Part 3: Chapter 1 (Page 161-183)

The whisky priest walks for days and reaches a town where he is finally welcomed. Mr. Lehr and his sister let him stay in their home and treat him very well. The people of this town are very religious and urge to confess, baptise their children and have Mass. The priest demonstrates that he is not an admirable person and charges them even if they say they don't have any money. This scene could mean two things: the first one is that the priest is a horrible person and is abusing of his position. The second is that the Mr. Greene is criticizing the Catholic church. "It was the old priest he had succeeded at Concepcion who had explained to him: 'They will always tell you they are poor, starving, but they will always have a little store of money buried somewhere, in a pot" (page 167). By making his action something learned by an older priest, the author might be indirectly showing us his point of view regarding religion. After the discussion in class I was convinced the priest was a bad person, but after thinking over I believe the priest is just an ordinary man who has a vice and the bad aspect in this novel is religion. He was educated to be this way and that is not his fault. The repression of Catholicism by the Red Shirts had to have a reason. Maybe the priests were becoming very corrupt and the people got tired. They are scared of the current government, but they were probably scared of the Catholic church too. Therefore the priest is not the bad one. He proves this even more when he returns to see the American who had been shot. The mestizo was probably tricking him, but he went anyways.

The priest's drinking problem is highlighted in this chapter. "I only ordered three bottles this time. They will be the last I´ll ever drink, I won't need drink there- he knew he lied" (page 171). He becomes more conscious than ever that he has a problem and realizes that the rest of the people recognize him because of this, "the whisky priest". This vice is what makes him think he is a bad person, but I think a vice is human and it definitely doesn't make you good or bad. How you deal with the vice and if you affect others is what determines what kind of a person you are, and the priest hasn't hurt others because of his drinking problem yet. He could, and he might, but he hasn't.