Comparing Donaghy's The Power And The Glory

anger at authorities, whether theological or Marxist, because it is these authorities that create tension and intolerance in the world, despite their so-called noble aims.

Greene employs several techniques to serve his themes and characterization. Concerning the narration, the novel is written from a third-person limited point of view, with the main focus on the priest and his thoughts. This point of view emphasizes the humility of the priest, as the more he underrates himself, the more the reader sympathizes with him and appreciates his good actions. Donaghy thinks that “an omniscient narrator, not giving a self-effacing viewpoint, would have run the risk of displeasing the reader with hagiographic argument more like that Luis’ mother reads

The lieutenant thinks that the church is the reason for the misery of people and that the solution is destroying it, but, ironically, the system he belongs to has not made the life of the people any better, on the contrary, it has made them live in fear and spiritual emptiness and abandonment. The pious woman in the jail criticizes the priest for sympathizing with sinners and thinks he is “a bad priest” (The Power and the Glory 173), however, she herself is no better than him; she is judgmental and intolerant towards her fellows, which is itself an attitude against Christian morality. The irony lies in their attitude of not practicing what they preach against the church. They just follow the stereotypical criticism without touching reality or reaching a deep understanding of the world. This stereotyping creates even more irony when the lieutenant fails to recognize the priest, because he does not match the lieutenant’s superficial ideas about the glossy, fat and soft-handed

While the lieutenant is proud for killing the last priest in the city, he is unaware of the effect of this act on several people. The act of killing the priest has made him a martyr in the eyes of people and has drawn their attention to their need of spirituality. The lieutenant’s anger at the Church, which he has been trying to spread, has backfired. This is obvious in Luis’ reaction when he spits on the lieutenant at the end of the novel, in contrast with the admiration he has had towards him at the beginning. Moreover, the arrival of another unnamed priest is a sign of the impossibility of obliterating Catholicism, and the welcoming of Luis to that priest is a sign of the cure of anger that the corrupt authorities has created. It is a mark of the triumph of the individual’s faith over the