Bless Me Ultima Good And Evil Essay

In life, people tend to classify ideas into good and evil based on their views and beliefs. The novel, Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, portrays the life a six-year old boy named Antonio living around the time of World War II. Antonio faces many challenges in life as he grows into adulthood. In order to see what is good and evil, Antonio sees things as good if it agrees with his beliefs and sees things as evil if something threatens his beliefs. Many people in life think like Antonio, if people’s beliefs are agreed upon, they see it as good and if people beliefs are contradicted, it is seen as evil. The reality is that good and evil cannot be divided due to a difference of beliefs. This means that a person may see something as evil that another person see as good.

He knew that the men killed Lupito for murdering the sheriff, but he also knew that killing a person was a major immoral act according to his religion: “Now the men on the bridge walked the earth with the terrible burden of dark mortal sin on their souls, and hell was the only reward.” (page 28) The men on the bridge killed Lupito because they are doing a good thing by avenging the sheriff. Antonio on the other hand, thinks that the men will go to hell because it was a mortal sin which was evil. This shows that people have their own beliefs, therefore good and evil cannot be distinguished.

Many people in the novel believe that Ultima is a good person, however Tenorio believes she had done evil. Ultima is a curandera, a person who cures using herbs and magic. She is portrayed as a good person since she uses her skills to help and save people. However, in one scene in the novel, she puts a counter curse on the Trementina sisters which ultimately kills two out of three of them. The Trementina sisters were witches that cursed one of Antonio’s