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| Doesn't quite fit, does it? |
In
the Gospels, we often see Jesus among sinners. The writers make it perfectly
clear that it should seem odd that a man claiming to be the Son of God
associated with the outcasts of society. Similarly, Greene has given us a view
of the whiskey priest, which we might not necessarily expect from a priest.
However, with the change in setting in chapter 3, we can see just how much more
the priest doesn’t fit into the preconceived notion that people have of
priests.
I’d
like to start by backtracking, for a moment, to the mestizo from earlier in
chapter 2. The whiskey priest made it clear that he, rightfully, did not trust
this man from the beginning. Despite this, when I read that scene, the mestizo
did not seem like somebody who should not be trusted. He offered the priest
directions, shelter, and advice for caring for his mule. He wanted to confess
his sins to the whiskey priest. Although, this did turn out to be a ruse, I did
not expect that from the mestizo. Until his true motives were revealed, I
thought that the priest was being overly cynical.
In
chapter 3, we find the priest surrounded by prisoners (murderers, thieves; the
plagues of society). The old man whose
child was taken from him openly declares his hatred for priests. Very shortly
after, the priest declares himself as a priest. For the first time in the
novel, we see the priest opening up, but it is not to anybody that we should
see as trustworthy. The fact is that these people are in prison, and have given
no reason for the priest to trust them. In fact, it seems like he should have
feared them. Any one of them could have turned him in, or even killed him. We
saw Padre Jose in a similar situation in part 1. Yet, he felt strangely at home
and safe among these sinners. He feels so safe among them that he actually
starts to talk about his fears and sins, admitting that he fathered an
illegitimate child, and never, as he puts it, senses a Judas among them.
If
the whiskey priest already didn’t fit how we view a priest, this chapter about
him sitting in a jail cell among dirty prisoners would only further that
thought. On one hand, this makes the whiskey priest a very human character. He
has humility, recognizes his own faults, and fears his seemingly inevitable
death. On the other hand, though, he seemed to exhibit some almost Christly
aspects during this chapter. He speaks openly to the sinners he meets in this
chapter, much like Jesus did. He also speaks again about the idea of suffering
for an eventual reward in heaven. He puts himself in God’s hands, and says that
if God saved him from death this time, it must mean that he “could still be of
use in saving a soul” (129). I think there are other scenes where Greene
presents the whiskey priest as both a very holy and very humanly figure.
The question I’d like to pose is: Do you think that the whiskey priest most
exemplifies qualities of a Christ figure, a priest, or a regular person?
2 comments:
While I do agree with Michael on his point about the priest being a bit overly cynical towards the mestizo, I disagree with the distinction made between a priest and a “normal person”. Just like many of the people in the novel, including the pious lady in the prison cell with the whisky priest, Michael seems to be elevating the priest to a standard higher than what we should expect of him. It is important to realize that what Greene is showing us through the book is a very human struggle. As readers, we are slowly seeing the image of this fat, indulgent priest (that the lieutenant sees all priest as) being slowly peeled away to reveal a simple man who has made very understandable and human mistakes. I find the story of the whisky priest to be more of an evolution of a man. If anything, to me, this jail scene directly affirmed my view of the whisky priest being a priest in the fact that he was finally coming to terms with the fact that he was a part of these faceless and nameless people and that he could finally see God in all of them. Though, I completely see where Michael is coming from, I do not believe that there should be a distinction between Christ figure, priest and normal person. To me, this whisky priest fits each of these descriptions.
It is interesting that Michael would bring up the quote about the priest possibly “saving a soul” (129). What I found most interesting about this reading was that it would seem the person who most needed to be saved was the so-called “pious woman.” Even though Graham Greene notes the filth and stench of the prison and some of the characters in it, I feel as though he means us to hate this pious woman the most. The other prisoners accommodate and some even sympathize with the priest and the priest feels like they have excuses to do the things they’ve done to land them in prison. While the whisky priest later does find excuses for the pious woman to act the way she did, I feel like Greene really wants us to see this woman as the lowest of the low. There is no better way to do this than to have her as the most dislikeable character in a prison scene. The men who murder, rob and steal do so because they need food or money; however, this woman goes to mass and prays, but almost immediately calls the prisoners “animals” (130), and claims that “the sooner you are dead the better” (131) to the priest. She certainly does not sound all that pious to me.
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