The Power and the Glory

by

Graham Greene

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The Mestizo Character Analysis

The whisky priest meets the mestizo (the word “mestizo” refers to someone with mixed Spanish and indigenous Mexican heritage) on his travels. The priest quickly tries to get rid of him when the mestizo suggests traveling together. The whisky priest knows the mestizo recognizes him and simply wants to turn him in for a bounty. At the end of the novel, the mestizo attempts to lure the whisky priest back across the border where he will be captured by the Red Shirts. The whisky priest knows he is being set up but goes anyway. The mestizo thinks he is crafty, but the whisky priest sees through him every step of the way.

The Mestizo Quotes in The Power and the Glory

The The Power and the Glory quotes below are all either spoken by The Mestizo or refer to The Mestizo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Complexity of Religious Figures Theme Icon
).
Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

How often the priest had heard the same confession—Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.

Related Characters: The Whisky Priest/The Stranger, The Mestizo
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:

The half-caste was calling after him: “Call yourself a Christian.” He had somehow managed to get himself upright. He began to shout abuse—a meaningless series of indecent words which petered out in the forest like the weak blows of a hammer. He whispered: “If I see you again, you can't blame me…” Of course, he had every reason to be angry: he had lost seven hundred pesos. He shrieked hopelessly: “I don't forget a face.”

Related Characters: The Mestizo (speaker), The Whisky Priest/The Stranger
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 2 Quotes

He could hear the half-caste panting after him: his wind was bad: they had probably let him have far too much beer in the capital, and the priest thought, with an odd touch of contemptuous affection, of how much had happened to them both since that first encounter in a village of which he didn't even know the name: the half-caste lying there in the hot noonday rocking his hammock with one naked yellow toe. If he had been asleep at that moment, this wouldn't have happened. It was really shocking bad luck for the poor devil that he was to be burdened with a sin of such magnitude.

Related Characters: The Whisky Priest/The Stranger, The Lieutenant, The Mestizo, James Calver/The “Gringo” Criminal
Related Symbols: Alcohol
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Mestizo Quotes in The Power and the Glory

The The Power and the Glory quotes below are all either spoken by The Mestizo or refer to The Mestizo. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Complexity of Religious Figures Theme Icon
).
Part 2, Chapter 1 Quotes

How often the priest had heard the same confession—Man was so limited: he hadn't even the ingenuity to invent a new vice: the animals knew as much. It was for this world that Christ had died: the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death; it was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.

Related Characters: The Whisky Priest/The Stranger, The Mestizo
Page Number: 100
Explanation and Analysis:

The half-caste was calling after him: “Call yourself a Christian.” He had somehow managed to get himself upright. He began to shout abuse—a meaningless series of indecent words which petered out in the forest like the weak blows of a hammer. He whispered: “If I see you again, you can't blame me…” Of course, he had every reason to be angry: he had lost seven hundred pesos. He shrieked hopelessly: “I don't forget a face.”

Related Characters: The Mestizo (speaker), The Whisky Priest/The Stranger
Page Number: 105
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3, Chapter 2 Quotes

He could hear the half-caste panting after him: his wind was bad: they had probably let him have far too much beer in the capital, and the priest thought, with an odd touch of contemptuous affection, of how much had happened to them both since that first encounter in a village of which he didn't even know the name: the half-caste lying there in the hot noonday rocking his hammock with one naked yellow toe. If he had been asleep at that moment, this wouldn't have happened. It was really shocking bad luck for the poor devil that he was to be burdened with a sin of such magnitude.

Related Characters: The Whisky Priest/The Stranger, The Lieutenant, The Mestizo, James Calver/The “Gringo” Criminal
Related Symbols: Alcohol
Page Number: 185
Explanation and Analysis: