At first glance, I thought that the golden carp was Rodolfo Anaya’s analogy for God. However, the more I read about Tony’s interactions/opinions of the fish, I saw that the fish is a spiritual figure, not necessarily a religious one.
Not to beat a dead horse here, but this experience pertaining to spirituality calls “The Color Purple” to mind. In Alice walker’s novel, Celie doesn’t feel like the confines of Christianity fulfill her. Only when she turns to a more spiritual approach to God/religion does she find peace of mind. She does this through appreciating nature, specifically colors (such as the color purple). She finds herself believing that God isn’t who the church always told her he was. He is in everything beautiful, trying to please us all.
This correlates with Tony on a couple of levels.1)He associates the carp’s beauty partly, with its rich color. 2) He sees the golden carp, and all of its beauty, and receives a spiritual feeling from just how strong and mesmerizing the fish is. 3) The carp represents spirituality outside the Catholic church and the acceptance that faith can be tied to many things outside of God. 4) He has similar thoughts and feelings towards other natural things throughout the book; for example, juniper trees.
I think one of the reasons I come back to Antonio’s similarities to Celie partially because I don’t have much reference on religious texts, questioning religion, or (specifically) pieces of literature that cover these topics. That being said, I do think these characters are very similar both in terms of their approach to religion, and their quest for their identities.
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