Greene, Graham - The power and the glory

Graham Greene - The power and the Glory

The book is about religious persecution. The protagonist is the church, and the antagonist is the state. /mestizo,

If the lieutnant is convincing and right (objectively convincing), he’s the protagonist. If he’s convincing and wrong (subjectively convincing), he’s the antagonist. If he is unconvincing, it’s a bad book.

There are main and minor characters.

What does the author suggest about the meaning of life???

EPIGRAPH

Th’ inclosure narrowed, the sagacious (strong) power of hounds and death drew nearer every hour.

- something sinister is out there to get somebody (prey = Beute), it is successful and powerful. Subject is a hunt.

PART ONE

1. The port ➔ place where you can get in, but also get out.

Story playing in Mexico, Tabasco (p.1), in a shabby city (many vultures; merciless sky (p.9))… very negative! Even feeling of rebellion is faint, it’s just too hot.

In this environment, power and glory are reduced to nothing: ex - president, ex - general, ex - human being.

Mr. Tench is a dentist from England (p.1) but is in Mexico for 15 years by now (p.14).

-> Graham Greene is from UK too. Book rather british approach.

He has two kids whom he doesn’t remember very well, one is dead (p.14).

Mr Tench wants to get away from Mexico, he thinks it’s an awful place. But he doesn’t have enough money (p.15).

He goes to the river coz a boat (exultant (erheiternd) piping of it = only positive thing in that paragraph) arrived and he wants to fill up his ether cylinder. ➔ in order to survive in that world, you need pain killers.

Mr. T meets a man who doesn’t greet him: ‘it wasn’t like UK’ ➔ UK better, Mexicans partly uncivilized and oppressive (unterdrückend) ➔ beer & ex-church)

He meets a stranger ➔ misterious man coming out of nowhere, when T says ‘ My God, a pretty one ’

Mr. Tench sees girl as sexual object. Priest: ‘She’s very young’ ➔ moral condemnation. T tries to defend himself ➔ T touched by priest, he suddenly feels trapped by his conscience.

The priest gives an impression of an alcoholic (p.9), learnt English in the US (p.10)).

Mr Tench takes the stranger to his home coz he got some alcohol, they drink ‚the doctors‘ brandy. Priest is an ‘old’ doctor, heals souls. Tench is a ‘new’ doctor.

A boy comes to Mr Tench’s house looking for a doctor, the stranger follows him reluctantly (widerstrebend), coz he actually wants to take the boat.

But the kid knows that it’s too late for a doc, he wants a priest. The kid is Gods messenger. The kid KNOWS, that he can trust a priest, the priest will help him.

p.16: ‘He got up as though unwillingly he had been summoned (berufen…by god!) to an occasion he couldn’t pass by.’

He knows that he’s meant to miss the boat. ‘It always seems to happen. Like this’ -> God is always with T. It’s foreshadowing that P won’t be able to flee.

God says through priest I CAN do good, when provoked by T’s ‘she’s dead anyways’.

It’s his duty to stay and care for the people who need him. He has to restore human dignity (Würde).

‘He was unworthy of what he carried’ (p.19) (➔ GOD)

The priest feels unworthy, he has a bitter distaste for himself. BUT: he’s part of the people. (compare lieutnant!)

He accidentally leaves his book (breviary = prayer book) at Mr Tench’s house, which is looking like a cheap love story but is Latin. Cover as dirty as outside world. Persecution: he has to cover his book!

La eterna martir ➔ priest will die.

The strangers prayer at the end of the chapter: ‚let me be caught‘

➔ priest is weak. But he didn’t leave anyways… ‘not my will but your will shall be done’!

Lopez: he helped undesireables, people who were not wanted, was shot weeks ago. He could have given priest a ticket.

Girl (p.19): romantic, soft, sense of freedom. She was able to leave hell hole behind. She’s satisfied, but there is some kind of sadness in her, melancholy.

Song about a rose which had been stained (befleckt) with true love’s blood. ➔ MARTYR. Someone (priest) shed his blood for her.

She was dehumanized (made into a sex object), but her humanness (God wants us to be human!) is restored by someone sheding his blood.

2. The capital (Villahermosa)

The barracks are run down. Policemen walked raggedly with rifles slung anyhow... (p.19).

“The lieutnant walked (…) with an air of distaste. He might have been chained to them unwillingly - perhaps the scar on his jaw was the relic of an escape.”

(see page 16 priest)

Priest and lieutenant are similar, they both want to escape but can’t. They both do their duty, although they are uncomfortable with it. They are instruments of the institution, they represent (they don’t even have names. We have to judge the institutions!) but both believe in something.

