Well, I suppose I got what I deserved... I've been following this priest for a good while now, and it was inevitable that if he was caught, so was I. So, here I am, sitting in jail with the Whisky Priest. Darn it. I'm sure my bail will be posted soon enough, but the priest's fate is unknown.
Something that I thought was interesting- when I was with him in the jail cell, it was pitch black, and we really couldn't see a single thing. All we had to tell us that others were there were their voices. There were many different voices; a religious woman's voice, a arrogant man's voice, a crazy old man's voice, and a few others. At first, none of the voices seemed to have any interest in us, the newcomers. All they wanted was a drink, money, food, and cigarettes. Until the priest spoke up. Then, all attention was on him. The prisoners suddenly had hope! Yet they tell him that he should not have told them, because there were horrible people present in the cell too. But, at this point, the priest doubts his own survival, and has sadly accepted that the police will find him out, so he doesn't care. The voices, especially the religious woman's voice, barrages him with questions. Are you afraid to die? Are you a martyr? How did you end up here? Etc., etc.. The prisoners had hope! But, that all begins to change into dread, mostly dread for their own well being. A priest was among them! But why the change of attitude? Through prolonged dialogue with the priest, the voices realize that this priest is a BAD priest. He is no man of God, and only poses a danger to them. "If you bishop heard you," they said. "The sooner you are dead the better," they said. Man, that's rough.
The fact that the people still have hope in their priests is a good sign; it shows that all has not yet been lost for the Catholic Church in Mexico. However, the fact that they lost that faith so quickly shows to me that the people of Mexico have lost their faith. In Catholicism, in their own country, in their religious men, in God. It is sad to see. Hope is temporary.
Brownthan Swagger! The first-person perspective in the beginning was pretty cool, how you landed yourself in jail along with the priest... I like that little explanation :) I kind of got lost in the last paragraph because it contradicts itself. I think it was on purpose though, but maybe you could simply focus on how the hope was lost? Their hope didn't last very long to begin with. Good job though, lumberjack!
ReplyDeleteThat was very clever of you to write from this perspective. The priest's episode in the jail cell that night was perhaps the most directly revealing moment in the book thus far. Gooood.
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