When a book starts with an image of vultures, you can probably bet this story has something to do with death. And guess what? You're totally right. The Power and the Glory is, at is core, a story about death—not just physical death, but spiritual and emotional death as well. Along with imagery of malarial eyes, tooth decay, and a dead child, Greene gives us the walking dead. No, not zombies chasing conventional plots, but real people who suffer so much in their day-to-day lives that death becomes almost meaningless. Wednesday Addams would be pleased.
Questions About Mortality
- Why is the lieutenant indignant at suffering but indifferent to death?
- How does the priest's understanding and approach to his mortality develop throughout the novel?
- Does the novel present the death of the Church as a real possibility? Why or why not?
- What is the relationship in the story between sin and death?
Chew on This
By ending the novel with the arrival of a new priest, Greene leaves his readers with the hope that the Church will overcome death.
Because Padre José refuses to hear the priest's confession, the priest dies in a state of mortal sin and therefore has no hope for heaven.