The Power and the Glory

A detailed Summary of The Power and the Glory

As countless people in a third world country fall to the ravages of poverty and disease, a single woman fights to make a difference. Living a spartan life, through conditions far from humane, she helps those who are poor, suffering and sick, with total disregard for her own personal comfort. One might say that this woman is a saint and for many she already is. Her selfless abandon to help those in need makes her virtuous to a heroic degree. Her name is Mother Theresa. By stark contrast, the whisky priest can hardly be classified as a saint. A saint is an individual remarkably free from human weaknesses. The whisky priest however, is the incarnate of human failings: a sinner.

Priests are respected members of their communities and should exemplify what it is to be a Christian. They are model citizens who practice the teachings of Christ and take on the responsibilities of their title. Under the circumstances of an anti-clerical purge in the southern states of Mexico, it is understandable that the whiskey priest is unable to perform all of his priestly duties for fear of his life. To survive, he must lie, cheat and steal to avoid the law. These tactics however, are not new to him. Even before the purge, he is a priest t

From a certain perspective, one could call the whiskey priest a martyr. Refusing to renounce his calling, lives as a fugitive performing his priestly services wherever needed. This is only what it appears to be. At the conclusion of the novel, the villagers believe the whisky priest to be worthy of the title of martyr. Unfortunately they only see the surface of his actions. As the reader reads deeper into the thoughts of the priest, the reality of the situation becomes clear. The people see a priest risking his life for his beliefs and the well being of the people. The fact of the matter is that he is doing it form himself. It is pride at work, not the love of God. The whisky priest believes himself a fine fellow to have stayed when the others had gone. He believes that a man carrying God at the risk of his own life is guaranteed a divine reward. It is the priests feeling of superiority and pride that he remains in Mexico. He is a fugitive for all the wrong reasons and fails to recall that it was pride that made the angels fall.

The service of a priest is not only to the people but to all living things. As the whisky priest returns to the plantation of Captain Fellows, he discovers the abandoned house and the crippled dog. Filled with hunger, the whiskey priest greedily devours the meat, leaving the clean bone for the poor dog. Surely a servant of God will not let the poor beast go hungry? His lack of pity and compassion is quite disturbing to the reader. The whisky priest is only concerned about his own hunger and ignores that of the dog. Man was p

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1065
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous