Really, the ending did not evoke a strong reaction from me. The overall ambiguity of tone reminded me a lot of the conclusion of Crime and Punishment. Perhaps this is due to the varying reactions to the final events. Coral’s death seems to give Captain Fellows a new conviction to stay. Mr. Trench is gripped in a surrealistic disgust at seeing the priest’s execution and has decided that he now must leave. The lieutenant feels a hollow victory. With no one to hunt, he has lost any sort of mission in life. He always dreamed of a world without religion, but it seems as though he never had intentions of helping to create this world, only to erase the old one. He has accomplished what he set out to do and is now lost. Finally, we have one last, simple, idealistic take on religion from the point of view of the little boy. He listens to the story of the martyr Juan and thinks about the whiskey priest in the same light. He then spits on the lieutenant who worked to take that seemingly prefect world away from him. But, ultimately, we have the twist that there is yet another unnamed priest on the run. So where does that leave us? Probably just full of contradicting messages. Fellows has to stay, Trench has to go. The whiskey priest weakly laments in the cell and dies without a fuss, while the little boy dreams of an ideal religious world. Its ambiguous and full of energy, just like real life, which I guess was the main thing Greene was trying to portray all along.
I agree with Tommy. The ending was not only a downer, considering that this next priest will have to deal with the same consequences, but also a disappointment. I mean, the entire book was leading up to his imminent capture and defeat, and then all of a sudden its like, "oh look, he's dead, that sucks." And I do not fully understand the role Mr. Tench in all of this. Using reason, I can deduce that he is important somehow, but I cannot see why a despicable dentist (I am your deeentiiist!) (sorry, I'm really tired while writing this) such as Mr. Tench can serve really any purpose other than to be an observer. Well, why him? Anyone could be an observer. While we're at it, why doesn't Padre Jose just step in and observe? After all, he is conveniently located wherever the whiskey priest seems to be.
On another note, I was disappointing in how easily the whiskey priest agreed with the lieutenant on the different subject of their religious discussion. The L. would say, "the church steals from the poor" and the WP would be like "Yeah... pretty much." I mean, he is a priest for gods sake! Seriously. I understand that throughout the book Greene is trying to make the point that the WP only stays in Mexico out of vanity and wants to prove that he is a good priest, even though he is obviously a bad priest, but he is so willing to give up after all of this. I think he should have just saved himself the trouble and either should have left Mexico or gotten caught in the beginning. (I hope this made sense, I'm falling asleep).
Although, I would have to agree with Ariel and Tommy about the ending, I really liked how the story came full circle with the appearance of this new "stranger" who is yet another unnamed priest. I agree that there was a lot of build up for the priest's final capture. However, the ending was far from awful. I enjoyed how it came back together in the end.
The story ends with a child. The theme of the importance of children is shown in this scene. The children represent the future and the fact that the boy lets this priest in provides a sense of hope.
I also really started to like the lieutenant in this final section because of what he tried to do for the priest. He attempted to sneak Padre Jose into the priest’s cell so he could confess to Padre Jose. However, Padre Jose refused to go. Also, the lieutenant provided the priest with some brandy. Perhaps, he is a good guy after all.
Also, in the section we see the effects the priest has had on Mr. Tench. Mr. Tench receives a letter from his wife telling him that she has found religion. Also, Mr. Tench is disgusted by the priest’s execution and decides to leave Mexico. The priest made an impact on Mr. Tench’s life.
Agreeing with others, this ending was pretty lame. Throughout the novel, Greene uses children to represent the future of religion and an innocence that is threatened by the times in which these characters live. I think it is significant that Greene ends the novel with a child meeting another priest. Like Ariel said, not only will this new priest have to face similar problems that the now dead priest faced, but it more importantly continues this question of religion's future.
I think there is foreshadowing to this new priest or new presence of religion at the end of the novel. On page 221, in the child's dream, the dead priest winks at him. Automatically, this stuck out to me and I thought it might be some calling for the child to become more religious or something.
I also agree with what Tommy said about the ending being very much like Crime and Punishment with several events going on and different reactions to those events.
