THE POWER AND THE GLORY

'''The Power and the Glory''' (1940) is a novel by British author Graham Greene. The title is an allusion to the doxology often added to the end of the Lord's Prayer: "For thine is the kingdom, (and) the power, and the glory, now and forever (or ''forever and ever''), amen."
This novel has also been published under the name '''The Labyrinthine Ways'''.

Contents

Plot introduction

Plot summary

Film and television versions

Literary significance & criticism

Footnotes

Plot introduction

The novel tells the story of a Roman Catholic priest in the state of Tabasco in Mexico during the 1930s, a time when the Mexican government, still effectively controlled by Plutarco Elías Calles, strove to suppress the Catholic Church. The persecution was especially severe in the province of Tabasco, where the atheist^[1][2][3][4] governor Tomás Garrido Canabal had founded and actively encouraged fascist^[5] paramilitary groups (called the “Red-Shirts”).

Plot summary

The main character in the story is a nameless "whiskey priest", who combines a great power for self-destruction with pitiful cravenness, an almost painful penitence and a desperate quest for dignity. The other main character is a lieutenant of the police who is given the task of hunting down this priest. This Lieutenant - also nameless - is based upon Gov. Tomás Garrido Canabal^[6][7][8], a passionate socialist who was a fervently anti-religious atheist who succeeded in closing all the churches in the state and forcing the priests to marry and give up their gowns, making a hitherto conservative and staid state a model of revolutionary sterility and oppression.
The story starts with the arrival of the priest in a country town where Catholicism is outlawed, and then follows him on his trip through Mexico, where he is trying to minister to the people as well as he can. He is also haunted by his personal demons, especially by the fact that he has fathered a child in his parish some years before. He meets the child, but is unable to feel repentant about what happened. Rather, he feels a deep love for the evil-looking and awkward little girl and decides to do everything in his power to save her from damnation. The priest's opposite player among the clericals is ''Padre José'', a priest who has been forced to renounce his faith and marry a woman (by order of the government) and lives as a state pensioner.
During his journey the priest also encounters a mestizo who later reveals himself to be a Judas figure. In fact, the linguistic parallels between the whiskey priest and Jesus are numerous throughout the book, including with the 'whiskey priest's' illegitimate daughter. The lieutenant, on the other hand, is morally irreproachable, yet he is cold and inhumane. While he is supposedly "living for the people", he puts into practice a diabolic plan of taking hostages from villages and shooting them, if it proves that the priest has soujourned in a village but is not denounced. The lieutenant has also had bad experiences with the church in his youth, and as a result there is a personal element in his search for the whiskey priest. The lieutenant thinks that all members of the clergy are fundamentally evil, and believes that the church is corrupt, and does nothing but provide delusion to the people.
In the end, the lieutenant is able to identify and capture the priest. The Lieutenant admits he has nothing against the priest as a man, but he must be shot “as a danger”. The priest is executed, yet he is immediately venerated by the secret believers of the country as a martyr. The lieutenant is unaware of this and is quite convinced to have "cleared the province of priests". In the final scene, however, another priest arrives in the town - which, among other possible readings, suggests that the Catholic Church cannot be destroyed.

Film and television versions

In 1947, the novel was freely adapted into a film, ''The Fugitive (1947 film)'', directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda as the priest. In 1959, the story was faithfully adapted for British television, with James Donald as the priest. A highly acclaimed 1961 U.S. television version, released theatrically overseas, featured Laurence Olivier in the role.

Literary significance & criticism

Graham Greene, in writing this novel, seems interested in the idea of the power of the Catholic sacraments, and suggests that they still have the potential to change lives for the better, no matter how frail and sinful the life of the priest administering them. The book is considered by many to be his masterpiece. ''The Power and the Glory'' has long been considered Greene's most profound work. In its deliverence he is said to have "captured the conscience of the twentieth century man."

Footnotes

1. http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtcalles.html
2. Needler, Martin C. 1982. Mexican politics: the containment of conflict. Politics in Latin America. New York, N.Y.: Praeger. On page 15 he is called a "crusading atheist"'
3. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,748144,00.html?promoid=googlep
4. http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=nmu1mss166sc.xml
5. "Garrido Canabal, Tomás". ''The Columbia Encyclopedia'' Sixth Edition (2005).
6. ''The Power and the Glory'' New York: Viking, 1990. Introduction by John Updike
7. http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=339
8. Rodman, Selden. 1958. Mexican journal: the conquerors conquered; a journal of six months in Mexico including travels to the principal parts of that country; conversations with distinguished personalities in the arts and public life; adventures, mishaps, reflections and photographs. New York: Devin-Adair Co. Page 121. " the fanatical Garrido Canabal. ... and who has been immortalized
as the villain of Graham Greene's The Power and the Glory"