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 sits down to write a letter to his estranged wife, wishing to let her know that he is still alive. He believes she is living in Westcliff, a town on the east coast of England. However, as he begins composing the letter, he realizes that he does not have anything to say. His life is unremarkable, so he feels he has little to report and questions the purpose of writing the letter in the first place. He also realizes that he cannot remember what his wife looks like. The sound of the General Obregon returning to the local port interrupts Mr. Tench. The boat reminds Mr. Tench of the stranger (the whisky priest) he met, and he wonders what happened him.
Mr. Tench is an important character in the novel because he is not religious, which means the current political upheaval in the country does not concern him. However, given the many Catholics around him, there is a spiritual emptiness in his life because he has lost contact with everyone he once loved. Speaking in English with the stranger seems to have reminded him of the world outside of Mexico, which he has not experienced for many years.
Themes
In his town, Padre José walks through a cemetery, which everyone called the Garden of God before the Red Shirts rose to power. Padre José visits the cemetery regularly because he finds it is a good place to think. As a former priest, there are many people in the cemetery he watched be lowered into the ground. In the cemetery, Padre José finds a family burying a young child. An elderly man, the child’s grandfather, entreats Padre José to lead a prayer. Though it pains him, Padre José denies the request. No one receives prayers before they are buried anymore, and he worries the family will tell others what he has done for them. Furthermore, Padre José worries that the prayer will lead him back to performing other similar rites for people, which would put his life in significant danger.
Padre José, while on the surface a less problematic man than the whisky priest, is committing a much greater sin in the eyes of the Catholic church and its practitioners. By not performing the appropriate rituals on the child’s body, he is potentially condemning the child’s soul. In other words, he is putting his own safety above the spiritual needs of the community. It is for this reason that people like Luis’s mother have turned their back on him. As a result, although Padre José remains safe, he has robbed his community of its spiritual center.
Themes
Meanwhile, Luis’s mother reads more stories about the martyr Juan to Luis and his siblings. Once again, Luis’s younger sisters enjoy the stories and cling to their mother’s every word. However, Luis grows increasingly irritated. He has an outburst where he tells his mother that the stories of Juan—a seemingly perfect man—are not true. Upset, Luis’s mother sends her son to speak with his father. Luis’s father asks Luis to take it easy on his mother; she enjoys the stories because they remind her of a better time, when the church still help power. Luis asks his father why he is not angry at him like his mother. His father responds, “It’s not your fault. We have been deserted.”
Luis assumes the stories about Juan are not true because of the religious figures he has been around in real life. He cannot stand his mother’s idealism because it seems utterly useless with regard to his family’s current situation. Meanwhile, Luis’s father understands his son because the Catholic church no longer holds power or relevance in daily life. It—along with its representatives like Padre José—has “deserted” the region. Luis’s father’s response to this condition expresses both sympathy and nihilism.
Themes
Elsewhere, Mrs. Fellows gives Coral her daily lessons using books she acquired from an educational institution in England. However, after some time, she has to stop because she has a headache, which happens often. Coral asks Mrs. Fellows whether she believes in the teachings of Catholicism. Mrs. Fellows says that she does, though the question unsettles her. She asks Coral who she has been speaking with. Coral claims she has just been pondering the question herself.
Coral’s question to Mrs. Fellows suggests that she, like Luis, is growing curious about her family’s faith. While Coral is not as jaded as Luis, her experience with the whisky priest makes her think that religious belief is far more complicated than traditional wisdom on the subject would have her believe.
Themes
Get the entire The Power and the Glory LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mrs. Fellows asks Coral if Mr. Fellows has taken the bananas to the quay. The family lives on a plantation and sells their bananas to make a living. Coral is unsure, so she goes to check. Coral finds that her father, who is out in the fields working, has not delivered the bananas to the quay as he was supposed to, so she sets about doing the task herself. While doing so, she has a terrible pain in her stomach, but she keeps working anyway. When she is finished, she sees that the whisky priest drew crosses on the wall of the barn in chalk. She assumes doing so must have brought him some small comfort.
Although Coral is only a child, she acts like an adult, as she performs the necessary duties to keep the plantation running. The pain in her stomach foreshadows a future problem, though the nature of said problem is unclear. Meanwhile, while the whisky priest’s crosses may have brought him comfort, they are also proof that he stayed in the barn. If the authorities were to search the barn and discover the crosses, it would spell trouble for Coral and her family.
Themes
In a nearby town, the lieutenant meets with the police chief, who is playing billiards as usual. The lieutenant once again asks if he can start taking hostages to lure out the whisky priest. The chief gives the lieutenant full authority to do what he pleases. However, he warns the lieutenant that the higher ups will punish them both if the lieutenant fails. The lieutenant assures the police chief that he will begin taking hostages and kill as many people as he needs to until the whisky priest is found.
Here, the reader gains further insight into the relationship between the lieutenant and the police chief. While the police chief is technically in charge, he trusts the lieutenant with doing the dirty work. Furthermore, the police chief’s instructions suggest that the governor does not care about how many people die; he simply wants the whisky priest caught and killed.
Themes
As the lieutenant returns home, a bottle smashes at his feet. He looks around to find who threw it. A teenage boy, Luis, admits to throwing it, though he assures the lieutenant it was meant for a “gringo.” The lieutenant tells Luis that they are on the same side and shows him his weapon. The gun gets Luis and the other boys with him excited. Internally, the lieutenant thinks about how he will stop at nothing to destroy the Church and its supporters. He suspects he will even have to get rid of the police chief eventually.
Luis’s excitement at the sight of the lieutenant’s gun suggests that he has traded religion for violence. He does not see the practical use of religion, while the actions of the lieutenant serve a clear purpose. However, as the lieutenant’s thoughts demonstrate, there is just as much emptiness—and significantly more violence—involved in his worldview.
Themes
