Colonies

The presence of nature in the poem "The Force that through the green fuse drives the flower," by Dylan Thomas, and the book Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya, is a theme found difficult for both authors to define. The complexity of the forces that control nature and weather and even our very lives lead us through their analyses of its effect on human nature. The presence of the river and the force that drives the flower are both of the same unseen power of nature. If one takes a look around themselves they will discover that there is evidence of the higher power's influence on the events that happen.

Antonio discovers the presence of the river when he first gazes into Ultima's eyes. He is overwhelmed with a new awareness of the presence and its power. He does not understand it however, and questions throughout the novel its meaning to him and his religion. The narrator in the poem is dumb to tell the force also. He doesn't understand how it works or anything of its origin, just that it is there and he obeys its laws. The question then is; what is the force? The force can be sectioned into many parts. The first part of the presence is nature. The natural man lives and dies in it and depends entirely on what it provides. The weather and the wind are controlled and manipulated by its hand. The hand is seen throughout many biblical encounters with God. For example, when Moses sees the finger of God write the ten commandments into the stone tablets. The use of the hand personifies the force into a manageable size in that there is deity involved. If deity is the source of this power then Antonio's relationship with his religion would be correct in that he is recognizing God as deity. However, the poem mentions the hand in a manner of personification that justifies its interference in his life.

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower also drives the water through the rocks and whirls the water in the pool that leech to the fountain head. Time ushers in age and the water of life is being whirled by it and continuing the cycle of life just as water cycles through its stages back to the top of the mountain and into the streams again. One is born and lives his life riding down the mountain. He has a family which he leaves as proof of his existence and then dies and becomes part of the clay that has made the hangman's lime. His children continue and reproduce and make their own families making the stream larger and larger and running into rivers and finally running into the ocean, the great population of the world where everyone lives and dies together. Some going up into the clouds and raining down the mountain and some staying in the deep of the dark ocean. Life goes on forever through the laws of the force. For example, Frodo in The Lord of the Rings series looks up to Gandalf as a powerful and all knowing force that protects and teaches him about life and his own existence as a Hobbit in his small world of the Shire. When Gandalf fights the dragon in the mountain, Frodo witnesses Gandalf's plunge into the mountain along with the dragon. Frodo mourns Gandalf's death but what he doesn't realize is that it is only a change in the presence of things. Gandalf comes back as a new wizard, a new being. He is reborn into a resurrected body as the White Wizard and remembers Frodo from what seems an eternity from his former self. He has only gone to the top of the mountain and riding down it another time, the cycle of life.

Antonio's experiences with Ultima show him a connection that exists between man and nature. Ultima uses her knowledge to heal his dying uncle Lucas by using herbs and plants. Its as though the force is coming out from inside her. To explain how this works, let us recall the epic saga of Star Wars. In Star Wars, Yoda the Jedi master teaches young Luke Skywalker how to use the power of the force, just as Ultima is teaching Antonio how to use the power of nature. Yoda explains that within all matter there are midi-quadrons. He continues describing them as all being connected by a force, such as when one holds two magnets together. Yoda teaches Luke how to use the midi-quadrons inside himself to manipulate his surroundings and his own body. With this force Luke can stand up against the evil that awaits him. Antonio gains the knowledge of plants and herbs from Ultima that will protect him from the evils of the world that await him, too.

The narrator of the poem is dumb to tell the crooked rose of his youth bent by the same wintry

fever. He does not understand the age that befalls him as time slips away. With age comes a deeper knowledge of life as it has happened, but not necessarily how it will end. Antonio loses his innocence with age unintentionally through his experiences of trauma. He begins to understand life as a fragile force itself. Life somehow is connected with the earth and is one with its purpose. To depend on what the earth provides to continue life's journey parallels to the childhood classic video game Mario Brothers. The main character Mario fights his way through level after level