Bless Me, Ultima

by Rudolfo Anaya

Bless Me, Ultima: Flashbacks 1 key example

Chapter 1 (Uno)
Explanation and Analysis—The Beginning:

In Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya employs the techniques of frame story and flashback simultaneously to establish the narrator’s perspective and set the tone for the book. Antonio opens the novel by situating the story in his own past, framing it as a reflection on events that shaped his life:

Let me begin at the beginning. I do not mean the beginning that was in my dreams and the stories they whispered to me about my birth, and the people of my father and mother, and my three brothers—but the beginning that came with Ultima.