The lieutenant believes in military power to help people. He’s smart, disciplined and neat (sauber). The system for which he fights is the opposite (shabby, undisciplined…).

‘His neatness gave an effect of inordinate (ungehörig) ambition in the shabby sity.’

The lieutnant is the better one and knows it. That’s why he also doesn’t respect his jefe, who has toothache all the time. That is a sign for weakness, coz the teeth are a sign for the hunter. The lieutnant has bitter distaste for OTHERS.

(compare priest p.16)

The policemen are supposed to catch a priest. They have a newspaper photograph of a first communion party.

The whisky priest is a youngish man in a Roman collar, much too developed for his age. He spent 6 years in a US seminary, born in Carmen, son of a storekeeper.

The gringo got away with 1000$ from Houston, must be very clever! (p.22) He’s a real man. In the lieutnants oppinion he is a man ‘at any rate’ ➔ strong, male, macho.

The priest is more feminine, he is weak.

He should have a lot of strenght coz they can’t marry, but the priest is so weak, that he can’t even do what he has to (celibate).

The lieutnant doesn’t need women, he forces a comparism. He actually lives like a priest. He is so strong, that he does what he doesn’t even have to do.

He thinks that he should be the chief and have the power. He’s actually right, coz the jefe is weak.

The gringo (Calver) is a murderer, but he’s ‘only’ an enymy of the people. The priest, an enymy to the state, is more important to look for.

The lieutnant says, that priests exploited poor people. The poor ones give there last cent but the priests are sacrificing nothing in return but a little sexual indulgence (Luxury) (p.23). Priesthood spoils (verwöhnen) a man.

He proposes to take hostages in the villages to catch the priest. (p.24)

So: if people don’t do what state wants them to, state takes hostages. The state is good for politicians, but not for the people! The system doesn’t care for/about peole, it uses them. State abuses power!

The jefe and the lieutnant know that it would be mass murder (p.24: ‘a lot of them would die’)

The iron swings on the playground look like gallows ➔ death!

The state thinks that it was liberating the people by persecuting the church, but the iron & cement show the state’s poverty. The state can’t care for people. And the school, which was sponsored by the church, is closed.

It was the hour of prayer… he prays to vacancy.

It infuriates the lieutnant to think that there are still people believing in god.

He calls Mexico an obscure and neglected (vernachlässigt) state. ‚Life began 5 years ago‘. (➔ when they started to persecute the church. The church was his main problem in the old state).)(p.24)

BUT: ‘there was something of a priest… in his walk’. ➔ You couldn’t say that about the priest. It shows, that they are similar, but there are also a lot of things they don’t have in common. L feels no sympathy for the weak.

Existance of world/ human beings ‘for no purpose at all’. Meaning of life in his case can be replaced by ‘meaninglessness’.

One priest had conformed (anpassen) to the Governors law that all priests must marry (p.25).

In the back room of an Academia commercial a mum is reading to her kids, 2 girls and a boy. (p.25)

It’s a story from a smuggled book about a young boy, Juan, who believes in god.

The girls are exited, but the boy is bored. He represents the ‘New Generation’, since he doesn’t belive in God or religion.

He’s talking about Padre José, who his mother calls despicable (verachtungswürdig) and a traitor of god.

The whisky priest was in the family’s house. The parents don’t like either of them, but they have to live with them if they don’t want to leave the church.

Padre José married to escape the police. He is a living witness (Zeuge).

He thinks that it was a mortal sin and he’s grotesque. He is mocked by his town coz he’s married, there is no respect for him any more, in the whole, abandoned star.

José is abandoned, but he is abandoning, too.

If his wife would respect him and his ‘profession’, she’d support him.

The children watch José with ‘deep gravity’, so they understand what’s happening. They, the new generation, make fun of him and see him as a looser.

When they shout José, it reminds of God’s messenger who held the whiskey priest back. The voice is coming out of nowhere, it could be God’s.

José is a role model for the kids, when he turns his back to the children, the ‘deep gravity’ turns into ‘wild glee’ (Triumph).

That happens, when the church leaves the state.

There was once a renegade, who believed the governor and seized the host (eine Kirche geschändet hat), people hang him (➔ they still believe in church). (p.29)

Padre José is worse than the renegade, coz he won’t get penalty for his sin.

He has the gift to turn waver into flesh and blood of god (once a priest, always a priest). He can’t flee, and he’s the living proof that corrupts children.

José is the state’s best weapon against religion.

If they hung him, kids would have seen that what José did was bad.

➔ That makes him worthy of damnation!

➔ Greene is harsh and merciless to José, he is humiliated (gedemütigt).

3. The river

Captain Fellows (telling name! People like you and I. British.)= happy man, who loves his freedom. When he gets home, a very slight cloud marres his happiness (p.31).

