Theme Betrayal for Flowering Judas

Judas Iscariot, the disciple, hanged himself from a tree after betraying Jesus Christ and giving him a kiss. The tree in which Judas hanged himself is known as “Judas Tree” mainly found in Southern Europe and Western Asia. In the short story “Flowering Judas” written by Katherine Anne Porter the title is related to this religious event of betrayal, murder, and denial. “‘Flowering Judas’ is possibly her most remarkable story of tension, sustained, threatened, and reestablished” (Gottfried 134). The two main characters in this short story are Braggioni and Laura. Braggoni is a cruel, powerful leader of Marxist revolutionaries in and around Mexico City. Laura a beautiful American women, age 22, who took up residence in Mexico. The most known theme in Porter’s short story “Flowering Judas” is betrayal. Laura, Braggioni, Braggioni’s wife, and Eugenio are all guilty of betrayal.

Starting off, Laura betrayal’s her students who she teaches. The students in her school love her and are enthusiastic about learning from her teaching. “Children [write] on the blackboard, ‘We lov ar ticher’” (Porter 1695). But Laura does not put all her commitment and passion to her teaching. As stated by Sister Mary Bride, “Even though she was a teacher, she had no love for the little children who crowded around her each morning with fervent greetings and festooned her desk with flowers. They ‘remain strangers to her’” (129). A teacher is supposed to love her children, to be part of them, and to focus in her children. With the lack of eagerness and vow to accomplish her activities as a teacher, she is making less of herself and betraying her students.

Continuing, Laura betrayals love in her life, by rejecting all men who intend to reach for her heart. “B...

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...y Porter presents to us a related event in a dream that Laura has with Eugenio. Eugenio says to Laura in the dream “Then eat these flowers, poor prisoner,” and from a Judas tree he stripped the warm bleeding flowers, and held them to her lips (Porter 1700). Here Porter mentions Judas as to referring to the disciple that betrayed Jesus. By Laura accepting and eating the bleeding leave from Eugenio, ripped from the Judas tree, she is accepting the contribution in his murder. Just as a Christian’s accept Jesus on Sundays by Holly Communion. Then Eugenio says to Laura “Murder and Cannibal”, and Laura awakes frighten and terrified, and can no longer go sleep (Porter 1700). Laura has betrayed Eugenio by participating in his murder. As stated by Ray B. West Jr., “She is, like Judas, the betrayer; and her betrayal, like his, consisted in a an inability to believe” (126).