Bless Me Ultima Coming Of Age Analysis

The most inevitable thing in life is growing up, but not a lot of people know when it happens. When trying to pinpoint the exact moment when one person came of age, it is nearly impossible to do so. If a person can do this, then that person would seem confused or review it like an old test. In Rudolfo Anaya’s novel, Bless Me, Ultima, it shows how hard it can be to pinpoint that moment of coming of age. Anaya conveys this idea by having Tony experience very notable and relevant events as he grows up. Anaya uses the many moments of death Tony witnesses throughout Bless Me, Ultima to show that childhood consists of confusion and realization that helps Tony come of age.
While most children experience cuts, scrapes, and bruises, Tony suffers all of this with his mentality that changed his way of thought. After Tony witnessed Lupito die at his feet he asked himself one very mature question: “And where was Lupito’s soul winging to, or was it washing down the river to the fertile valley of my uncles’ farms?” (23) This question of the soul was built off of his question: “Did God listen?” The language used in this quote is not what a 6-year-old would use. Anaya uses the words “winging” and “washing” to display motion, in this case, the motion of Lupito’s

Rudolfo Anaya clearly points that out in his novel Bless Me, Ultima with the main protagonist Tony. From this, Anaya reveals that childhood is filled with disorientation and awareness with the main protagonist Tony, experiencing death. All of these deaths helped Tony grow more and looking back at the death of Lupito, Narciso, and Florence, they were events that confused him or made him more aware of life. Anaya shows people that childhood is filled with many moments that everyone cannot pinpoint exactly. With Tony, he certainly wants to forget his childhood, but he also keeps it in order to remind himself of what made him Tony. After all, does not everyone want to do