair of life, but gather strength to sustain you” (Anaya 245). This is Ultima talking to Antonio. It is true that when you grow up you see a lot of sadness, and sometimes that sadness can get you down. There is a limit, or should be, to how much sadness a young child should see, though. Tony has now seen 3 people die and I think that going to work on the farm was the best decision for him.
Overall, I think that the death of Ultima could have been predicted. This event was foreshadowed in the beginning of the story when Antonio’s family took Ultima in to make her comfortable before she died. It was obvious that this was going to happen. I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it.
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