In class today, we discussed the ways that Greene wants readers to interpret religion. After reading the ending, I think that he probably was siding with religion after all. Even though the whisky priest goes through so much in the book and vacillates between guilt for his sins and a doubt of his faith, he ultimately believes but feels that he was a failure. Greene writes, “He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed with nothing done at all. It seemed to him, at that moment that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint” (210). But I also think that the main idea on religion in the ending is not the conclusions surrounding the whiskey priest, because he dies with the same feeling of guilt and sin that he lives with throughout the book, but really the view on religion is shown through the little boy. He hears the story and believes immediately that the whisky priest is also a martyr.
The dream sequences also played a very important part in the ending. They especially foreshadow events of the ending. For example, the boy dreams about the whisky priest winking at him, and then a new priest shows up at his door. Also, the priest dreams that he’s in a cathedral: “But he sat on, just waiting, paying no attention to the God over the altar, as though that were a God for other people and not for him” (209). I think this quote is important, because it shows that the priest doesn’t feel connected to God because of his sins. This detached feeling is ironic, because a priest is usually closer to God than "other people." It’s also ironic that this dream, which should give him a feeling of disappointment and guilt, instead gives him hope, until he remembers that it’s the morning of his death. The dream sequences are similar to in Crime and Punishment, in the ways that they each reveal specific aspects of the priest and Raskolnikov’s character, past, or future.
I wouldn't say i was as disappointed in the ending as others, so i won't dwell on the negative because that just gets boring. I really did like the circularity of the novel which reminded me alot of the other books we read, especially 100 years. It was nice to see that the whiskey priest, for all his sins and sacreligious ways, actually had a tremendous impact on the people around him. However, i will agree that i was slightly confused at how the priest had SUCH a large affect on Mr. Tench, because I never really saw the connection there.
One connection clearly drawn between P&G and C&P (love those abbreviations) was the concept of coincidence. Clearly, this book didnt have nearly as much as C&P did except at the end, when everything started to come together, and another priest arrives at the boy's door. From this we now know that the priest's story continues, and this is ultimately Greene's commentary. For all his critiques on relgion throughout the novel, he does end the book with relgion continuing, where he easily could've just killed the priest and the pursuit would've been over. This brought the most interesting light to the novel overall
I really liked the confrontation scene between the Lieutenant and the priest, because he finally seemed priestly! For once he seemed confident in his beliefs: I love how he agreed with the Lieutenant and threw him off guard. By agreeing with the Lieutenant he flustered him more than if he had argued adamantly for the church, meaning his underlying argument (as he does not really argue) is more powerful.
Other than that, the ending was not entirely impressive. I did like that it came full circle-- that the story of Juan was finished as was that of the W.P, and that Mr. Tench's wife wrote back to him and his character repented for previous sins. However, I think the death of the W.P was abrupt without much closure! It felt like the epilogue of C & P where Raskolnikov "finds religion", but you don't know how long it will last. The W.P is finally priestly, yet his priestly-esque actions of the past were usually followed by pretty un-priestly ones. Although he does undergo some severe transformations at the end, I don't completely trust them, and his death makes them seem even more temporary. There was not enough time to get used to the repentence of the W.P before he died, which lessened the impact of the novel for me.
Ok ok, I have lots of things I want to touch upon so I think I will go in order and will come back to that.
I lived the ended, I found it interesting, and in a way unexpected, and I think everyone is too down on it, I got some strong emotions going, though that just might be because I loved Coral.
The first thing that really stood out to me was when the lieutenant went to Padre Jose so that the WP could confess to him before he was killed. He he didn't go. The priest was left alone, with no one to confess to. Just like we discussed in class today, with how the WP believes you cannot have PEACE without another person. Well this is the ultimate example. The WP desires inner peace before he goes on the afterlife, but there is no one there to confess to, and thus no hope for inner peace. That's so depressing man. His subsequent confusion, and inabilty to make any silent confession before his death is heartbreaking. He acts as indecisive as Raskolnikov in the end as he prays for his daughter's safety and then criticizes himself for it. He sees himself as an awful person because he is going to God "empty-handed," but what exactly should he have to show for himself. And would it make him a better person? And of course the dream, that's symbolic.
I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE CORAL DIED! Why Greene, why'd you have to go there? I'm to sad to continue with this. Though Mr. and Mrs. Fellows not really talking about her upsets me too.
I LOVED the Mr. Tench reappearance. First of all, everyone with decaying teeth seem to also have decaying souls. Just saying. And the letter from his wife. Man i'm so happy for him. The fact that meeting the WP prompts him to want to write his wife, and then the WP's excecution prompts him to want to leave for good seems quite interesting.