He has a wife, Trixi Fellows, who’s ill. She fears everything (p.32). They have a 13 year old daughter, Coral, who’s very thin. Her dad feels the ‘lack of meaning’ when she kisses him on the forehead (p.33).

A policemen arrived in the poor village: (‘cemetery nobody visits’ (p.33)) and spent a night on their veranda (p.32).

Coral is as wild as her dad (p.34). She grew up under inhumanly circumstances, she learnt to always be prepared. Her dad calls her ‘the stranger in the family’s house’.

But actually there is a role reversal in the family: Coral becomes the mother, and her mother the daughter.

Captain Fellows talks to the police officer, who’s looking for a priest and wants the captain to report if he hears about him (p.35).

Coral didn’t let the policeman search the house, she’s a courageous girl (p.36).

Captain loves Coral and therefore he can’t control her. She tells him, that the priest is hidden in their barn, and mother doesn’t know about it.

Priest is a small man who needs a shave. The captain allows him to stay till night (p.37).

The priest asks for brandy instead of food. The captain calls that ‘religion’ shameless. He’s furious and powerless against his daughter.

Mother and Captain are different: Captain is usually happy, and is wife always unhappy. (p.39)

Carol brings the priest food and tells him to go north (police went south). The priest is frightened, they’d shoot him if they found him (p.39).

He says he’d rather be caught than carry on living under these circumstances, but it’s his duty not to be caught. It’s out of his power to renounce (aufgeben) (p.40).

Coral offers her help for the future, though she’s not believing in god. (p.41) ➔ but the people who believe in God abuse the priest and then want him to go!

Coral feels sorry for the priest and wants to help him, she’s responsible! It seems to be in her nature to be too good to be true, she’s totally believable!

Coral gives the priest beer, without thinking that it’s bad. She sees that he need it, so she gives it to him. She accepts him the way he is!

Priest feels better after the beer, is not that afraid any more (p.42)

Coral: ‘If they killl you I shan’t forgive them - ever.’ She tells him, that if they kill him, he won the ‘new generation’

He’s going to a poor ‘village’, his shoes are damaged by now. He’s in rags. (p.42).

The people call him father. The 2nd thing he’s asking for is spirit, but there is none in the ‘village’. The priest is really bad off and tired, and falling asleep immediately (43).

p.44: ‘paying’

The priest wants to be paid for services. That makes us understand the lieutnant better! What the priest does is abusing power, if he says (but not the whiskey priest) that someone won’t be baptized if he doesn’t pay. That’s NO glory!

Earlier it was power talking to poverty/ powerlessness, that’s a shame. Now it’s powerlessness talking to powerlessness, that’s good.

The old man wants to confess his sins and wakes him up (p.44). He wants the women to also confess (there hasn’t been a priest in the village for 5 years) though both, women and priest, think it should be okay if the priest hears confession the next morning.

The old man himself behaves like a priest, he’s very pious.

The priest is welcome in the village, but he’s there to be used ➔ he’s the SERVANT OF THE PEOPLE!!!

ROSE: universal symbol of love.

p.44/45: song: a woman finds a rose, and the next time she sees it, it’s withered. This time, the rose itself dies -> the priest.

In the other case (girl on the boat) the rose is saved by somebody sheding his blood for her.

‘It was not completely dark outside under the enormous arc of starry illit sky.’ ➔ represents some kind of glory even there!

4. The Bystanders -> observers/ witnesses (testify)

Mr Tench is writing to his wife, but doesn’t remember her clearly. He wants to tell SOMEBODY that he’s alive.

He didn’t care about her before, he has been touched by the priest/ the mysterious stranger.

Time doesn’t mean anything to him any more, nothing happens where he is now.

5 years ago, there was a revolution and the peso dropped. He wants to go home, but his money is worth too less since the peso drops and drops. (p.46).

He remembers the whisky priest and wonders, what happened to him (p.47).

Padre José is at a cemetery, which is a place for him to be alone and not mocked. But he passes a funeral, a 5-year-old child is buried by her family. (p.47).

The child’s granddad asks him to say a prayer, but he doesn’t show mercy. He refuses, coz it’s against the law.

The family asks him to trust them, but he can trust nobody (p.48).

Religion does no good in this part, coz nobody will make the little girl alive again. But religion can give hope.

José is happy to be treated as a priest again and tempted to do his duty, but he’s too feared. He calls himself a coward. He has no self-confidence any more (p.49). José accepts the state, but also realizes that he’s unworthy.

‘Suddenly and unexpectedly there was agony in the cemetery. They had been used to losing children, but they hadn’t been used to what the rest of the world knows best of all - the hope which peters out.’

