Fay Weldon once wrote that writers who get the best and most lasting response from readers are the writers who offer a happy ending - one with some kind of spiritual reassessment with the self. The author, Rudolfo Anaya embraces this technique in his book, Bless Me Ultima. By having an idol of the narrator killed along with the antagonist, and having the narrator choose a religion to believe in, Anaya creates a happy ending through moral development. Also before Ultima dies, she tells Antonio that one must not get in the way of destiny. To achieve his purpose of this spiritual reassessment, Anaya uses various rhetorical devices such as symbolism, irony, and mood.

Antonio Maraz first meets Ultima as she comes to live at his family's house. Ultima had been an old family friend who tremendously assisted Antonio's mother in her times of trouble. When Ultima arrives...