The power and the glory door Graham Greene

Author: Graham Greene
Publisher: Heineman Educational Books
Number of pages: 216
Title and explanation:
The name of the book ‘the power and the glory’ refers to two persons in the book. It refers to the priest who, in spite of his sins, knows he’s still a priest and by fulfilling his duty Gods power and glory support him in it. The power also refers to the lieutenant and his troops.

Summary:

The situation in Mexico is very bad: the communists have shot all Roman Catholics. Some of them already have managed to escape to other states where they will not be shot. There is only one priest left, but they are looking for him everywhere. He has been on the run for 6 years now. The priest tries to escape from the police-lieutenant who is looking for him, by leaving on a boat. When he misses the boat, he tries to cross the border and hides in several places. He also finds shelter at the owners of a banana plantation, Mr Fellowes.
He comes in many places, but people don’t always want him there because they are afraid of the police to come. He feels very guilty, because he feels like he is causing many victims and prays that there comes another priest to fulfil the duty and guilt he is wearing. Everywhere he goes he continuous fulfilling his duty as a priest, like celebrating the mass. He is also arrested one time and sent to prison for a night and a day, but the police doesn’t recognise him as the priest so releases him.
After a while, when he lives safe in the mountains he meets a man who wants to betray him. The man asks him to go with him to pray at the bed of a dying man. Even though he knows it is a trap, he goes with him because he finds it his duty to go as a priest. When they arrive, the priest is captured by the police-lieutenant and his troops. When the priest is arrested and later on executed, his prayer is answered: another priest comes into Mexico and takes over the job and duty of the priest.

Main characters:

The priest:
He is an alcoholic man who is always fighting his conscience. In the book he is called the ‘whisky priest’ because of his drinking problem. The biggest battles in his life are his faith and his alcoholism. He knows he is a failure and that he lives in sin. In his weakness and failure he finds a special love for God. Everywhere he comes he tries to fulfil his duty as a priest for God, even though if it brings him in danger. He has a very bad reputation, because he is a drinker who has a woman with a child in the village. He also feels very guilty for not being there for his daughter, and also for the fact that he is causing many victims by running away.

The lieutenant:
He is a police-lieutenant. He is a political idealist and wants to kill and destroy everything that has made the people of Mexico miserable. He blames the Catholic Church for the bad situation in his country, and therefore he wants to kill every Roman Catholic person in the state. He is prepared to sacrifice everything, even his own happiness to achieve his goal. He also carries a secret kind of love.
That is the love for the children of Mexico. He dedicates his life for their future.

Minor characters:

Mister Tench:
He is a dentist and the priest talks to him in the beginning of the book. In the conversation you get to know the background of the priest.

Mister Fellowes:
He is the owner of the banana plantation where the priest is hiding. Also in the conversation with this man you get to know more of the background of the priest.

Carol:
She is the daughter of mister Fellowes.

The half-cast man:
He is a man who intends to betray the priest to the police to get the reward. He is the one who says to the priest that a man is asking for a catholic priest while he is dying.

Padre José:
He is a colleague of the priest who has bowed to the authority by marrying a woman and lay down his duty. In the end of the story they want him to go to the prison to listen to the priests last confession, but
he refuses to go.

Mister Lehr:
He is a pastor who gives the priest shelter.

Miss Lehr:
She is the sister of Mister Lehr.

Calver: He is an American gangster who is terroristing the area where mister Fellowes and his family live. He is also the man who they say is dying and is asking for a catholic priest.

Point of view:

The book is written in the third person narrative. The first and the last part are told by different persons and the second one is told by the priest.

Theme:

The theme of this novel is grace and sin. It is about the struggle between the divine grace of the priest that he receives by fulfilling his duty for God and his human weakness to live in sin. He does not dare to surrender himself, and therefore he is causing many other victims.

Opinion:

The book was a bit boring to read and not very easy. A lot of words where difficult and delayed the reading. There were also a lot of foreign words used in the book, which made it even more difficult to understand what was said.
The book was not what I expected it to be. According to the title would have expected it to be a story about a great leader and his story of life or something. The book is nothing like that, it is a religious book, about a priest. I liked to read a religious book though, because I am religious myself.
I also liked that the book was separated in three parts. The first one is an introduction to the priest, the second one tells the story of the priest who is running through Mexico and the problems he encounters with it. The last part tells about the capturing of the priest and his death.
In the beginning it was hard to follow the story because you didn’t really knew anything about the person and you only knew he was a priest. I actually started to understand the story after I made the summary. I like the theme about the struggle between the priest and
the world around him. The story describes his feelings well and it makes you relate to him very well.
I wouldn’t advice it to other people, because it is a difficult book to read and hard to understand.