And then around comes teh story of Juan again, I was glad that the boy say some value in the story, and that even though the WP sinned he will be remembered well in someone's eyes. I thought it was so ironic that the lieutenant claims to want to stamp out Christianity for the good of the children, and in the end the boy spits on him. But I still am torn on how to feel about the lieutenant.
Then a new stranger shows up who happens to be a priest!? I FEEL LIED TO. The WP was the last one, I was all invested in him as the end and then BOOM here comes another one. I withhold judgement on that until further notice.
It's like everything is going to start all over again, but will things be better? Did the WP do any good? Was he a martyr? What will become of the children of this generation? Will they be with or without relgion, and how will that shape them? What's going to happen!
Going back to the idea of peace with human company, the chapter 3 develops the idea through many confessions. Although the priest is a little nervous he seems to find serenity, when talking to the lieutenant. This is the ultimate arrival of the priest's transformation; he completely accepts that he is a bad priest and abandons all the pride he had. This chapter also reminded me of our class discussion on this priest being priestly. When he is talking to the lieutenant he has entirely abandoned his role as a priest when he agrees with the lieutenant's criticism on church. However, he tries to express his ideas just as an ordinary religious man by saying that he is a bad priest but he sounds a great deal more priestly. He does not try to contradict the lieutenant's opposing views on religion but only hints that he has a different view (such as when the priest says that happiness cannot be achieved). Furthremore, when he speaks to the mestizo he does exactly what a "good" priest would do. He listens to the mestizo's confession and gives a decent advise: "You think my blessing will be like a blinker over God's eyes. I can't stop him knowing all about it. Much better go home and pray" (197). It is ironic how when he tries to act preistly he is the least examplary as a clergyman but when he discards the priest title he becomes a true priest.
Also, in chapter 3, I found a quote similar to Niche's. "And then I thought I was so grand I could make my own rules" (196). Like Raskolnikov, he was proud enough that he thought he was so exceptional to have a different set of principles. However, what is different about him is that he made different rules on his life; the rules does not really affect the society. The moral dilemmas and questionings that happen in the Power and the Glory is much more personal.
The ending of the novel did not bother me as much as it did for others. But it made me think whether Greene really is criticizing religion here. The boy who was so unwilling to listen to the religious tales ends up liking the main character of the tale. Maybe Greene separates the religion and the person. He is skeptical of a religion but likes the people who believe it.
I tend to be a sucker for books/movies/anecdotes where one person touches many people's lives, so I actually kind of liked the ending! I agree that parts were ambiguous, but I thought the fact that Greene tried to go back to every single character in the book in the short span of Part Four definitely made up for for the ambiguity. I like when novels come full circle, and I like how the ending leaves the story with promise. Even though the ending of 100 Years was amazing (and sharper and more unexpected than this one), it didn't have a future; it was just Aureliano reading his family history forever. At the end of P+G, a new story begins. On a completely different note, I'd like to discuss the conversation between the WP and the lieut on page 199. I thought it was very C+P-esque. trying to address larger questions about life/existence/society. I especially liked the WP's quote, "But why should we give the poor power? It's better to let him die in the dirt and wake up in heaven- so long as we don't push his face in the dirt." This quote is interesting for many reasons. First, it completely contradicts the way the WP acts- he says poor people are better off with hardship, yet whenever he has an opportunity for luxury he jumps at the chance. Also, he is basically saying that there ARE certain roles in society based on class, and one of them is that the poor should not have power because it would lead to their corruption, and they would no longer have access to heaven. Is he saying he doesn't belong in heaven?
Awww, happy ending! That last chapter changed everything. Without it, it felt like a Native Son ending. Wow, I REALLY loved that last part. Before it, when the priest is disappointed in himself for having to “go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all” (210), the tone was just so somber that I didn’t think the rest could possibly turn this into a happy ending of sorts, which it did. The addition of the last part made it clear that the priest did do something. He kept the hope of religion alive. Re: our discussion on Greene’s message about religion, I think that he is saying that everyone should have the right to believe whatever he or she wants to believe. This is fundamentally a love song for freedom of religion.
It’s weird that the priest says that he was basically too prideful for his own good. That is the one sin that I would probably say he never committed, as he always seemed so insecure with his reasons for standing up for his faith, etc.