The rest of the world went way towards despair, but these poor people still had hope. For them nothing counts but the fact that someone has to represent hope at the little girls grave: who will say a prayer!?

Now they have to realize, that the church left them.

The family also treats the coffin very disrespectful, but that just shows that for them the only thing that counts is hope. The coffin just contains a dead body.

Mother is reading to her 3 kids from the prohibited book again.

In that case, Juan/ saint represents the whiskey priest, mom represents Greene and the kids represent the audience: us.

We can see that in 3 levels: 1st: mum reading from the book to her kids.

2nd: Greene is writing about the whiskey priest to us as audience (showing us, howthe world is like)

3rd: story as a legend, story in history ➔ we’re supposed to learn from it!

President Calles is the one who was responsible for the anti-Catholic rules.

Moms son Luis says, that he doesn’t believe the stories about Juan, they are silly (p.50). His dad explains him, that people connect a happier life with the church.

His son wants to be a soldier, he admires the strong people, not martyrs (p.51. He says, that people also died for other things than believe in God. For example the heroes of the revolution who died for Mexico. Luis is used to death.

Juan vs Villa!

Mom and dad care about the tradition, which is meaningless for Luis. The martyrs are an existential statement to him, which is meaningful.

We also see, that Luis wish to become a soldier is so wrong. The soldiers walk ‘lethargically’ in a ‘dark’ street, which contradicts with the boy being excited and hopeful.

Trixi is doing ‘school’-work with Coral. Coral asks her mum whether she believes in God, she answers ‘of course’. Meaning: yes, but WHO CARES? She’s becoming furious coz God reminds her of death.

Coral is very independent and takes a lot of responsibilities voluntary. (p.53)

She finds a bottle and little crosses in the barn. She probably got her period while working (p 54). ‘it was as if today everything were memorable’. ➔ She was touched, too. The priest made her start thinking about god (she asks her mum).

The lieutnant is allowed to do anything to catch the priest, but is has to be before the rains. (p.55) He’ll take hostages in every village and shoot as often as necessary (p.56). That he’s willing to take the responsibilities alone show’s that he’s heroic. The chief is either a puppet on a string or just doesn’t want to take the guilt.

But the jefe and the lieutnant are worried whether someone would ask too many questions in case they succeed. When they discuss ‘does he support me’, it shows that they know that they are doing something wrong and that they have a bad conscience.

He meets Luis and wants to show him how to aim properly. (p.57)

Louis is sullen when his mum reads and in the beginning of his conversation with the lieutnant. But the lieutnant makes him passionate. Lieutnant is a teacher, who tells the boy that he’s good. And that he’s a REAL boy, a hunter.

L realizes, that it is for these kids he’s fighting. He wants to begin a new world with them. (p.58)

He says, that the children deserve nothing else but the truth. Just what he doesn’t realize is, that they also need love.

You can’t be happy in a vacant universe!

‘a littler dapper figure of hate carrying his secret of love’.

In a way, Greene likes the lieutnant, perhaps he feels sorry. The lieutnant doesn’t know how to be gentle with the child ➔ he hurts Louis. Shows what his idea of creating a new world will do to the kids.

58 unten: ‘Somebody had inked round the priest’s head (…): the unbearable grin peeked out of a halo’ ➔ Halo = Heiligenschein! ➔ glory! The halo tells us who is going to die, but also who is right and who is going to win. In condemning, the halo gloriefies the priest.

That’s why the priests smile is unbearable for the L. His fury (‘Is there nobody here?’) shows how despaired he is. He’s abandoned in a vacant universe.

The gangster is staring at him: shows us a scene like the crucifiction. Priest nailed on the wall ➔ Christ on the cross!

PART TWO

Chapter One

The priest says, that his face is ‚good enough for mild jokes to women, but unsuitable at the altar rail‘.

He is ‚forced‘ to pass his home on his way. He’s really happy about that, though he’s very tired. (p.59)

He changed his look: he’s wearing peasants clothes now.

He knows, that he’s a bad priest, a whisky priest and is ashamed about that (p.60).

When arriving at the tiny village, where he hadn’t been for 6 years, Maria welcomes him, saying that he looks like a common man. The first thing the priest asks about is (his daughter) Brigitta. (p.61) He calls Brigitta his ‘secret love’ (p.62).

The fact that he has a daughter shows, that the priest is too weak to be faithful to his vows (celebacy).

The priest has to realise, that he isn’t as welcome as he thought he’d be. (p.62).

