Literary Devices in Death Comes for the Archbishop
Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
Willa Cather devotes quite a lot of this book to describing the setting of New Mexico. From the moment Father Latour arrives there, we get the sense that this is not an easy place to live for newbi...
Narrator Point of View
If you don't count the Prologue, this book never wavers from its third-person limited narrator. And by that, we mean that the narrator is a third-person speaker who never really tells us anything t...
Genre
Bishop Latour isn't a real person, but he's based on one: Jean Baptiste Lamy. This dude was really the first Archbishop of New Mexico, and totally built the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of A...
Tone
It seems like everything we read in this book is dry, from the narrator's tone to the descriptions of the landscape. But like the landscape of New Mexico, the tone manages to be dry and incredibly...
Writing Style
When you read Willa Cather's writing, you might think that you're reading something that's simply flowery: it's really beautiful and definitely has a delicacy to it. Check this bad boy out:At one m...
What's Up With the Title?
Death Comes for the Archbishop is an uplifting title.Just bear with us for a second here, Shmoopers. We have a really good reason for saying this; we're not just being morbid.Check out the plot: we...
What's Up With the Ending?
When the Cathedral bell tolled just after dark, the Mexican population of Santa Fe fell upon their knees, and all American Catholics as well. Many others who did not kneel prayed in their hearts. E...
Tough-o-Meter
Willa Cather, being awesome, doesn't try to make things difficult for the reader. In fact, her prose is easy to digest and the plot is fast-paced: it's pretty close to your average Wild West advent...
Plot Analysis
Backhanded PromotionA group of Cardinals in Rome decide that they need someone new to take over the Catholic diocese of New Mexico, now that the Americans have taken this region from Mexico. One of...
Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis
Our main character, Father Latour, isn't even aware that he's been "called" to spread Catholicism through New Mexico until he gets word from Rome. His calling has actually been decided for him by a...
Three-Act Plot Analysis
Father Latour and Father Vaillant move from Sandusky, Ohio to the barren frontier of New Mexico. This area has only recently become part of the United States, and the two men are there to take cont...
Trivia
Before she became a novelist, Cather was already one of American's most successful female journalists. She even edited her own magazine. (Source).Latour and Vaillant were based on real-life besties...
Steaminess Rating
The vast majority of this book is as clean as it can get. But once Padre Martinez comes into the picture, we need to listen to all kinds of stories about his sexual escapades as a priest in New Mex...
Allusions
St. Augustine (5.1.20).El Greco (P.39)The Lombard War (P.43)Annexation of New Mexico to the United States (P.3)Kit Carson (9.7.2)Titian (8.3.19)Raphael (8.3.19)