12 comments:
Really, the ending did not evoke a strong reaction from me. The overall ambiguity of tone reminded me a lot of the conclusion of Crime and Punishment. Perhaps this is due to the varying reactions to the final events. Coral’s death seems to give Captain Fellows a new conviction to stay. Mr. Trench is gripped in a surrealistic disgust at seeing the priest’s execution and has decided that he now must leave. The lieutenant feels a hollow victory. With no one to hunt, he has lost any sort of mission in life. He always dreamed of a world without religion, but it seems as though he never had intentions of helping to create this world, only to erase the old one. He has accomplished what he set out to do and is now lost. Finally, we have one last, simple, idealistic take on religion from the point of view of the little boy. He listens to the story of the martyr Juan and thinks about the whiskey priest in the same light. He then spits on the lieutenant who worked to take that seemingly prefect world away from him. But, ultimately, we have the twist that there is yet another unnamed priest on the run. So where does that leave us? Probably just full of contradicting messages. Fellows has to stay, Trench has to go. The whiskey priest weakly laments in the cell and dies without a fuss, while the little boy dreams of an ideal religious world. Its ambiguous and full of energy, just like real life, which I guess was the main thing Greene was trying to portray all along.
I agree with Tommy. The ending was not only a downer, considering that this next priest will have to deal with the same consequences, but also a disappointment. I mean, the entire book was leading up to his imminent capture and defeat, and then all of a sudden its like, "oh look, he's dead, that sucks." And I do not fully understand the role Mr. Tench in all of this. Using reason, I can deduce that he is important somehow, but I cannot see why a despicable dentist (I am your deeentiiist!) (sorry, I'm really tired while writing this) such as Mr. Tench can serve really any purpose other than to be an observer. Well, why him? Anyone could be an observer. While we're at it, why doesn't Padre Jose just step in and observe? After all, he is conveniently located wherever the whiskey priest seems to be.
On another note, I was disappointing in how easily the whiskey priest agreed with the lieutenant on the different subject of their religious discussion. The L. would say, "the church steals from the poor" and the WP would be like "Yeah... pretty much." I mean, he is a priest for gods sake! Seriously. I understand that throughout the book Greene is trying to make the point that the WP only stays in Mexico out of vanity and wants to prove that he is a good priest, even though he is obviously a bad priest, but he is so willing to give up after all of this. I think he should have just saved himself the trouble and either should have left Mexico or gotten caught in the beginning. (I hope this made sense, I'm falling asleep).
Although, I would have to agree with Ariel and Tommy about the ending, I really liked how the story came full circle with the appearance of this new "stranger" who is yet another unnamed priest. I agree that there was a lot of build up for the priest's final capture. However, the ending was far from awful. I enjoyed how it came back together in the end.
The story ends with a child. The theme of the importance of children is shown in this scene. The children represent the future and the fact that the boy lets this priest in provides a sense of hope.
I also really started to like the lieutenant in this final section because of what he tried to do for the priest. He attempted to sneak Padre Jose into the priest’s cell so he could confess to Padre Jose. However, Padre Jose refused to go. Also, the lieutenant provided the priest with some brandy. Perhaps, he is a good guy after all.
Also, in the section we see the effects the priest has had on Mr. Tench. Mr. Tench receives a letter from his wife telling him that she has found religion. Also, Mr. Tench is disgusted by the priest’s execution and decides to leave Mexico. The priest made an impact on Mr. Tench’s life.
Agreeing with others, this ending was pretty lame. Throughout the novel, Greene uses children to represent the future of religion and an innocence that is threatened by the times in which these characters live. I think it is significant that Greene ends the novel with a child meeting another priest. Like Ariel said, not only will this new priest have to face similar problems that the now dead priest faced, but it more importantly continues this question of religion's future.
I think there is foreshadowing to this new priest or new presence of religion at the end of the novel. On page 221, in the child's dream, the dead priest winks at him. Automatically, this stuck out to me and I thought it might be some calling for the child to become more religious or something.
I also agree with what Tommy said about the ending being very much like Crime and Punishment with several events going on and different reactions to those events.
In class today, we discussed the ways that Greene wants readers to interpret religion. After reading the ending, I think that he probably was siding with religion after all. Even though the whisky priest goes through so much in the book and vacillates between guilt for his sins and a doubt of his faith, he ultimately believes but feels that he was a failure. Greene writes, “He felt only an immense disappointment because he had to go to God empty-handed with nothing done at all. It seemed to him, at that moment that it would have been quite easy to have been a saint” (210). But I also think that the main idea on religion in the ending is not the conclusions surrounding the whiskey priest, because he dies with the same feeling of guilt and sin that he lives with throughout the book, but really the view on religion is shown through the little boy. He hears the story and believes immediately that the whisky priest is also a martyr.
