Antonio’s dream about the water of the moon and the water
of the sea is a way for him to deal symbolically with the religious
conflict between his parents. Gabriel’s spiritual beliefs are more
like Cico’s pagan religion than like María’s Catholicism, and the
result is even more tension between the parents. Antonio’s struggle
to cope with competing moral orders is now a symbolic part of his
struggle to cope with conflicting family traditions. Ultima, whose
character demonstrates the possibility of the harmonious coexistence
of opposites, calms Antonio’s fears in the dream by revealing the
interdependent relationship of the sea and the moon, symbolic representations
of his paternal and maternal traditions.
