The Three Sides of Latour

A detailed Summary of The Three Sides of Latour

Death Comes For The Archbishop by Willa Cather is a book about the life and adventures of Jean Marie Latour. As the book progresses, Latour takes on many titles such as Father, Bishop and ultimately Archbishop. Along his travels Latour comes upon characters, many of which are quite similar. There are those characters that Cather deliberately writes more about to catch the readers attention. These characters are Father Martinez, Father Vaillant and Jacinto. In each of these characters Cather creates foils of Latour. There is something in his three foils that Latour wishes were a part of him.

"He had an altogether compelling personality, a disturbing, mysterious, magnetic power" (pg.150). This quote shows exactly what Latour admired in Martinez. This admiration is odd because Martinez is a man whose actions contrast with those that a man of the church is supposed to perform. Another side to this is that Latour sees some of Martinez's qualities within himself and he hates that. In my life I have felt like Latour does in this situation. I find a person who is seen as having bad qualities and I see myself being that person. This makes me angry and I become more hostile to that person than I should be. This i

Through all of his travels these three men stand out the most. The gifts he received from these men helped to strengthen his own beliefs. Each of the characters I have discussed has left an impression on Latour and on myself. Latour saw what he wanted to be in these men, but since he couldn't have that he re-affirmed his beliefs and tried to live as full of a life as he could. I also see pieces of what I want to be in Cather's characters. I hope that someday I will have the passion of Martinez, the determination of Vaillant and the closeness to the earth of Jacinto. I hope that one day I will be able to look upon my life as Latour did and say: "I shall die of having lived" (pg.267).

The third foil of Latour is Jacinto. Jacinto is Latour's Indian guide on his journeys around New Mexico. The difference between Jacinto and the other two foils in this paper is Jacinto represents the Indian population to Latour. From his experiences with Jacinto, Latour makes profound statements on the nature of Indians: " He was already convinced that neither white men nor the Mexicans in Santa Fe understood anything about Indian beliefs or the workings of the Indian mind" (pg.133). It is this sort of mystery that Latour envies in Jacinto. The way that the Indian boy shares so little about himself but at the same time Latour feels like he really knows him. Another quality of Jacinto that is admired by Latour is

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Approximate Word count = 944
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels