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Summary from the Library of Congress cataloging-in-Publication Data: Not available on inside cover of book.
Notes:
There are SparkNotes and Cliffs Notes on this book.
This book requires critical thinking/analysis (see notes on the book My Father’s Scar for critical thinking). It is a dark book about values changes and tolerance. The SparkNotes website goes through the themes in this book: moral independence and cultural influences on identity. Motifs (the structure) in this book center on family, learning and tolerance (Sparknotes).
Part of the SparkNotes website discusses how one of the main characters in Bless Me, Ultima has a family who wants to “define” his path in life. In turn, this motif revolves around the theme of moral independence. As such, the main character realizes that he does not have to do as his family wishes, but as he wishes for himself.
The Cliffs Notes website points out the religious questions the main character has. Additionally, the new relationship he forms with another character “opens him to the contemplation of the possibility of other gods.” (Cliffs Notes).
There is a “Reading Group Guide” in the back of Bless Me, Ultima that ultimately encourage a student to put themselves in the main character’s shoes or analyze the thoughts of children. Here are a few:
Excerpts:
Excerpts are from the 1972 version posted by PABBIS. Please remember that PABBIS provides content on their website that may contain “controversial and potentially objectionable or inappropriate material in a book.” For more, visit PABBIS at www.pabbis.org. Page numbers verified by me. - M. Lyn
“T. will be her (mom’s) priest.......I will bless you I cried and made the sign of the cross...... You little bastard!... they grabbed me, took off my pants and took turns spanking me. then they tossed me on the roof..... I will bless you! I cried......Hey! we’ll have to say goodbye to the girls at Rosie’s!...... I remembered when we took our cow to S.’s bull...the bull smelled the cow he jumped his pasture fence....I was very frightened....open the tailgate of the truck and let the cow out. Immediately the massive weight of the bull was on her, humping her down, my father and S. were laughing .....they took turns drinking from a whiskey bottle... and talked about the girls at Rosies’s. Whoopeeeee!......they were like wild bulls running down the goatpath towards town” (71-72)
During an “exorcism’ of a sick Uncle: “the acrid smell of the dark yellow pee blended into the fragrance of the cereal. I felt better after I sat down......could not hold the food down....vomited a poisonous green bile. My nose and eyes burned when I threw up......uncle sat up....screamed the tortured scream of an animal in pain....lips that dripped frothy saliva....body convulsed with the spasms of a madman .. face contorted with pain...green bile poured from his mouth...vomited a huge ball of hair. It fell to the floor, hot and steaming and wiggling like live snakes....she swept up the evil, living ball of hair. This will be burned, by the tree where the witches dance” (106-107)
“I could not have been more entranced if I had seen the Virgin, or God Himself. The golden carp had seen me. I could have reached out...and touched the holy fish! ..had witnessed a miraculous thing, the appearance of a pagan god.. this is what I expected God to do at my first holy communion! If God was witness to my beholding of the golden carp then I had sinned!” (119)
“They will burn sulfur instead of holy incense. They will sing and dance around her coffin... will slay a rooster and spread his blood on their dead sister... her body will be smeared in blood” (145)
Hey T... is it true your brother’s been whoring with the girls at Rosie’s?” (151)
“No play, shit!” (158)
“Cuckold of the devil himself, who slept in your bed and left your wife with fat brujas (witches) for daughters!” (169)
“You are drunk! Or mad! Or both.... You know I only let gentlemen visit my girls..... something told me to flee the house of the naked women... Don’t play games with me whore.. call M. ....It was A. arm around a young girl... robe so loose it exposed her pink shoulders and the soft cleft of curving breasts.” (171-173)
“You do not think with your brains, but with your balls.... So the young buck will sleep with his whore..” (174)
