How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph.)
Quote #7
"Better not to believe—and be a brave man."
"I see—yes. And of course, if one believed the Governor did not exist or the jefe, if we could pretend that this prison was not a prison at all but a garden, how brave we could be then."
"That's just foolishness.""But when we found that the prison was a prison, and the Governor up there in the square undoubtedly existed, well, it wouldn't much matter if we'd been brave for an hour or two."
"Nobody could say that this prison was not a prison.""No? You don't think so? I can see that you don't listen to the politicians." (2.3.70-75)
By shaping people's beliefs, you shape their behavior. Part of shaping people's beliefs is controlling the definition (and the way people think) of certain terms and words. Can you think of ways that politicians do this?
Quote #8
The priest waited: there was nothing else to do; he was at the man's mercy—a silly phrase, for those malarial eyes had never known what mercy was. He was saved at any rate from the indignity of pleading. (2.3.156)
The phrase is silly, isn't it? The half-caste knows that the priest is a priest and under the circumstances, this gives him power over the priest and the opportunity to cause him great harm. Mercy indeed.