Comparing Yann Martel’s Life of Pi and Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya

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A mentor is a trusted guide who shows you the way in life. Through the mentors of Pi and Antonio, they help save and point them to the right way in life. In the novel Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, Ultima shows Tony that good can always overcome evil, no matter how evil it may be. Life of Pi by Yann Martel, shows that Pi can face his fears by the help of a big Bengal tiger in a small boat, and that the littlest things in life can change the course of how your destiny awaits.

Ultima displays the connection she has with Tony as soon as she arrives, by letting him call her Ultima instead of Grande because Ultima believes that Antonio and she have a connection since Antonio was the last child Ultima pulled out of Marias Antonio’s mother womb. After that moment, both Tony and Ultima grow closer and closer. She and Tony spend much time together either getting herbs for medicines or telling stories to each other. When Tony has dreams Ultima teaches him to read between the lines in his dreams and guides him as he tries to figure out his right place in his family, whether to be a Marez or Luna. Wanting to please both his mother and father at the same time. Ultima also teaches Tony the practices of how to dig up a plant correctly, they must tell the plant what they are doing before taking it away from its home. Teaching Tony to show compassion for the things you take for your own use. Ultima shows sympathy through the people she cured, displaying to Tony that her magic is not evil at all. "If my uncle would of come earlier, he would of saved Ultima, but it is better not to think that way. Ultima said to take life’s experiences and build strength from them and not weaknesses.(Anaya 245)” Tony explains everything that Ult...

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...o face our fears, looking them dead in the eye. He notes that tigers only attack when you are not looking straight in the eye. When Pi tries to tame Richard Parker by blowing the whistle, while Richard Parker is seasick. Pi faces his fears instead of letting it sit there and control him. We need to ‘blow the whistle’ on our own fears and admit we do have a fear, so they become easier to control in our lives. Richard Parker also teaches Pi his inner strength even though Pi does not display it himself. "This was the terrible cost of Richard Parker. He gave me a life, my own, but at the expense of taking one. He ripped the flesh off the man's frame and cracked his bones. The smell of blood filled my nose. Something in me died then that has never come back to life. (Martel 139)”

Works Cited

Martel, Yann. Life of Pi: A Novel. New York: Harcourt, 2001. Print.

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