I'm just going to jump right in here.
I've always been bad at keeping characters straight, which is why I can't read Lord of the Rings (Really? Sauron and Saruman? I'd never get through that.) My question is this: are there two priests between which the story shifts back and forth? I'm very comfortable with the man hiding in the barn at Captain Fellows's house, and I think I've got it right that he is still a priest, but is in hiding and that he's the one who wrestles with the onus of his vocation -- he feels he must serve the spiritual needs of the people he meets.
Then there's Padre Jose. This character isn't the same man, is he? In Ch. 4, Padre Jose is walking in the graveyard and the people beg him to say a prayer for their child -- he feels the same weight as the other character, yes? But Padre Jose is married to his housekeeper, if I've got that right, because of the pressure of the government.
And finally, what's the deal with the mother who is reading to her children? Do they have any relationship to the rest of the characters in the book so far?
Stew.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that there are indeed two priests and that your reading of the situation matches mine. That doesn't mean that we're right, but it does mean that we agree :-)
I completely second that there are two priests - by why does only one get a name?
ReplyDeleteThere are two priests: Padre Jose and the "whiskey priest." Building on what Caitlin asked, why is only one priest known merely by an epithet?
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