Religion in The Glory and the Power

In the second chapter of The Glory and the Power I found very interesting the point of view of religion. In this pages, the liuetenant is introduced as a vicious and ruthless person. This character is completley against cristianism and persecutes all religious followers and most importantly, catholic priests. When a photograph is shown to him were a priest appears in a first communion, the police officer is angry and he says that the priest is to be aprehended and executed. Even though this seem irrational at first, this is understandable to a certain point because of all the damage that catholisism has done to his poeple and therefore he is fighting for the greater good. The lieutenant shows so much hate towards priests that he finds them more threatening than a bank robber and murderer(now this is irrational in my opionion). In this chapter they show us how religious freedom is not an option in Mexico during this time period and how people are forced to abandone their faith. They also talk about Padre Jose who was forced to denie his comitment to God because of religious persecution. All of this mentioned above is a perfect example of the abuse the catholic church had in many cultures and how this created confusion and hate towards the religion. Nevertheless people shouldn't act violently towards the issue becuase religion is very important in many peoples lives and not everybody in the clergy is corrupted. Even though catholicism was owtlawed in Mexico during this time period, there were still people who had their faith and this shows the importance of religion.

Mr Tench and The Stranger

In the first chapter of The Power and the Glory I found the characters to be very peculiar. Mr Tench is in a certain way very similar to Meursoult in the novel The Stranger since they both seem very numb. Mr Tench also shows no interest in anything, he is very self concerned. For example, in the first few pages of the book a little boy comes to Mr Tench's house looking for a doctor because his mother is dying and Mr Tench tells him to away with out any simpathy. The other character that the author refers to as "the stranger" was also very interesting. He was mysterious and never reveals much of his character. Another thing a found weird in this guy was when he decides to help the little boys mother but later holds a grudge against him because he missed the boat.