I think this blog is due today- I think.
Anyways, I was somewhat disappointed with the end of the book. My predictions were both correct and incorrect. I thought Ultima was going to die, and she did. I thought Antonio's destiny and future would be revealed, it wasn't. Was he going to be a priest? A farmer? a teacher? like his brothers? like Ultima? Who knows, I wish Anaya just told us. This technique of a mystery ending can be effective in keeping the book and the lessons inside it on the reader's mind after they have finished reading it. I would've preferred a more eventful and affirmative ending, but that's just me.
Anaya also foreshadows a lot of the book's ending through Antonio's dream, which makes it predictable. For example Ultima's death and Antonio's brothers wandering and restlessness.
One thing that I really liked about the ending chapters, was the story the priest told to the children about eternity. I thought it was very powerful and also very easy to imagine. (I would type it here but its almost an entire page long...)
The ending of the book seemed to highlight Antonio's desire for answers from God, but also the fact that he wasn't getting any of these answers. God let people like evil Tenorio die, but also the good Narciso. God can't or won't lift the curse like those on Uncle Lucas and the Tellez family. Antonio dis everything right in believing and preparing to receive God in communion, and He was silent. God was silent during Antonio's questions, He was silent to his confessions, and silent still for his communion. God seemed always silent yet he had the right to determine whether you went to heaven or hell when you died. In a way, through Antonio (and also the story of Florence), Anaya is trying to say that "life isn't always fair". And that you cant change the past or your life in general, but you can control how you respond to it and how much it affects you. Don't blame God for your every misfortune. Sometimes it rains on the people who most deserve the sun.
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