The dream sequences also played a very important part in the ending. They especially foreshadow events of the ending. For example, the boy dreams about the whisky priest winking at him, and then a new priest shows up at his door. Also, the priest dreams that he’s in a cathedral: “But he sat on, just waiting, paying no attention to the God over the altar, as though that were a God for other people and not for him” (209). I think this quote is important, because it shows that the priest doesn’t feel connected to God because of his sins. This detached feeling is ironic, because a priest is usually closer to God than "other people." It’s also ironic that this dream, which should give him a feeling of disappointment and guilt, instead gives him hope, until he remembers that it’s the morning of his death. The dream sequences are similar to in Crime and Punishment, in the ways that they each reveal specific aspects of the priest and Raskolnikov’s character, past, or future.
I wouldn't say i was as disappointed in the ending as others, so i won't dwell on the negative because that just gets boring. I really did like the circularity of the novel which reminded me alot of the other books we read, especially 100 years. It was nice to see that the whiskey priest, for all his sins and sacreligious ways, actually had a tremendous impact on the people around him. However, i will agree that i was slightly confused at how the priest had SUCH a large affect on Mr. Tench, because I never really saw the connection there.
One connection clearly drawn between P&G and C&P (love those abbreviations) was the concept of coincidence. Clearly, this book didnt have nearly as much as C&P did except at the end, when everything started to come together, and another priest arrives at the boy's door. From this we now know that the priest's story continues, and this is ultimately Greene's commentary. For all his critiques on relgion throughout the novel, he does end the book with relgion continuing, where he easily could've just killed the priest and the pursuit would've been over. This brought the most interesting light to the novel overall
I really liked the confrontation scene between the Lieutenant and the priest, because he finally seemed priestly! For once he seemed confident in his beliefs: I love how he agreed with the Lieutenant and threw him off guard. By agreeing with the Lieutenant he flustered him more than if he had argued adamantly for the church, meaning his underlying argument (as he does not really argue) is more powerful.
Other than that, the ending was not entirely impressive. I did like that it came full circle-- that the story of Juan was finished as was that of the W.P, and that Mr. Tench's wife wrote back to him and his character repented for previous sins. However, I think the death of the W.P was abrupt without much closure! It felt like the epilogue of C & P where Raskolnikov "finds religion", but you don't know how long it will last. The W.P is finally priestly, yet his priestly-esque actions of the past were usually followed by pretty un-priestly ones. Although he does undergo some severe transformations at the end, I don't completely trust them, and his death makes them seem even more temporary. There was not enough time to get used to the repentence of the W.P before he died, which lessened the impact of the novel for me.
I CANNOT BELIEVE CORAL DIED! I AM SO SAD!
Ok ok, I have lots of things I want to touch upon so I think I will go in order and will come back to that.
I lived the ended, I found it interesting, and in a way unexpected, and I think everyone is too down on it, I got some strong emotions going, though that just might be because I loved Coral.
The first thing that really stood out to me was when the lieutenant went to Padre Jose so that the WP could confess to him before he was killed. He he didn't go. The priest was left alone, with no one to confess to. Just like we discussed in class today, with how the WP believes you cannot have PEACE without another person. Well this is the ultimate example. The WP desires inner peace before he goes on the afterlife, but there is no one there to confess to, and thus no hope for inner peace. That's so depressing man. His subsequent confusion, and inabilty to make any silent confession before his death is heartbreaking. He acts as indecisive as Raskolnikov in the end as he prays for his daughter's safety and then criticizes himself for it. He sees himself as an awful person because he is going to God "empty-handed," but what exactly should he have to show for himself. And would it make him a better person? And of course the dream, that's symbolic.
I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE CORAL DIED! Why Greene, why'd you have to go there? I'm to sad to continue with this. Though Mr. and Mrs. Fellows not really talking about her upsets me too.
I LOVED the Mr. Tench reappearance. First of all, everyone with decaying teeth seem to also have decaying souls. Just saying. And the letter from his wife. Man i'm so happy for him. The fact that meeting the WP prompts him to want to write his wife, and then the WP's excecution prompts him to want to leave for good seems quite interesting.
