In Bless Me, Ultima, we find Antonio constantly seeking answers throughout the story. He wants to know anything and everything, which is common for young boys his age. He yearns to know about Ultima’s powers, and how she cures the sick. He also seeks to gain more knowledge about the Golden Carp, his indigenous religion. However, the more knowledge Antonio gains, the more he begins to question and battle between his indigenous religion and his Catholic one. It begins with him questioning if it was a sin to even believe in the golden carp, as it can be seen as worshipping a false idol according to the Ten Commandments. But in the later chapters, after witnessing yet another murder, he begins to doubt God himself. He questions why Tenorio continues to go unpunished after the crime he committed and why Narciso, who was a good man, had to die. He even prayed to the Virgin for answers, and in his mind, he envisioned god saying that he was “not ready to understand”.

This theme of seeking truths sheds light on one of the many gothic elements of the book. As we saw in The Vine Leaf and The Birthmark, many gothic stories surround the battle of science and nature. It sometimes shows how man is constantly seeking answers to what shouldn’t be tampered with in the first place. Aside from the previously mentioned short stories, an example of this is also found in the famous Goth tale Frankenstein, where a scientist attempted to “play God” and create life himself. As we see through these stories, the acquirement of knowledge does not always promise a happy ending. In The Birthmark, we see the main character pay the ultimate price for allowing her husband to tamper with what was naturally given to her.

Given this background knowledge of gothic tales, it safe for one to assume that this story will not end well. This was foreshadowed in chapter 17, when the old women of the town were speaking of the new atomic bomb invented to end the war. They state, “…they seek to know more than God himself. In the end, that knowledge they seek will destroy us all”. I took this as a very ominous sign. We commonly hear of the saying “knowledge is power” and “ignorance is bliss”, but which is it? Will Antonio’s quest for answers lead to his loss of innocence? Or has he already lost it?