Going to school is a major turning point in Antonio's life. He feels much anxiety about the impending separation from his mother, and he seems to have secretly hoped that magic would save him from the separation. At the moment when he is to leave home, Ultima blesses him and the girls, and he feels swept away by a whirlwind of ideas concerning evil but reassures himself by remembering how to ward them off. He seems to perceive the llano as a demonic wasteland. As he leaves, he looks back upon his parents and knows intuitively that they will never be the same; something has changed in his life and cannot be undone. Antonio perceives this next step in life in terms of good and evil. He associates good with the security of home and the warmth of his mother, and evil with the llano, the outside world.
As the tension between good and evil intensifies for Antonio, the river and the bridge increase in their symbolic importance. Initially, the river separates Antonio's house from the town and its evil people, but as he deepens his understanding, he realizes that the river both binds and divides. It is both a creative and a destructive force. In the end, the river will symbolize the irreversible passage of time and the human journey toward a final destination. Here, the bridge symbolizes Antonio's maturation, his transition from childhood to adulthood, and his shift from innocence to understanding. It is also the link between his Spanish-speaking world and that of the English-speaking townspeople.
