Theme Of Dreams In Bless Me Ultima

Kayla K. Lopez
Mrs. Segovia
English Literature
12 March 2017
The Dream of Antonio Marez
Dreams may have different meanings. The dream can be an outcome of a situation or event taking place in your life. Instances that occur in our everyday life have a way of coming out in our subconscious thus appearing in our dreams. It can also be self turmoil or our repressed feelings. The book was written in the 1960s meaning that it was a time of innovation. Where the old was being criticised and there was a war going on which gives explanation as to events happening in Antonio’s life. Such as his brothers being drafted and Ultima being feared or shut out at first. Bless Me, Ultima has many dreams that can be analysed because of the situations in which …show more content…
In this dream the mer-woman singing represent the women at “Rosie’s” “A bewitching melody filled the air. It was the song of the mer-women!”(119). It is a myth known by many that mer-woman sing in order to prey on innocent sailors. In this situation Antonio’s subconscious has made the mer-women “stand-ins” for the women at “Rosie’s” because they attracted his brothers just like all the sinners that were dead on the shore (18). Then there is his mother who has taken the place of the Virgin Mary she is representing the religion and faith by which Antonio has lived by his whole life which is catholicism, “I looked towards the enchanting light, expecting to see the Virgin of Guadalupe, but instead in her place I saw my mother!”(120). Also, there is his father who is representing everything his mother has pushed away from him but his father's ancestors are and he is on top of the corpses to emphasize that if he is in fact a Marez that he will go to hell which is what he has been trying to avoid, “I turned and saw him standing on the corpse-strewn shore”(120). “The excruciating pain broke and I sweated blood” (120) this part of his dream is referencing to the bible. It is all connected; Antonio's mom is a stand-in on the Virgin Mary while Antonio is a stan-in as Jesus becauses his family believes him to be the next priest. The same way that Jesus was believed to be the savior they look to …show more content…
On one side his mother wants him to be a priest so that he can bring honor to his family. However, on the other side he has his father who wants him to be a Marez and conquer land in a different place. He does not want to disappoint either of his parents so he is trying to find a way in which he can perhaps please the both of them. Yet it is difficult to balance out when his mother’s beliefs require so much from him while his fathers really do not ask much from him. He is insecure about whether his beliefs that he has grown up with this far are actually true or not and he fears that perhaps he might go to hell along with all of those he loves because of the god that he chooses to believe in. Also he might feel abandoned by his brothers since they left him to go to the war at a young age so he never had that close bond developed with any of them and then when they came back they just wanted to leaving him once again alone. That is probably why he worries about them so much. Antonio is just a kid and does not know how to deal with any of this so he has not yet seen the bigger picture he is so focused on what one person wants from him that he has not realised that there is a way in which all of the dreams that his parents have for him are connected and he will not be disappointing any of them, “You have been seeing only parts, she finished, and not looking beyond into the great cycle that binds us all” (121).

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