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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Power and the Glory, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Complexity of Religious Figures
Ideology and Reactionary Ideas
The Nature of Sin
Government vs. Religion
Duty, Sacrifice, and Persecution
Summary
Analysis
Mr. Tench, an Englishman living in Mexico, leaves his home to pick up an ether cylinder that is set to arrive on a ship, the General Obregon. Outside, he sees a group of buzzards and throws a cracked piece of road at them. Most of the birds ignore him, but one flies away. Tench walks by a man with a gun and says hello, but the man does not respond. Instead, he stares at Tench intensely. Tench is annoyed that the man is acting like they do not know each other because Tench did his dental work. Tench also walks by a church that the town has converted into a treasury. As he walks by the treasury, the heat gets to him, and he momentarily forgets why he left his home in the first place.
The General Obregon is presumably named after Álvaro Obregón Salido, the president of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. Salido’s rule saw a host of anti-Catholic laws instated throughout the country, though they paled in comparison to what Plutarco Elías Calles would do while in power between 1924 and 1930. This novel takes place in the 1930s and observes the effects of Salido and Calles’s anti-clerical laws, which effectively banned the Catholic church in Mexico. In this opening scene, vultures signal the death of the church—and with it, the spiritual death of the country.
Themes
Tench takes a moment to collect his thoughts and then continues on his path to the docks. There, he sees men unloading the General Obregon. Tench takes a seat and waits, knowing he cannot get his hands on the ether cylinder until the ship has been unloaded. For a moment, he once again forgets why he came to the docks in the first place.
Ether is an anesthetic that Tench needs for his dental work. His brief journey to the docks highlights the extreme nature of the weather in Mexico, particularly the heat, which will be important in the story to come.
Themes
While waiting, Tench spots a beautiful young woman standing on the boat. Out loud, but to himself, he remarks upon her beauty. To Tench’s surprise, another man standing nearby responds to him in English, asking what he said. Tench turns to see who spoke and finds a short man with a book in his hand and an attaché case. Tench repeats what he said about the young woman and then asks the stranger if he is coming or going. The stranger does not answer Tench’s questions directly, but Tench quickly realizes he is hoping to leave on the General Obregon.
Greene often introduces characters in the novel without providing them with names. In part, he does so to preserve the anonymity that the person themselves desires. In fact, even the main character of the novel never gets a proper name. Evidently, this stranger does not want to say much about himself, as he avoids answering Tench’s questions. However, his ability to speak English suggests he might be a foreigner like Tench.
Themes
Tench invites the stranger back to his home, wanting to get out of the sun. The stranger declines Tench’s invite because he is waiting to meet someone named Lopez. Tench tells the stranger that the authorities recently shot Lopez for helping “undesirables” escape. Because he will not be able to speak with Lopez, the stranger decides to go back with Tench. Tench shows the stranger his dental gear and then they drink some of the stranger’s brandy together.
The stranger’s desire to speak with Lopez suggests that he is one of the “undesirables” who Lopez was going to help escape. Without Lopez, the stranger is left without a clear plan, so he decides to accept Tench’s invitation. For his part, Tench does not seem to have realized he is bringing a potentially wanted man into his home.
Themes
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Tench shows the stranger a picture of his children, whom he has not seen in 16 years. One of them is now dead, and Tench is unsure if his wife has remarried. Meanwhile, the stranger bemoans the change in Mexico since the arrival of the Red Shirts (an anti-Catholic paramilitary organization). Tench does not think the country is much different than it ever was. At the very least, everyone’s teeth have stayed the same.
The Red Shirts were a paramilitary organization in the Mexican state of Tabasco, where the novel takes place. Their leader was Tomás Garrido Canabal, the Governor of Tabasco, who was perhaps the fiercest opponent to Catholicism in all of Mexico. While the stranger is concerned with the destruction of the church, Tench cannot bring himself to look past his base material concerns.
Themes
Someone knocks on Tench’s door. Tench looks outside through the window before opening it and sees a young Mexican boy. The boy, who does not speak English, tells Tench his mother is sick and needs a doctor. Tench tells the boy that he is only a dentist and cannot help him. However, the stranger says he will help, even though he will most likely miss his boat.
If the stranger is an “undesirable”, which in this political context would make him a Catholic priest, then he is potentially sacrificing his one chance at escape to help a woman he does not know. It is unclear if he has any medical experience or if he is simply hoping to give a dying woman her last rites (a prayer for the dying to forgive them their sins).
Themes
The stranger leaves with the boy. Tench closes the door and sees that the stranger left his book, La Eterna Martir. Tench opens it and finds that it is written in Latin. Surprised, he quickly closes it and hides it because he knows it would be dangerous if anyone saw him reading it. All of a sudden, Tench remembers that he never picked up the ether cylinder. He runs as quickly as he can to the docks and sees the General Obregon leaving, with the cylinder nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, the stranger and young boy head to the boy’s mother. The stranger finds himself feeling frustrated and hopes that someone will catch him soon.
The book Tench finds is further proof that the stranger is a priest, as no one else would carry around a book written in Latin, particularly one whose title translates to “The Eternal Martyr.” While the stranger is compelled by his duty to God, his life is full of misery, so much so that he wants the Red Shirts to catch him. This is a moment when it becomes apparent that the stranger, while likely a priest, is a complicated man, who has flaws and struggles of his own.
Themes
