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Part 1, Chapter 1
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
A police squad led by a lieutenant walks through a desiccated plaza and into a police station. The lieutenant is in a bad mood and in search of the local police chief. No one knows where the chief is, though they suspect he is playing billiards somewhere. While he waits for the chief to return, the lieutenant hands out fines to prisoners who have committed petty crimes.
Although the lieutenant ranks below the police chief, he appears to be the one in charge at the station, as he leads the police squad through town and levies fines. Meanwhile, the police chief socializes because his position is more political in nature.
Themes
Eventually, the police chief returns. He is irritated because he has a toothache, and he has been unable to get his hands on a rebel priest. The lieutenant was under the impression that all of the priests had already been wiped out. When the lieutenant hears about the priest, he immediately feels a visceral hatred for him. The police chief tells the lieutenant a few key facts about the priest. He was born in Carmen, Mexico, but passes as a “gringo” (someone who is not Hispanic, especially an American).
The rebel priest (who will soon become known as the whisky priest) is the stranger from Chapter 1. The priest’s ability to speak English helps him pass as a “gringo,” and avoid the police presence. Meanwhile, the lieutenant’s reaction to the priest is purely emotional and implies a hatred for the Catholic church. Largely, the lieutenant’s ideas and philosophy serve as a stand-in for those of Tomás Garrido Canabal.
Themes
The police chief and the lieutenant also briefly discuss James Calver, a murderer and thief from America, who they suspect might come to their region. However, the lieutenant does not care about Calver, believing that the priest is more of an issue. He suggests that the police take hostages from the surrounding villages and execute them one by one until the priest comes forward. The police chief thinks this is a good plan. After his discussion with the police chief, the lieutenant goes home and thinks about his lack of belief in God. He is convinced that there is no meaning in the universe and that people who try to convince the public otherwise are predatory con men. He also remembers lining priests up against walls and executing them via firing squads.
The lieutenant’s quick dismissal of Calver demonstrates how seriously he takes the issue of the Catholic church. While the priest may not be killing people, he is encouraging others to remain Catholic, which the lieutenant views as a corrupting force on society, which is worse than murder. In order to capture one man, he is willing to kill many others. Although the lieutenant effectively serves as the story’s antagonist, Greene does not depict him as a bad man. Rather, he is someone with good intentions who ends up on the wrong side of history.
Themes
Elsewhere, a mother reads a story to her children about a martyr, Juan, who would go on to become a saint. Her two young daughters are engrossed in the story, but her teenage son, Luis, is not. Luis asks his mother about the whisky priest, who recently stayed with them, and whether he is a saint like the martyr in the story. His mother tells him that the priest is a complicated man. She also warns him to stay away from Padré Jose, the only other religious figure in their small town. Afterwards, the woman talks to her husband and tells him she is worried about Luis’s interest in complicated and controversial religious figures. Her husband tells her that Padré Jose and the whisky priest are the only religious figures left in the area, so their son has no one else to look to.
Luis does not like the story of Juan because Juan seems nothing like the priests Luis has met such as the whisky priest and Padré Jose. The whisky priest and Padré Jose are flawed and complicated men, while Juan is the perfect servant of God. As such, the stories of Juan do not appear to comport with Luis’s real life. Luis’s mother does not shy away from the complexities of real life, but she still wants to present an idealized version of Catholicism to her children. However, as her husband points out, Padré Jose and the whisky priest might not be the spiritual leaders she wants, but they are the only ones she has.
Themes
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At night, while nearly everyone else is asleep, Padré Jose looks up at the stars from his patio and thinks about what has become of himself and the world. He was a priest for 40 years but decided to give up the priesthood and marry so that the Red Shirts would not kill him. However, he is disgusted with himself for his decision. Every day, he sits at home, eating way too much and hating himself. While he is thinking, his wife calls for him to come to bed. As Padré Jose turns to go inside, he hears children from somewhere nearby mimicking his wife’s request, which infuriates him.
While Luis’s mother may dislike Padré Jose, he is a sympathetic figure: he only abandoned his religion because his life was at stake. However, by abandoning Catholicism, he has abandoned those in his community who still wish to practice it, leaving them without hope or anyone to go to. Rather than command respect, he now receives mockery, as the children mimicking his wife demonstrate.
Themes
