Chapter 1: The Port (Page 7-19)

In the first chapter of The Power and The Glory, Graham Greene introduces us to Mr. Tench. He lives in a town on the coast of Mexico, but he is foreign (English or American, I am not sure). He was heading to a boat, General Obregon, to pick up a an ether cylinder, when he met the stranger. This man was going to leave on the boat, but he had to wait a couple of hours so Mr. Tench invited him to his house. The man spoke English, and Tench liked this a lot. They spoke and drank brandy, which was illegal at the time. Then a kid knocked on his door and asked for help because his mother was sick. The man left with the kid and missed his chance to leave on the boat.

Even though this chapter is very simple I noticed various details that might be foreshadowing something. The first thing is how Mr. Trench talks about him wanting to leave but not being able to. "You are lucky. You can get out. You haven't got your capital here"(page 17). Why is his capital holding him back? and why does he want to leave? There has to be a story behind Tench, and I hope the book talks about it eventually. This character reminded me of Kapuscinski. He is a lonely man that lives far away from where he was born. "Loneliness faced him there, vacancy. But he was as accustomed to both as to his own face in the glass" (page 18). They are both the type of person that know how to live by themselves, and this is not a very common characteristic. I also noticed that the stranger was hiding something. Why is this man leaving? He confirms my doubt twice in this chapter. The first time was when Mr. Tench read the book he left behind and it was written in Latin. "When he opened he was taken aback- what was printed inside didn't seem to belong; it was Latin" (page 18). why would the stranger hide the content of the book? Tench concluded there had to be something about it so he hid it. The second time I realized something was wrong with the stranger was when he says: "He had tried to escape, but he was like the King of a West African tribe, the slave of his people, who may not even lie down in case the winds should fail" (page 19). What is the stranger hiding from? and why is he tied down to his people?

This book is going to be great, I can feel it.