The people tell him, that the police is taking hostages now and that they even killed a man already (p.63)

He realises, that there wouldn’t be a village in the state to which he wouldn’t be an unwelcome danger now. (p.64)

Brigitta ‘had been sharpened by hunger into an appearance of devilry and malice beyond her age. A young woman stared out of the child’s eyes’. (p.63)

The priest is following Maria to her home to have a rest (p.64), she saved a little Brandy for him (p.65).

He thinks about escaping over the boarder, but on the other hand he thinks that it’s his duty to stay. He’s helpless, coz nobody can help him to decide.

It’s said, that the ‘affair’ between Maria and the priest wasn’t love, just fear & despair & brandy & a sense of loneliness had driven the priest to an act which horrifies him.

He regrets it, but loves Brigitta deeply.

Nobody blames him for what he had done, coz the people hardly know another priest and what he is doing, is right. (p.66)

The priest is afraid, that he can’t take proper care of his daughter. He asks Maria whether he could stay longer, but she says that it’d be too dangerous (p.67)

He tries to communicate with Brigitta, who’s body shows an ugly maturity (p.68).

Maria is proud of having been the priests woman, but he carries a wound out of these 5 minutes (p.68).

Priest says mass the following morning. He preaches about heaven, but people are longing for mass 2 be over (p.69). The police is getting closer, but priest wants to finish mass properly (p.70).

‘He felt an immense satisfaction that he could talk of suffering to them now without hypocrisy’. The police arrives (p.71), they surround the village (p.72).

Priest has to bite an onion coz he smells like wine. People have to stand in front of lieutnant, for them ‘authority is never wrong’ (p.73).

The lieutnant calls the priests ‘traitors of the republic’.

Brigitta touches his boot, he feels dark affection and says, that ‘this child is worth more than the pope in rome. (p.74) The funny thing is, that the church would appreciate that. Also the priest says, that ‘this child is worth more than a whole continent’ (p.82), and is taking that as a proof that the church is better. But well, the lieutnant says it, too. Just that the L feels dark affection and the priest feels love.

Both say, that children are the most important thing in the book.

The lieutnant asks the priest for his name, he says ‘Montez’. Lieutnant only believes him coz Maria claims to be his wife, and his hands are hard has a labourers (p.75).

L asks Brigitta who that man is, she says she doesn’t know. But she knows that the priest is her (or a?) father (p.76). So the priests sin saves his life!

But Greene strips the priest of his pride ➔ vom hohen Ross stürzen!

He had believed to be rich when he’s a priest, but his wealth is gone.

Nobody gives the priest away, and the lieutnant chooses a hostage (Miguel). The priest asks L to take him as a hostage, but he refuses (p.77)

The L says, that ‘every man here is somebody’s husband or somebody’s son’. That is simply the policy of the gun, not love for children!

The priest excuses himself, it’s his job not to be caught & their job to give him away. They tell him to leave, flee over the boarder. (p.78).

Maria broke the wine bottle he had in his attaché case (too dangerous) and tells him that he’s ‘no good any more to any one’ and that they don’t want him any more (p.78). She tells him that she knows that he’s a bad priest and unworthy. Also he can do nothing for his daughter, who is bad through and through (p.79).

Priest has a bad conscience coz people didn’t give him away. He gets back his case from the rubbish (p.80), Brigitta is watching him. She is angry, coz people tell her that her dad is not a ‘real man’ (p.81).

The priest tells her, that he loves her & would give his life for her. He wants god to save her (p.82)

People tell priest to go north, but he turns south and follows the police. He wants to get away from the village as fast as possible. (p.83).

The mule stops because of a snake (evil, temptation), it also stops in front of the mestizo, as if he would be a danger. He’s a sick and ugly person.

The Mestizo only has 2 teeth, ‘like the teeth you find enclosed in clay which have belonged to long-extinct animals’. Time when you had to fight to survive: no morals

His teeth remind of fangs ➔ ‘law of jungle’.

He represents mexicans, which is unfair and racist.

He arrives in ‘La Canelaria’ and asks a Mestizo/ half caste how he can cross the river (p.84).

He swims with the mule (p.85), and the mestizo follows him, says he also wants to get to Carmen (p.86).

The mestizo tries to make the priest spend the night in a hut with him. Tries to make him admit that he’s a priest constantly. (p.87)

The priest has sensible feet, they immediately start bleeding when walking (p.88).

The mestizo tries to make the priest have a bad conscience, coz he HELPED him. The priest feels guilty at his own lack of trust and they go to the hut (p.89).

The mestizo sees after the mule, suddenly he’s not tired any more. He tells the priest to sleep (p.90). The priest knows that he’s in the ‘presence of Judas’ (p.91).

Judas is willing to betray, he’s a traitor and a liar. Compared with him the lieutnant is a good man, he’s honest.

