The Power and the Glory Themes

Lying is a way of life for the characters in The Power and the Glory. In fact, they can't live without lying. Sound dismal? Just remember that this story is set in a place where professing what you...

Everybody in The Power and the Glory lives in a state of fear: the people suffer from poverty and illness, the religious are persecuted for their faith, the clergy are hunted and killed, and the ag...

When a book starts with an image of vultures, you can probably bet this story has something to do with death. And guess what? You're totally right. The Power and the Glory is, at is core, a story a...

The Power and the Glory would have been plenty tense if it had merely dramatized the struggle of a hunted priest trying to minister to persecuted people, but Greene doesn't stop there. Instead, the...

The Power and the Glory is a story concerned with power—you can tell that much just from looking at the title. The whole story is premised on an authoritarian government purging the state of all...

The Power and the Glory seems to have a subversive take on sin. According to Catholicism, sin always leads one away from God—sometimes in small ways, sometimes in large. The Church says that, as...

Hate! Hate! Haaaaaaaate! Almost everyone in The Power and the Glory succumbs to hate—the ill will that seeks destruction. The priest falls to it. The lieutenant is motivated by it. The world of t...

The Power and the Glory juxtaposes two conflicting beliefs about salvation and social order. In the priest, we get a man grudgingly bent on saving souls through his non-violent priestly duties. In...

When a major character in a story is an idealistic socialist, chances are that the story will involve social and class conflicts. The Power and the Glory does not disappoint. It's like an even more...

What happens to a religion when its leaders are killed, its practices are outlawed, and its buildings are destroyed? The Power and the Glory explores these questions in a story about the suppressio...