Bless Me Ultima Archetypes Essay

In the novel Bless Me Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, he uses archetypes to connect the reader to every person whose has ever existed. By adding these archetypes to his work, it helps the reader connect to the novel and it helps us associate with the human experience. Through his experience as a writer, he found his own way of writing. Anaya can relate to many other authors in the way that they try to write a story from their roots and what their childhood was like, not like all the American books they are used to reading. Rudolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, and Chinua Achebe all have a similar way of writing because they all include archetypes in their literature to connect us as humans.

In Bless Me Ultima, Anaya added archetypes in his literature because as he mentioned in his interview, “That is what connects us to all the humans who have ever existed”. In this novel, some of the archetypes he uses are portraying Ultima as an outcast and as the old wise woman. Ultima fell under both of these categories because she seemed harmful to some of the people in society but to many she was viewed as the wisest women in the llano. Anaya depicts her as an outcast to Tenorio and his daughters, the Trementina sisters. They view her as evil and they

Cisneros too has a unique way of writing because she also includes archetypes throughout the series of short stories in her novel. The main character is Esperanza Cordero and she too is depicted as an outcast just like Ultima. She is a Latina who tries to fit in her society. An example is when the girls try on the heels and they finally feel like a woman. The excitement didn't last for too long because of the catcalling. Even when she felt like she fit in with society, it was ruined and she still remained the outcast in the story. By Cisneros adding this archetype to her piece of literature, it connected me to the human