Summary
Antonio returns to school in the fall. Samuel is pleased
that Antonio saw the golden carp. He warns Antonio that their classmates
will not understand his family’s defense of Ultima. When Antonio arrives
at the schoolyard, Ernie tries to pick a fight by saying Antonio
has a witch in his house. He also shouts that Andrew
visits Rosie’s house regularly. Antonio ignores the charge against Andrew,
but he stands up for Ultima. He and Ernie get into a fight, and
before long, everybody is fighting in a pile. The teachers separate
the boys, but no one is punished. No one teases Antonio about Ultima
afterward.
On the day that Antonio’s class is scheduled to give
a Christmas play at school, a fierce blizzard covers the ground
with snow. Antonio and his rambunctious friends are the only students
in their class who show up to school. Their teacher, Miss Violet,
decides to have them perform the play in front of the rest of the
school anyway. The boys practice all morning, but some of them are
not happy at playing the girls’ parts. The play becomes a hilarious
farce.
Walking home morosely, Antonio sees Tenorio, the saloon-keeper,
and Narciso, the town drunk, fighting in the street. Another of
Tenorio’s daughters is sick. Before stumbling away, Tenorio vows to
kill Ultima. Narciso rushes off to find Andrew, one of Antonio’s older
brothers. Antonio follows Narciso to Rosie’s house. To Antonio’s
horror, Narciso knocks on the door and asks for Andrew. Antonio
wonders if the fact that Narciso is looking for Andrew at the brothel
means that Andrew has already lost his innocence. When Andrew refuses
to take Narciso seriously and warn his parents of Tenorio’s threat,
Narciso trudges into the blizzard to do it himself. Antonio stays
out of sight and follows him.
Antonio hears a pistol shot ring out. He finds Tenorio
and Narciso fighting under a juniper tree. When Antonio screams,
Tenorio aims at him, but his pistol refuses to fire. After Tenorio
flees, Antonio hears Narciso’s last confession. He stumbles home
to report what he has seen. Antonio falls into a deep fever and
dreams that he begs God and the Virgin to forgive Andrew and Narciso.
The Virgin replies that she will not forgive Narciso if Antonio
does not ask her to forgive Tenorio as well. Antonio cries out for
Tenorio to be punished, but God declares that he cannot be a god
who is all-giving while taking vengeance on Tenorio at the same
time. Antonio cries for God to forgive his own sins.
In his dream, Antonio sees the blood of Lupito and Narciso
mix in the river. A mob gathers, calling for Ultima’s blood. Antonio’s brothers
beg him to bless and forgive them. However, they turn into the Trementina
sisters when Antonio approaches them. They cut Antonio’s hair and
mix it with a toad’s entrails and a bat’s blood. Afterward, they
drink it, and Antonio dies despite his mother’s prayers and Ultima’s
magic. Antonio is sentenced to purgatory because he died without
taking the Eucharist. Lead by the sisters, a mob kills Ultima, Antonio’s
family, and Antonio’s friends. Afterward, the mob catches and eats
carp. A great hole opens in the ground, and water rises out of it,
but the sinners take no heed. The sun turns red, and the sinners’
skin falls off. When there is no one left alive in Guadalupe, the
farmers from El Puerto come to gather the ashes of Antonio and his
family. They bury the remains in the holy ground of their fields.
The skies clear, and the golden carp swallows everything, good and
evil. He ascends to the heavens to become a new sun, shining over
a new world.
Analysis
Anaya describes the process of leaving childhood behind
not only as the development of a personal belief system, but also
the willingness to defend those beliefs. Like his defense of Ultima
against the mob in Chapter 12, Antonio’s
fight with Ernie in Chapter 14 demonstrates his
willingness to defend his beliefs even when they are unpopular. Although
Gabriel and Ultima clearly influence Antonio’s behavior, Antonio’s
own personal experiences have led him to defend his beliefs as well.
Ultima’s continual emphasis on the importance of considering different
moral frameworks in making decisions certainly affects Antonio,
but ultimately, it is Antonio himself who decides what decisions
he will make. Understanding that morality cannot be considered absolute
or clearly defined gives Antonio greater power to find his own truths.
Gabriel’s example of fierce individualism gives Antonio the courage
to defend the truths he chooses for himself. The golden carp story
supports Ultima’s lesson that there are multiple but equally valid
modes of moral reasoning. In Cico’s religion, Narciso is not a moral
outcast because of his drinking, for example. Simply knowing this
fact gives Antonio the courage to be different.
