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
The whisky priest arrives in a plaza of a capital city. He watches people roam through a plaza, including soldiers with large weapons. A beggar touches the whisky priest’s suit and asks how much it cost. The whisky priest tells him it was quite cheap and that he does not have money for him. The beggar does not believe the whisky priest, saying a few pesos would not make a difference to someone like him. In response, the whisky priest assures him that any small amount of money would make all the difference.
The presence of the soldiers is a reminder of what happened to the other priests in the country. They are a constant threat, even as the whisky priest sits right under their noses. Meanwhile, the whisky priest’s inability to help the beggar underscores that his services are spiritual in nature rather than material.
Themes
Once evening has fallen and the plaza has cleared out, the whisky priest asks the beggar where he can get his hands on some alcohol. He promises to pay the beggar for his help. The beggar offers him a variety of alcohols, but the priest insists on getting wine. The beggar tells the priest to follow him. As they begin walking through the plaza, the priest spots the mestizo, and they lock eyes. He urges the beggar to move quickly.
Alcohol is an important symbol in the novel because it represents both the sinful and the sacred. The whisky priest (whose name is similarly a combination of the sacred and the profane) wants wine because wine is necessary for sacraments. However, the beggar assumes that, like most people, the whisky priest just wants to get drunk.
Themes
The beggar and the whisky priest walk to a hotel and wait in a spacious room for the beggar’s alcohol connection, the governor’s cousin, to arrive. They learn that the governor’s cousin is currently busy playing billiards with the police chief. While they wait, the beggar recommends that the whisky priest offer the governor’s cousin a drink after purchasing the alcohol. The beggar also asks the priest questions about who he is and what he does, though the priest never gives him straight answers.
The governor in question is Canabal, the same person responsible for killing the many priests in the area. As such, the whisky priest is putting himself in significant danger to acquire wine. Additionally, the presence of the police chief signals that the whisky priest is in the lieutenant’s hometown, meaning he has antagonists all around him.
Themes
When the governor’s cousin arrives, he asks the whisky priest if he would like to buy brandy. The whisky priest politely denies the offer and asks for wine instead. At first, the governor’s cousin threatens to have the whisky priest arrested for asking after wine. However, he quickly softens after the whisky priest offers him a drink. He barters with the priest until, eventually, they reach a deal.
Although alcohol is banned in general, wine is particularly illegal because of its use in Catholic sacraments. However, the governor’s cousin does not suspect that there is a priest in his presence, so he does not try to get the whisky priest arrested.
Themes
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The governor’s cousin pours out a glass of brandy to celebrate and then several glasses of wine from the bottle the whisky priest bought from him, giving one to everybody in the room. The police chief also joins the party and drinks the wine. Quickly, the priest sees the wine slipping away. He tries to make his leave with it several times, but the governor’s cousin keeps pouring more until it is all gone.
This scene demonstrates the hypocrisy of the government, as they gleefully indulge in a substance that they have outlawed for everyone else. Even worse, in the eyes of the whisky priest, they are using something sacred frivolously, wasting it on themselves when it could be used in religious sacraments.
Themes
The police chief talks about how he is currently on the hunt for a renegade priest. He wants to let the priest be, but the governor, who hates priests, insists on hunting him down. The police chief does not think the priest has a chance of surviving. The whisky priest asks the police chief where the police think the priest is located. He says his men believe the priest is somewhere in town because he would not want to go anywhere else since the police have begun taking hostages from the small villages.
Here, the whisky priest gets the chance to gather information on what police know about him. Unfortunately, even though the police chief is not clever enough to see what is right in front of him, his instincts have led him to the right place. The police chief speaks in a frank tone, suggesting that, unlike the lieutenant, the situation is not a moral concern for him.
Themes
The whisky priest asks the police chief how many hostages have died so far. He responds that three or four have been killed as far as he is aware. Then, he looks at the whisky priest and says he looks familiar, asking if they have met before. The priest assures him they have not. Moments later, he takes his leave. He does not manage to secure any wine, though the governor’s cousin does give him a small bottle of brandy.
Here, the whisky priest learns that people are continuing to die to save him, once again pitting his idealistic religious beliefs against the cruelty of the world as it currently exists. His inability to save any wine for his sacraments highlights his practical and religious failings. Not only is he putting lives in danger, but he is of little spiritual use without the proper items at his disposal.
Themes
Outside, the whisky priest stumbles around the streets, rather drunk from his time with the governor’s cousin and the police chief. He accidently runs into a Red Shirt, which leads to the discovery of his bottle of brandy. The priest runs from the Red Shirts, who hunt him down, thinking they are chasing a petty criminal. For some time, the priest manages to avoid the Red Shirts. He ends up at the home of Padre José, whom he asks for shelter. However, Padre José does not want to get in trouble, so he does not allow the whisky priest to stay with him.
The entire sequence in the capital is filled with irony, as the whisky priest runs into all of his antagonists, none of whom recognize him. Despite being the most wanted man in the region, the Red Shirts treat him like a minor criminal because they do not know better. Meanwhile, Padre José sticks with his decision to keep his head down and avoid trouble at the cost of others’ wellbeing.
Themes
As a result, the Red Shirts find the whisky priest and bring him to the police station. There, he sees the lieutenant, who does not remember him. The lieutenant only hands out a small fine, as possessing a bottle of brandy is a minor offense. However, the whisky priest spent all of his money trying to acquire the bottle of wine, so he cannot pay it. As a result, the lieutenant has him thrown into a dark and crowded jail cell.
Once again, it appears the lieutenant is the man in charge, while the police chief spends his time drink and fraternizing with the higher-ups. Ironically, the lieutenant has finally found and jailed his man, but he does not recognize him. His failure to recognize the whisky priest is a microcosm of the blindness governments can exhibit toward their citizens.
Themes
