The Power and the Glory Themes

In The Power and the Glory, the whisky priest’s story parallels that of a martyr named Juan. Juan’s experiences are only depicted in a bedtime story that Luis’s mother reads to her children. Like the whisky priest, Juan spends much of his life on the run while still performing his priestly duties. However, eventually, he is captured, and a firing squad kills him. Before his death, Juan raises his cross to the…

The Power and the Glory illustrates the ways in which fiercely adopting a certain worldview can ultimately keep people from seeing things clearly. The lieutenant, who spends much of the novel hunting down the whisky priest, has an underlying ideological hatred for Christianity that drives his actions. Because of his experiences with the church as a child, which were largely negative, he turned his back on it altogether rather than adopting a nuanced…

The Power and the Glory is interested in the interplay between secular authority and spiritual belief in a society marked by political turmoil and religious persecution. Set against the backdrop of 1930s Mexico, the novel examines the antagonistic relationship between the Mexican government (controlled by the Red Shirts) and Catholicism. Throughout the novel, Greene portrays the Red Shirts as a repressive force seeking to eradicate Catholicism and establish its own authority as the ultimate power…

In The Power and the Glory, the whisky priest grapples with his own flaws and moral shortcomings while attempting to uphold his responsibilities to the Catholic community he serves. Despite the danger posed by the government's anti-clerical laws, the whisky priest feels compelled to continue ministering to his flock, risking his own safety to fulfill his spiritual obligations. However, as the novel progresses, the whisky priest's sense of duty becomes increasingly conflicted as he…