Nightmare: “..she was naked, and her long flowing hair enveloped A. ...he followed her into the frightful fires of hell.... God forgive him! I screamed ..... I am not a God of forgiveness! the voice roared.... I hear no one who has not communed with me! .. Your brother sinned with whores, and so I condemn him to hell for eternity! No! I pleaded, hear me and I shall be your priest! I can have no priest who has golden idols before him.............I turned and saw the forgiving Virgin. A. she smiled, I forgive them all. You cannot! ...you must punish T. for killing N. ....again laughter rang from the flames. You foolish boy, God roared....you would have a God who forgives all, but when it comes to your personal whims you seek punishment for your vengeance. You would have my mother rule my heavens....but you would also have her taint her hands with the blood of vengeance.... Vengeance is Mine! He shouted, not even your golden carp would give up that power as a god! ....forgive me Lord! I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and deed....... I saw the blood of N. flow into the river and mix with the blood of L.” (181-182)
“...he peed all over R’s shoes.... it was funny as hell..” (204)
“you’ll go to hell too...... you don’t believe in God!” (205)
“My mother died when I was three, my old man drank himself to death....... my sisters are whores, working at Rosie’s..” (206)
At school he pretends he is a priest taking confessions: “..Tell him only your worst one R. coaxed H. ......I made a whole in the wall... could see into the girls bathroom... could see everything.. her ass...hear the pee...You have sinned i said... There’s more .. I saw a teacher..... it was biggggggggggg....... give him penance the girls chanted....you are dirty H. they cried....... me next! .....B. shouted. I got a better sin than H. ....Bless me, father! .....he kept making sign of the cross over and over....... i saw a boy and girl fucking in the grass.....smiled proudly and looked around... Ah, I see them every night under the railroad bridge V. scoffed... naked! Jumping up and down. Give me penance (B. said) .. a rosary to the Virgin, I said .....Like H.? he shouted. .....but my sin was bigger .. he threw me down.... another rosary for daring to touch the priest...that made him happy and he settled down... F. next...they grabbed F. and made him kneel in front of me..... No! i protested....Confess him they chanted...what are your sins I asked? ... I don’t have any F. said ..... Tell me one sin I pleaded ....Confess your sins or your go to hell R. cried out ..... It was God who has sinned against me (F. said)... They were gathering around me now, I could feel their presence and hot bitter breath. ...they wanted me to punish F. ...Make his penance hard....Make him kneel and we’ll beat him ....Stone him! ...beat him! ..kill him!...” (221-225)
At his first communion: “...saw B. jump up and push his finger into his mouth. The host had stuck to the roof of his mouth. He was jabbing God with his finger, trying to free Him, choking on Him. ......we filed back to the pew and knelt...Lord I whispered.....Dumb ass E. poked me ....Damn! I nearly choked! B. whispered. ...I had just swallowed Him, He must be in there........ A thousand questions pushed through my mind, but the Voice within me did not answer. There was only silence. Perhaps I had not prepared right.........The mass was ending, the fleeting mystery wqas already vanishing. Did you feel anything? I urgently asked L. and clutched his arm. I feel hungry L. answered...............I called out to the God that was within me, but there was no answer. Only emptiness.” (232-234)
“There was a red spot on F.’s head where he must have hit bottom or the edge of the culvert. ....rusty-black barbed wire around one arm that must have held him down. ......B. would not come near... a dry rattling sound ...was vomiting and the vomit ran down his chest and stomach and dirtied his swimming trunks. He didn’t know he was vomiting. His wild eyes just stared.......lifeguard...pushed me aside... began pushing down F.’s back...foam flowed from F.’s mouth.....You fucking little bastards! I’ve told you guys a hundred times not to swim here! Two years I’ve had a perfect record here--now this! (254-255)
“I hope you rot in that hole as your bruja will rot in hell!” (269) [– excerpt added by M. Lyn]
“Do you hear, little bastard!...the owl that is the spirit…I will send that miserable bird to hell, as I hope I have sent you --!” (269) [– excerpt added by M. Lyn]