Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory

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Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory

In Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory, setting is essential in understanding the spiritual conquest of the main character. The story takes place in post-revolution Mexico of the nineteen-thirties, where Catholicism has been banned. The government has shut down all of the churches and established anti-Catholic laws, jealous of the rising power of the church, and nervous of the corrupt ways in which the church has been dealing with sin. The main character, a nameless "whiskey priest," hopelessly roams the desolate plains of southern Mexico, on the run from the law, as the only priest left who has not denounced his fatherhood. The surrounding communities in southern Mexico refuse to harbor the priest because of the drastic repercussions from the police. The priest feels guilty about his pride in being an inadequate priest and a sinner, but has come to terms with the eternal damnation he will face in the afterlife. The physical and cultural settings in The Power and Glory guide the reader through an odyssey of one man's struggle to find meaning in the world, as it parallels the priest's internal perspective, and symbolizes his redemptive conversion and his final unconscious achievement of martyrdom.

Ater the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican government established anti-Catholic laws against the churches. The government dismissed the Church's system of redemption, and became jealous of the Church's rising influence over society. This system required "sinners" to pay the church money in order to escape eternal damnation in the afterlife. "And the priest came round with the collecting bag, taking their centavos, abusing them for their small comforting sins, and sacrificing nothing at all in return- except a little sexual indulgence." (pp. 22-3) Every priest denounced their profession and became married in order to remain lawful citizens. However, this "whiskey priest" "felt bound to his sin by love? And when we love our sin then we are damned indeed." (pp. 172-3) The priest claims he is too proud to denounce his fatherhood, and roams southern Mexico as a fugitive from the law. "He was a bad priest, he knew it." (p. 60)

The priest encounters nothing but the desolate plains of southern Mexico and the cultural depression of its poverty-stricken lands.

Half a dozen huts of mud and watt...

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...e every soul as if it were one's own child." (p. 82) Our (internal) Self is a reflection of our relationship with the rest of he world. Jesus Christ explained this idea in the seldom read, "Book of Thomas," when he said: "For whoever has not known Himself knows nothing, but he who has known Himself has already understood the depths of all things." The irony and paradox of this priest's journey through sin and lawlesness to achieve a revelatory understanding about his obligation to openly love himself and humanity, demonstrates the complexity of life all human beings are plagued with in a universal search to understand Thyself, (and/or, God). This "whiskey priest" becomes One with life, and demonstrates "the power and the glory," when he finally understands: "'Love is not wrong, but love should be happy and open- it is only wrong when it is secret, unhappy? It can be more unhappy than anything but the loss of God. It is the loss of God.'" (p.172)

"The roof couldn't keep out this rain." (p. 152)

"Hope is an instinct only the reasoning human mind can kill. An animal never knows despair."

-Graham Greene, "The Power and the Glory" (p. 141)

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