| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 英國語文學系 === 88 === From Bless Me, Ultima, I would like to present two major themes. First of all, it is the spiritual odyssey of the protagonist, Antonio. Second, my contention will move to Antonio’s psychological development, which is much under his Chicano cultural influences, and further on to his responding strategies. Basically, my emphasis will be laid on his gradual realization of his ethnic identity, regarding to the development of his personality. From the text, my task is to trace Antonio’s process of identification with his Chicano peers. I would apply to my discussion of the Chicano cultural background the idea of “mestizaje,” which is unique and evolved by Chicanos themselves. Such an unusual living condition creates a great degree of ambiguity and dilemma, but otherwise, Chicanos in response come out with their own strategy, which is called by Gloria Anzaldua “the borderland consciousness.” This notion largely draws from the dynamics and fluidity of their political status.
On the other hand, Bless Me, Ultima is inserted greatly with indigenous Chicano/Indian folklore and legends. As far as Antonio’s ethnic consciousness is concerned, these myths contain a great importance. Whereas, this mythic aspect also tends to draw for the text negative criticism and hence the story is degraded as mere ethnography. From this discrepancy, I would lead my discussion of the novel further to the relation between ethnic history and contemporarity. In the text, these two units exist in a supplementary form, instead of being conflicting. In addition, the text is also inserted with a long sequence of dramatic dreams. I would like to discuss how these dreams affect the overall structure of the book and their relation to Antonio’s personality development.
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