The (ill) mestizo asks about the priests paper, which is the proof that he’s a priest (p.92).

The priest remembers the past, when he was ambitious and had great plans (p.93). He realizes that he was too ambitious (p.94), and that it’s just his pride which makes him go on. He says he’s lustful, greedy, proud and loves all the wrong things (p.95).

The priest calls the fevering mestizo ‘a victim of some power’(p.96). The M accuses the priest of being a priest and because of that has to hear his confession. He feels important, but his sins, as ugly as they are, aretypical for that world of violence (p.97)

Lieutenant says that dying is not that bad (if you die for children or so), but it needs a God to die for the half-hearted & corrupt: Judas.

Priest wants to flee and searches his mule. When found it, the mestizo is after him and he has to take him with him. (p.98). The mestizo says, that ‘a poor man has no choice’ (but being bad) (p.99) He collapses and priest tells him, that he is the priest(p.100)

The priest feels bad. The mestizo betrays him for money, but what was it for that he betrayed God?

The mestizo is annoying coz he keeps on touching the priest, says that he’s a good christian and is demanding and whining. He’s the EMBODYMENT of selfishness

➔ He’s given to show the real glory of what the priest stands for.

Glory is accepting that figure as ‘child’. And waking up from his dream on page 94, he says ‘my children’. The mestizo is included.

Defaced cemetary (p.102): if you want to disturb everything which is connected with God, you have to kill yourself ➔ lieutnant can’t win, it doesn’t make sense, he should forgive. But forgiving is the priests way of acting, the lieutnant believes in violence and rather kills. Mestizo is the challenge: forgive or kill?

Priest lets the mule with mestizo on the back ride into Carmen, he takes another way (p.102) The priest is the better man, coz he was good to him.

Chapter two

Priest is in capital, watching a scene in which women and men are walking in a circle. A beggar comes to sit beside him (p.103).

Priest only has 15 pesos, and tells the beggar, that he wants to spend them on wine. (p.104). (he needs wine to say mass, but also he’s an alcoholic).

Beggar tells him he knows somebody who’d sell wine to him. They go to a hotel, and on the way the priest sees the mestizo among police men. (p.105).

Beggar & priest go into a room on the 1st floor of the hotel and wait for the cousin of the Governor (p.106/107).

Cousin of G. arrives. Wants to sell the priest brandy, but he says he wants wine. He gets one bottle of brandy, and one of wine (p.108/109).

Priest offers the Cousin a glass of brandy, but he prefers wine so they open the bottle. He takes and takes from it, even when priest says he wants to take some of it back for his mother (p.110). The chief of police joins the group, and also drinks wine. The jefe says, that the first thing he can remember is his first communion (p.112).

He might believe. Shows again, that he’s weak. He doesn’t follow his ideals.

The priest starts to cry when he sees, that the jefe and cousin emtied his wine. Jefe talks about the priest and says, that ‘the poor devil doesn’t have a real chance’(p.113).

They know, that he must be in the capital, coz he doesn’t have another possibility. The cousin and jefe are talking about mystery, soul and source of life (p.114).

When the priest leaves the group, his wine is empty and of his brandy is only a little bit left (p.115) One more step in this series of defeats? NO: defeat would have been leaving the country. Priest actually won. He’s sharing the wine with the men and suddenly there is the presence of God (mystery, sould & source of life) ➔ reminds of last supper (1st floor).

And conversation going on to no end…

The rains started. The priest wants to hide from it in a cantina, but there are Red Shirts who he gets in trouble with coz he accidentally pushed one of them (p.115). They discover his brandy bottle and has to flee. The Red shirts (+ police later) hunt him (p.116).

Priest wants to hide at Padre Josés house, but he doesn’t want to hide him, althought priest tells him that they are only looking for him as a smuggler (p.117).

Priest apologizes to José, that he was always so proud & and a bad priest. But José doesn’t hide him and the priest is caught by the Red Shirt (p.118) They want to fine him five pesos, but he doesn’t have them. The lieutnant arrives and tells the police to put priest in a cell without looking at him. Again priest says, that he’s called Montez (p.119/120).

They put him in jail (p.121)

Chapter three

Priest is talking to an old man, who’s daughter the priests took of him coz she was a bastard. The reminds the priest again of his beloved Brigitta (p.124).

When priest reveals his identity in prison, he gives himself up to teach love.

He uses his authority to show, that his message: teaching love, is the right one.

The pious woman says: you shouldn’t have told us, there are all sorts here! (p.125).

Priest is so human, when he says that he’s afraid of death and not stuff like ‘no, I’m not afraid, coz God is with me’. Nothing in life was as ugly as death (133).

He also says (130), that sinning is human. He in prison would do anything for alcohol.

