Antonio
has a disturbing dream in which he sees his brothers entering Rosie's
house, which is a house of prostitution. He begs Andrew not to enter.
Andrew replies that he will not enter until Antonio loses his innocence.
Antonio protests that innocence is forever. His mother, in the dream,
tells him that he will lose innocence at his first communion, for then
he will understand good and evil. Ultima appears and gives him a
mystical answer, saying that innocence resides in the land of his birth.
But this does not satisfy him.
When
Tony wakes he hears the argument going on downstairs. Le�n and Eugene
have told their father of their plans. They do not want to go to
California with him. They prefer to go to Santa Fe and live their own
lives. Andrew, however, decides to take a job in town and remain living
at home. He also decides to try and complete his high school education.
Tony
wonders about his own future. It is the end of the school year and he
has learned to read and write. He is allowed to skip second grade and go
straight to third grade.
As
the vacation begins, Tony goes fishing for catfish with his friend
Samuel at the River of the Carp. They do not fish for carp, since
that is considered bad luck. Samuel tells Tony a story: a long time ago
the people who lived there were forbidden by the gods to catch carp,
since the carp was a sacred fish. But then there was a forty-year
drought, and because of the failure of crops, the people were forced to
catch and eat carp. The gods punished them by turning them into carp and
making them live in the river forever. It is therefore a sin to catch
carp and a worse sin to eat one. Samuel also tells a story that the
golden carp was formerly a god who took pity on his people and asked to
be turned into a carp so he could swim in the river and take care of
them. The idea that the golden carp is a god shocks and confuses Tony,
since he had been taught to believe that Jesus was God. And what about
the Virgin? Could it be that his mother is praying to the wrong God?
Analysis
Tony's
world is rocked by his first exposure to pagan myths. The myth of the
golden carp presents him with ideas that are very different from the
Christian doctrines he is being raised to believe in. Tony does not know
what to believe, since the two versions of reality seem to be in
conflict with each other. True to his nature, he never ceases to ask
questions about where the truth really lies.
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