Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya Literary Analysis Essay Example

In the literary text of Rudolfo Anaya’s, “Bless Me, Ultima”, we come to learn that several characters have internal conflicts versus external conflicts. One of those characters includes Florence, who has an internal battle with his past and self going against the external battle with God and religion. This external issue with following religion and God brings out his internal conflicts relating to his past, which affects his abilities in having difficulty believing in a religious figure and the things he was taught to believe through religion. 

Throughout Florence's childhood, he has experienced many tragedies such as losing both his parents to death and his sisters becoming prostitutes. With all the misfortunes that he has endured, he has begun to believe that God did not exist. In the religion of Catholicism, it says that God controls human lives as a whole. As a way for people to receive help, they pray in hopes of a better outcome. He was one of those people looking for aid in all those moments of tragedy, but he has not received anything. That has further led to him believing that God is not real and that he was born into a life of tragedy. The irony is that he did not ask to be born, nor did he do anything wrong, but he was put on this Earth and was given this life full of tragedy resulting in him feeling like he was born just to be punished. 

Furthermore, this external issue with believing in God and internal issues relating to his childhood traumas are parallel to each other. Florence already feels as if he is put on this Earth to be punished, but it is considered a sin if they do not believe in God himself and the religion. He goes against the recurring theme of the book, which is religion. This is significant to the story since he doesn't believe and that will arise future issues since they get punished if they sin. If they look at why Florence does not believe in God, it is very understandable since he is taught to learn God is a certain way, but God proved that wrong in those horrible moments. That results in why Florence doesn't believe, but even if there is a reason, he is considered as sinning for not believing. 

In closing, Florence's internal battles relating to his past were evoked by his external battles facing religion and God. That is very important to the theme and book as a whole. This represents just one of the many internal conflicts versus external issues shown in the story of “Bless Me, Ultima'' by Rudolfo Anaya.