Voice and Ambivalence in Bless Me Ultima and Baby of the Family Essays

Voice and Ambivalence in evoke Me Ultima and Baby of the Family Bless Me Ultima and Baby of the Family serve as the coming of age stories of two minority children. Rudolfo Anaya and Tina McElory Ansa skillfully burst the richness, diversity, and conflicts that can exist within the Hispanic-American and African-American cultures primarily through the conceive of sequences in all(prenominal) novel. Dreams ar the mechanism used in each work to magnify the someone experiences and conflicts Tony and Lena encounter. In addition and by chance, more importantly, Tony and Lena convey with ambivalence and find their voices non only through the relationships with other characters, only through the resolution of their dreams. To truly fathom how integral and dependent the dreams atomic number 18 in the novels, a few definitions argon in order. Dreams are defined, not only as images passing through a sleeping persons point (Neufeldt 132). Dreams also include the mystical events or dream-like occurrences within each novel. Dreams are a way for each character to connect to the past and, perhaps reveal the future. The otherworldly experiences or dreams of Tony and Lena help guide them down the channel of ambivalence, and eventually lead to an awakening or the attainment of voice. Websters New being Dictionary defines ambivalence as simultaneous conflicting feelings (13). These conflicts can be seen in external postal services, and typically have serious internal implications. This dispose is one of the defining factors of the Hispanic-American experience. Are Hispanics immigrants or minorities? In terms of religion, are they Catholic or Indian? Typically, Hispanic- Americans blend the two choices because neither situation totally applies to them. Perh... ... Once Lena and Tony are reconciled to the swirling adventures that transpire around them, there is a resolution. A rebirth of sorts occurs for each character as they attain that they must take conflict ing ideologies and mesh them together to form individual voices. Works Cited Ansa, Tina McElroy. Interview with Tina McElroy Ansa by Doubleday. Book Group Corner. http//www.randomhouse.com/resources/bookgroup/handifanwith_bgc.html. accessed 30 Oct. 2000. Callahan, stool F. In the African-American Grain The Pursuit of Voice in Twentieth-Century fatal Fiction. University of Illinois Press Urbana and Chicago. 1988. Neufeldt, Victoria, ed. Websters New World Compact School and Office Dictionary. 1 vol. to date. MacMillan USA. 1995. Wood, Scott. Book Reviews Bless Me Ultima. Contemporary Literary Criticism. vol. 23 (1983) 22.