Innocence

“I had somehow lost my innocence and let sin enter into my soul, and the knowledge of God, the saving grace, was far away” (Rudolpho Anaya, Bless Me, Ultima 167)

In the book, Bless Me, Ultima, it’s about a young boy named Antonio Marez, who receives understanding during his life experiences by the guidance of a family friend named Ultima.  As the book starts out, he is innocent in nature about the world, but as he goes through his life experiences he grows and matures in his thinking and understanding and becomes aware of the pain and suffering in the world around him.

The quote mentioned above is Antonio’s thoughts about somehow losing his innocence and letting sin enter his soul.  I think it is Antonio’s way of trying to understand that he is not the same boy as he first started.  This is a crucial point for him because he believes that if he is not innocent than he has sinned.  What he still has to learn is that it is not that he has sinned, but that he is merely growing up and the knowledge he is gaining is like losing the innocence and the purity given from God.

This reminds me of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  They were in a state of innocence just like Antonio, but as they continued to experience knowledge and understanding and persuasion from Satan, they made a choice to lose their innocence.  Eve explains it best when she says, “It is better for us to pass through sorrow that we may know good from evil.”

Antonio, Adam and Eve both learned from their life experiences and losing their innocence that it is better for them to experience these things so that they will have the knowledge and understanding to make wise choices in the future.  The experiences that we receive in life are what mold us to become the person we need to become and it is natural for us to lose our state of innocence and to have these life experiences.