Lecture Notes: Chapter 10 Overview

General Overview

• Chapter Length: 24 pages, from page 83 to 107.
• Narrator’s Personal Context: The narrator is eager to return home for personal reasons, such as a basketball game.

Key Themes and Plot Points

Summer Setting

• The narrator describes how summer has affected him, bringing energy and beauty through the yano and the river.
• Golden Carp: The story of the golden carp haunts the narrator's dreams.

Characters and Relationships

• Samuel: His house is boarded up as he and his father are away sheepherding.
• Andrew: Works all day and is rarely seen by the narrator.
• Leon and Gene: Rarely write back to Ultima and the narrator.
• Ultima: Works with the narrator in the garden, has a deep connection without much spoken exchange.
• Father's and Mother's Concerns: The father is dejected about his son's leaving; the mother is worried about Uncle Lucas's illness.

Uncle Lucas’s Illness

• Cause: Believed to be bewitched by a bruja (witch).
• Attempts to Cure: Various unsuccessful attempts by doctors and a priest.
• Decision: Family resorts to seeking help from Ultima, a curandera.

Ultima’s Intervention

Seeking Help

• Ultima’s Condition: Ultima will help only if the family understands that intervening with fate can set uncontrollable events in motion.
• Uncle Pedro’s Acceptance: Accepts responsibility and agrees to Ultima's terms.

Journey to El Puerto

• Travel: Narrator accompanies Ultima to help his uncle Lucas.
• Supernatural Events: Presence of strange weather and a blood-red moon as they travel.

Confrontation with Tenorio

• Location: Tenorio’s saloon.
• Ultima vs. Tenorio: Ultima confronts Tenorio about the curse set by his daughters.
• Outcome: Tenorio refuses to lift the curse.

The Cure

The Healing Process

• Setting: Quiet, death-like atmosphere at the grandfather’s house.
• Ultima’s Preparation: Uses herbs, roots, and incantations to prepare remedies.
• Shared Suffering: Narrator experiences uncle’s pain during the healing process.

Success of the Cure

• Ultima’s Magic: Ultima successfully uses a powerful remedy.
• Uncle Lucas's Recovery: Lucas eventually vomits a ball of hair, indicating the removal of the curse.
• Completion: Ultima ensures everything is as it should be before leaving.

Conclusion

• Family’s Gratitude: Uncle Lucas and family express immense gratitude to Ultima for saving Lucas.
• Ultima’s Departure: She leaves with the narrator and his uncle Pedro to burn the last elements of the curse at the witches’ clearing.
• Final Reflections: Narrator reflects on the courage of Ultima and the power of good over evil.