During this part of the book we learn that the priest has arrived at a new town and there is a secret which is revealed to us. This secret would be that the priest has a daughter and has had a lover in this village, but it seems she doesn't really like him. As soon as he gets to this small town people look at him as if he we're a complete stranger because they don't recognize him without his religious clothes. So he wouldn't get caught he trades them with another man and gets on his way to the village were Maria lives. As said before, Maria has a bitter attitude towards the priest. "She said savagely, 'I know about things. I went to school. I'm not like these others -ignorant. I know you're a bad priest. That time we were together -that wasn't all you've done. I've heard things, I can tell you. Do you think God wants you to stay and die -a whisky priest like you?' He stood patiently in front of her, as he had stood in front of the lieutenant, listening. He hadn't known she was capable of all this thought. She said, 'Suppose you die. You'll be a martyr, won't you? What kind of a martyr do you think you'll be? It's enough to make people mock' (The Power & The Glory, Chapter 1, pg. 79)." One can see that Maria is not very happy to see the priest and after the lieutenant comes into town and takes Miguel she dislikes him even more, because in her mind he is the one who should suffer not the rest of the town's people. Afterwards the priest leaves the town on his mule and heads north because he is told that only trouble awaits him in the south. He rides until what seems to be a river that he must cross, but does not find a boat because the first man tells him that he has no boats and the second at the gaseosa stand (a boy) tells him the boat has been stolen. Up until know the priest has had some luck, lets see if he can find a boat.
I've decided to connect the priest with Jesus, because in my reading I found a similarity between both that amazed me. As one reads along, it seems that the priest is on a journey to show the 'world' Gods love and teachings. We see him on a mule riding around from village to village and at the same time running away from justice who wishes to silence him. He even comes face to face with his enemy. The bible explains how Jesus would travel to different places showing people Gods love, teachings and will, as the priest is trying to do. Christ would also ride on a mule and as well would run away from the authorities so he could carry one with Gods wish of letting the world know him. It might be a superficial connection, but one can identify it by paying close attention to the story. As Jesus, the priest doesn't want anybody getting punished because of their ideals and there is a passage in the text that shows it perfectly. "He had no clear idea now about anything; he only wanted to put as great a distance as possible between him and the village where he had spent the night (The Power & The Glory, Chapter 1, pg. 83)." At first it seemed to be a vague connection, but once you think about it Jesus ran away from 'justice' to make and even greater one, he rode on a mule and showed Gods love for everyone and most importantly gave us life after death, the priest does exactly the same except for life after death, he only express it and does not give his life to give us this gift. It's incredible but these small details give themselves away to the connection I just made. Before starting to read I said to myself "what will my connection be this time, my last connection was impossible to make", but after reading, examining and exploring a little bit I found this to be a great connection.
Up until now we know that the stranger or priest has escaped the authorities and is on his way to hide and not place anybody else at wrisk of being caught and killed because of him. The priest heads north because he knows that south will only cuase him more trouble because they are looking for him and other priests, but he is the top priority at the moment. We still know nothing about Mr. Tench contacting his wife and the priest meeting Coral again.
- Will the priest have as much luck as he had in the village?
- Is it true about the churches in the north mountains?
- What happened to Tench?
- Will Miguel return to the village or be killed?
- Will Maria and the priest ever see each other again? Will he ever see his daughter again?
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