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Post by Rylee Wenzel on Jul 15, 2024 2:35:27 GMT
What has stood out to me so far are the themes and comments on morality and religion. After Antonio witnesses Lupito's death, Ultima takes him to church and explains that each person makes their own moral choices and chooses a set of beliefs to understand things. This made me think of the discussion on the anxiety of choice. Antonio is now aware of the fact that he has to have his own morals and beliefs. It can almost seem like a burden to have to decide where you land on things and follow that for the rest of your life. Especially when you hear this as a kid when all you have known is your parents values and beliefs.
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Post by Dr. Nemmers on Jul 15, 2024 3:43:06 GMT
Great point here Rylee-- even though Antonio is only a little boy, he's being exposed to so many different episodes and competing ideologies. His mother and father completely are from different worlds, and they have divergent ideas about what path he should take. He's torn between the Anglo and Latino worlds. He's been raised in religion and yet confronts evil and paganism throughout. And most of all, as I posted in the other thread, he's questioning to what extent he should stick with his family and their ways, and how much he needs to choose for his own.
Where else do we see anxiety of choice, burden of freedom, and authenticity? How much does Antonio, even as a boy, embody these existentialist tenets?
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Post by garrison on Jul 16, 2024 21:32:39 GMT
I think the anxiety of choice really grabs hold of Antonio. He's presented with so many different options from his mothers catholosism to ultima's magic to the golden fish. It's like his head keeps snapping back and forth whenever he's faced with a challenge or his innocence is threatened. Ultima telling him that each person must commit to their own beliefs is a scary choice. I'm sure he felt the weight of that when his first communion was underwhelming.
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Post by Dr. Nemmers on Jul 17, 2024 16:29:00 GMT
Right, and as we see in the end, he actually winds up making no choice--- such is his paralysis that he can't choose between being a priest or a farmer, being a Christian or pagan, between Anglo/Mexican/Indian worlds. He keeps trying to find a way to combine these and to come up with some path of his own. Certainly puts a new spin on the "anxiety of choice"...
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Post by Rylee Wenzel on Jul 17, 2024 23:23:22 GMT
It really is a testament to how paralyzing making choices can be. When everyone in our life wants us to do something different, and we just want to exist as we are, we can become stuck. I think the fact that Antonio winds up not making any definitive choice makes this an existentialist piece of work. He is so overwhelmed by choice that he decides to just be and not make a choice. I can see this being a great example of how our freedom to choose how we live can be extremely daunting.
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