Murderer says: Christianity makes cowards. (126) But it’s just that you become feared of sinning! Priest says, that he’s not a martyr! (126). He admits his sins to the people in prison. But his sin seems unimportant to him, coz he loves the fruit of it.

But when he sees the hostages, he wishes that they would suffer for somebody who’s more worth it (135).

It’s said, that in prison, he wasn’t aware of the presence of Judas as he had been in the forrest Hut. (127) Though he is convinced that someone will inform on him (128).

While cleaning the cells, the priest meets the MESTIZO, who’s in prison as he guest. But the mestizo decides not to tell the police coz he’s comfortable in prison and would probably not get all the money when the police sees that they already have the priest (137).

Priest feels regret. But God decided that he has to go on living and he accepts (138).

Priest meets the lieutnant, who cares about his people, although that’s against all his principles. He gives the ‘poor peasant’ (Priest) 5 pesos, which is the price of a mass.

In a way they have been celebrating mass. The lieutnant is a good man, he acted christian and is accepted by god. ‘If you’re doing something 2 somebody who needs it, you’re doing it to me’

Chapter 4

Priest goes to Corals place, coz the girl is the only person who can help him without endangering herself. But the place is empty. When hearing a dog, the priest becomes hopeful, but the dog is abandoned, too. Just that the dog still has hope. (141)

Priest finds a lot of medicines… did mother die? The dog finds a bone, which the priest steals him. He feels no pity, he says, that the life of the bitch has no importance beside that of a human being (144).

He finds a book which contains a poem about a daughter… priest is reminded of Brigitta (147)

On his way to cross the mountains the priest is looking for shelter from the rain and finds some huts. ‘For peace you need human company’ ➔ priest is feared coz he’s NOT alone. He sees an Indian Woman. She runs away from him first, but comes back. She’s as helpless as he is! Like a bird with broken wings ➔ prisoned! Not free!

A female bird offering herself: she does that for her children! Slave of them, as priest is slave of the people.

He finds a child shot in 3 places, and all he can get out of the woman is that the Americano was involved (150).

It was as if man in all this state had been left to man. ➔ Men can’t take care, only God. People are abandoned, God left the country.

When the woman hears that he’s a priest she kisses the priests hand (and begins to trust him), in that moment the child dies. The child dies in the arms of church. The priest gives woman hope. He thinks he’s useless, but it’s his presence what makes people feel hope/ change. And he doesn’t leave the woman abandoned.

The woman wants to bury the child near a church (153).

They make way towards the mountains where they find a place with (indian) crosses:

It was like a short cut to the dark and magical heart of the faith - to the night when the graves opened and the dead walked. (154).

Priests martyrdom ➔ dead child -> Good Friday ➔ …heart… ➔ Easter Sunday ➔ peace and hope ➔ new priest!

The priest thinks that it was as if God had missed an opportunity in not making the child alive again. But if Satz ➔ he didn’t miss one! The child is lying quietly at the foot of the cross ➔ PEACE! The woman knows that peace is only at this place. Death is not the last step, you don’t need a miracle.

The priest is ill and wants to carry on his way, he does but goes back coz he has a bad conscience that he left the old woman behind.

He takes the sugar lump which the woman left for the child (156).

He makes his way through the mountains and finally arrives in a village with a church… he feels home!

➔ But you don’t safe your life by running away, just by loosing it. Priest has a duty and can’t escape it.

PART THREE

Chapter 1

The priest stays with the Lehr family, he has to take a rest but wants to continue his journey to Las Casas, where he wants to confess to a priest!

Mr Lehr critizises the church, there would be too much luxury while the people starve (162).

Mr Lehr and priest have a bath together, then the priest goes into the village. People ask him how much a child to be baptized costs, and he says 2 pesos. He reduces it to 1,50. He is respected in the village. (167)

He meets a man in a cantina who offers him brandy and sacramental wine to buy. Priest drinks the brandy and has a bad conscience. But he takes three bottles of it (170).

Afterwards he tells Pedro that he’s supposed to tell the people that baptism will just be 1 peso.

Priest wants the 3 bottles of brandy to be his last, but he knows he won’t make it. He hears confession in the empty stall of the Lehr’s.

Priest realizes that it ought to be possible for him to be happy in that village, if he were not so tied to fear and suffering - unhappiness too can become a habit like piety. (173)

He says mass the next morning. There wasn’t a priest in the village for 3 years.

The mestizo arrives. He tells the priest that the Yankee (a good catholic!) is dying and wants to confess. He has a piece of paper which on the one side has Corals handwriting and on the other says: For Christ’s sake, father… (177-179).

The mestizo tells the priest what happened to the kid: the Yankee used it for shelter, but the soldiers shot anyways.