And then around comes teh story of Juan again, I was glad that the boy say some value in the story, and that even though the WP sinned he will be remembered well in someone's eyes. I thought it was so ironic that the lieutenant claims to want to stamp out Christianity for the good of the children, and in the end the boy spits on him. But I still am torn on how to feel about the lieutenant.
Then a new stranger shows up who happens to be a priest!? I FEEL LIED TO. The WP was the last one, I was all invested in him as the end and then BOOM here comes another one. I withhold judgement on that until further notice.
It's like everything is going to start all over again, but will things be better? Did the WP do any good? Was he a martyr? What will become of the children of this generation? Will they be with or without relgion, and how will that shape them? What's going to happen!
liked the ended ... not lived
wow.
Going back to the idea of peace with human company, the chapter 3 develops the idea through many confessions. Although the priest is a little nervous he seems to find serenity, when talking to the lieutenant. This is the ultimate arrival of the priest's transformation; he completely accepts that he is a bad priest and abandons all the pride he had.
This chapter also reminded me of our class discussion on this priest being priestly. When he is talking to the lieutenant he has entirely abandoned his role as a priest when he agrees with the lieutenant's criticism on church. However, he tries to express his ideas just as an ordinary religious man by saying that he is a bad priest but he sounds a great deal more priestly. He does not try to contradict the lieutenant's opposing views on religion but only hints that he has a different view (such as when the priest says that happiness cannot be achieved). Furthremore, when he speaks to the mestizo he does exactly what a "good" priest would do. He listens to the mestizo's confession and gives a decent advise: "You think my blessing will be like a blinker over God's eyes. I can't stop him knowing all about it. Much better go home and pray" (197). It is ironic how when he tries to act preistly he is the least examplary as a clergyman but when he discards the priest title he becomes a true priest.
Also, in chapter 3, I found a quote similar to Niche's. "And then I thought I was so grand I could make my own rules" (196). Like Raskolnikov, he was proud enough that he thought he was so exceptional to have a different set of principles. However, what is different about him is that he made different rules on his life; the rules does not really affect the society. The moral dilemmas and questionings that happen in the Power and the Glory is much more personal.
The ending of the novel did not bother me as much as it did for others. But it made me think whether Greene really is criticizing religion here. The boy who was so unwilling to listen to the religious tales ends up liking the main character of the tale. Maybe Greene separates the religion and the person. He is skeptical of a religion but likes the people who believe it.
I tend to be a sucker for books/movies/anecdotes where one person touches many people's lives, so I actually kind of liked the ending! I agree that parts were ambiguous, but I thought the fact that Greene tried to go back to every single character in the book in the short span of Part Four definitely made up for for the ambiguity. I like when novels come full circle, and I like how the ending leaves the story with promise. Even though the ending of 100 Years was amazing (and sharper and more unexpected than this one), it didn't have a future; it was just Aureliano reading his family history forever. At the end of P+G, a new story begins.
On a completely different note, I'd like to discuss the conversation between the WP and the lieut on page 199. I thought it was very C+P-esque. trying to address larger questions about life/existence/society. I especially liked the WP's quote, "But why should we give the poor power? It's better to let him die in the dirt and wake up in heaven- so long as we don't push his face in the dirt." This quote is interesting for many reasons. First, it completely contradicts the way the WP acts- he says poor people are better off with hardship, yet whenever he has an opportunity
for luxury he jumps at the chance. Also, he is basically saying that there ARE certain roles in society based on class, and one of them is that the poor should not have power because it would lead to their corruption, and they would no longer have access to heaven. Is he saying he doesn't belong in heaven?
Awww, happy ending! That last chapter changed everything. Without it, it felt like a Native Son ending. Wow, I REALLY loved that last part. Before it, when the priest is disappointed in himself for having to “go to God empty-handed, with nothing done at all” (210), the tone was just so somber that I didn’t think the rest could possibly turn this into a happy ending of sorts, which it did. The addition of the last part made it clear that the priest did do something. He kept the hope of religion alive. Re: our discussion on Greene’s message about religion, I think that he is saying that everyone should have the right to believe whatever he or she wants to believe. This is fundamentally a love song for freedom of religion.
It’s weird that the priest says that he was basically too prideful for his own good. That is the one sin that I would probably say he never committed, as he always seemed so insecure with his reasons for standing up for his faith, etc.
Post a Comment