Previous
Imagery
Definition of Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor can be stated explicitly, as... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other. The comparison in a metaphor... read full definition
A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two different things by saying that one thing is the other... read full definition
Key Examples in Bless Me, Ultima
Chapter 1 (Uno)
Explanation and Analysis—When Ultima Came:
In this passage, the author uses personification and metaphor to show the transformative effect of Ultima’s arrival in Guadalupe. Looking back on his childhood from the future, Antonio reflects on how Ultima’s presence opens his eyes to the beauty and vitality of New Mexico:
When [Ultima] came the beauty of the llano unfolded before my eyes, and the gurgling waters of the river sang to the hum of the turning earth. The magical time of childhood stood still, and the pulse of the living earth pressed its mystery into my living blood.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4 (Cuatro)
Explanation and Analysis—Blood Types:
In this passage, the author uses metaphor and simile to explain the cultural and familial differences between the Luna and Márez families. Ultima describes these inherited traits to Antonio while they gather prickly pears:
Unlock with LitCharts A+It is the blood of the Lunas to be quiet, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary for planting—They are quiet like the moon—And it is the blood of the Márez to be wild, like the ocean from which they take their name, and the spaces of the llano that have become their home.
Related Themes:
Chapter 8 (Ocho)
Explanation and Analysis—Blood of Spring:
In this dense passage, the author uses personification, a metaphor, and an idiom to convey the unsettling influence of spring on both the natural world and on Antonio’s Márez brothers. Antonio explains, warily:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The lime-green of spring came one night and touched the river trees. Dark buds appeared on branches, and it seemed that the same sleeping sap that fed them began to churn through my brothers. I sensed their restlessness, and I began to understand why the blood of spring is called the bad blood.
Related Themes:
Chapter 12 (Doce)
Explanation and Analysis—In My Blood:
As he describes the importance of Ultima’s presence in Antonio’s life, the narrator employs metaphor to illustrate just how strong her influence was. As the older Antonio thinks back to his childhood with Ultima in Guadalupe, he says:
Unlock with LitCharts A+From her I learned the glory and tragedy of the history of my people, and I came to understand how that history stirred in my blood.
Related Themes:
Chapter 16 (Dieciseis)
Explanation and Analysis—Dark Blue Pit:
Tenorio's eyes show the madness and obsession that are driving him by the novel’s end, which Anaya portrays to frightening effect through visual imagery and metaphor. Antonio catches Tenorio’s gaze while standing near the place where Tenorio killed Narciso, and the moment fills him with fear:
Unlock with LitCharts A+His blind eye was a dark blue pit and the other glared yellow in the dust. He laughed and howled as he looked down at me and I thought he was drunk.
Related Themes:
Chapter 18 (Dieciocho)
Explanation and Analysis—Unimportant:
Antonio contemplates the transience of physical existence during the Ash Wednesday ceremonies in Bless Me, Ultima. Metaphorically describing how the solemn rites make him feel, Antonio explains:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The body is not important [...] In the end, what we care most for lasts only a brief lifetime, then there is eternity. Time forever. Millions of worlds are born, evolve, and pass away into nebulous, unmeasured skies; and there is still eternity. Time always. The body becomes dust and trees and exploding fire, it becomes gaseous and disappears, and still there is eternity. Silent, unopposed, brooding, forever… But the soul survives.
Related Themes:
Chapter 20 (Veinte)
Explanation and Analysis—Like a Flower:
Ultima believes that interfering with destiny can only have negative consequences, as she explains to Antonio. In this quote the author uses a simile and a metaphor to explain her views on the importance of personal growth without external “meddling," as Antonio explains to his teacher Miss Violet:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ultima says a man's destiny must unfold itself like a flower, with only the sun and the earth and water making it blossom, and no one else meddling in it.
Related Themes:
