Breaking Point

Author's Note - This is a response to the novel, The Power and the Glory, and I chose the scene in which the priest has been arrested and is in jail with all of the criminals of the town.


Throughout his journey, the whiskey priest struggled with his conviction and relationship with God; all it took to see what he was doing wrong was a trip to the jail. After tumbling downwards for months and months, the priest finally hit rock bottom when he was arrested; this took him to an unknown place, one where the criminals of the world took refuge. If the priest acted like he had before, he wouldn't have been able to tolerate these types of people, but since his life couldn't have become any worse, he did what he should've been doing all along: he related to and forgave all the low, cruel criminals of the world.

"Everybody, when he spoke, listened attentively to him as if he were addressing them in church. He wondered where the inevitable Judas was sitting now, but he wasn't aware of Judas as he had been in the forest hut. He was moved by an irrational affection for the inhabitants of this prison." (127) Since these people were at the absolute lowest points of their lives, they needed a priest to give them hope, to show them the way, to forgive them. When he had nothing else to lose, he was able to finally fulfill his job: leading the poor people of the world to the light at the end of the tunnel.