The end justifies the means…?!

The priest knows that it’s a trap coz the priests story is unbelievable but he can’t just leave a man who has sinned so badly dying without having confessed.

His time in the village seems like a dream to him, he has to wake up and face reality now. (180)

He sings a song: I found a rose in my field (180).

He gives money to the schoolmaster (against the mestizos protest), and he tells him to use it for useful stuff like food.

Chapter 2

They arrive at a place from where you can see the indian huts where the yankee is supposed to be. The priest gives the guide good money and tells him to leave with the mules (again against the mestizos protest; it’s obvious what the priest has to expect). (183)

The priest feels sorry for the mestizo coz he will commit a sin of such magnitude. (184)

They drink a bit of brandy together, and then the mestizo carries it. They arrive at the village and the priest is searching for the yankee. He finds him injured, but he doesn’t want to confess. He just says ‘beat it’ all the time.

The yankee wants the priest to commit suicide before the police gets him, he dies without having confessed (189).

Chapter 3

The lieutnant arrives, and the priest thanks him for letting him be alone with the murderer. (190)

The lieutnant says that he didn’t believe that the priest would return, who replies that ‘even a coward has a sense of duty’.

The Priest tells the Yankee that they met twice before (village & prison).

They go inside to have a talk in private. Americano and Priest‘looked two of a kind, dirty and unshaved: the lieutnant seemed to belong to a different class altogether’ (191) Lieutnant: ‘This American wasn’t worth two lives (of his men). He did no real harm’. Priest shows him card tricks.

The lieutnant is furious coz the church took money from the people who were poor already, the priest replies that he is right and wrong. Lieutnant asks what church ever did for Mexico. He wants to give people food and books.

There’s one belief they share: death is not avoidable. The priest says though he’s a bad priest he can give a man God’s pardon.

The priest explains the lieutnant why he stayed and didn’t leave: there was a priest who critisized him always. He fled and priest felt free, there was noone judging him. But he started to neglect his duties when the priest was gone, he was so proud.

Pride was what made the angels fall. He thought he was great coz he stayed and started to make his own rules.

The mestizo asks the Priest for his blessing, who tells him that that won’t help any more. The priest says he’ll pray for the mestizo (197).

Priest will be taken to the capital and tried for treason.

On the way Priest & lieutnant talk: L says that it made him hate the priest, that he shot 3 hostages coz of him. He says it were his own people, he wanted to give them the world. L: hates rich and loves poor. But poor want to bring up their children to be rich. P: poor are blessed, difficult for rich to get to heaven. Give poor food, but why power? The priest says that if there’s a single man in this state damned, he’ll be damned too. He wants it like that, he wants justice! (200)

Arriving in the capital: L asks why Priests believe in miracles. He says it’s a definition thing, you enlarge the conception of what life is to disprove a miracle. You can’t get round them. Priest wants to confess, priests allows it (➔ Padre José (201).

Sense of desolation when they ride into town!

Chapter 4

Lieutnant asks José whether he could hear the priests confession (203). José says it’s his duty, but his wife doesn’t let him. She says he’s not a priest any more, but his husband. He doesn’t do it (205).

L tells priest about it, priest looks abandoned. He was tried guilty, in his absence. It wouldn’t have made a difference.

The L wants to do the priest (who he calls: ‘not a bad man’) something good and gives him brandy (206).

P tries to confess to himself, but he realizes that all he wants is his child to be saved. And he knows that that is bad, coz he should feel that love for everybody.

He realizes that there isn’t a duty he hasn’t neglected. People died for him, they deserve a saint.

Before his death he ‘only felt an immense disappointment because he had to go to Got empty-handed, with nothing done at all’. He feels that it would have been so easy to be a saint, but missed the opportunity. (210)

PART FOUR

Trixi and Captain Fellows talking: Trixi wants to go home, captain wants to stay (213). Probably Coral is dead, coz Trixi run away frightened.

They talk about Coral, she changed after she met the priest. She was touched!

Mr Tench is occupied with the Jefes teeth: he says he has never seen a mouth as bad as his: exept once ➔ could be priest!

T got a letter of his wife, they will divorce. He sees how the priest is being shot. He decides he wants to get away finally (217).

Mother reads last chapter: Juan is being shot and happy to die as a martyr. After he’s already dead, the officer fires another time.

Mother explains her children that the priest was one of the heroes of the faith.

Louis walks to the window, and when he sees the lieutnant passing by, he spits at his revolver-butt. At night a stranger is standing outside their door. Louis opens it and kisses his hand when hearing, that he’s a priest.

Louis sees that dying for a cause is better than killing for a cause, that makes him change his mind.