Midnight Dreams

A single purpose, you must fulfill it before you die. Everything else doesn't matter, only what you need to do. No matter the consequence, you need to carry on, fighting until the end. Death is only a small thing, the real thing is to make a difference in the world, to make a change. Graham Greene, through The Power and the Glory, tells us that if we simply live for ourselves, and never set out to make a difference, that we lose who we are, and at that point, it is nearly impossible to get it back.

In The Power and the Glory, there are a multitude of characters that have some sort of purpose, and then some characters who simply live for themselves. The first of these is the priest. He is somewhere in between, because many times during the book, he is living for himself, being selfish, and some other times, he is living to be a priest, and is guilty for his sins. He definitely died as a priest, as he died for his beliefs. However, during some parts of the book, namely the dog scene, and a little bit before and after that, he lives for himself. An example of this is when the child is buried, and the woman leaves a single sugar ball for him to survive if he somehow came back to life. The priest, starving as he is, half dead, takes the ball. An interesting point during all of this is how nearly everything is referred to as half. It is in a half destroyed house that the priest finds the child. In the Fellows' old house, it is where he finds the half dead dog. He feels as though he is half in the world, half in another. This half refers to the arch between Heaven and Hell, where the people with no conviction lie. Half, as in halfway between the two. The priest, hovers between Heaven, and the middle, but never is completely in either until the books end, even though he hasn't exactly done the ideal things a priest should do during life. During the whole book, the priest does great things. However, Graham Greene always portrays him as though he never does anything right. However, after his death, he influenced many. Mr. Tench, after witnessing his death, decides he cannot live there no longer, and decides to go back to his wife(who has found religion). However, many of the other characters can fall into Heaven, Hell, or in between.

The lieutenant is a prime example of evil; he does anything he can to find the priest. He took people from a village, and even if the priest was no longer there, execute the hostage, knowing the priest would no longer take it, and reveal himself, stopping the bloodshed. However, the hostages being executed never brings the priest in. The lieutenant, oddly enough, kills each hostage during the priest's most selfish time, where he lived for himself, and himself only. Although some may see the lieutenant as someone who should be shot for himself, he is not killing because he is an atheist, or because he relishes making destruction, and causing death where he goes. He is killing because he believes religion ruins people, because it is not a lifestyle someone should live. However, he never wavers in his decisions, as the priest does, and will never change his ideals. He has a sense of justice, and in this case, justice is the eradication of all religion. However, if he was changed, he wouldn't be able to actually acknowledge it. He would simply lose himself, and would end up dying for no reason, not having really done anything. The single admirable thing about him is his decision not to waver, but he is hated for it, and will never be loved, liked, or admired. The boy who is just finished hearing the story of Juan, the martyr, sees the lieutenant passing by. He spits at his feet, disgusted by his actions, and definitely defying the lieutenant's vision of the next generation.


“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”- MLK. This quote goes along with The Power and the Glory quite well; as it describes both the lieutenant and the priest as the man who would die for his beliefs and ideals. Other characters, like Padre Jose, is not fit to live. He lives for nothing, wouldn't die for anything, even his most dearest and closest companions. The priest and the lieutenant both live for their ideas, and both would die if it meant that the priest made differences in somebody's life, helping them to see the world in a new light, to live fully, not emptily without some sort of conviction. The lieutenant would die if it meant that his vision of the future came true. Anyone can make a change in the world, the difference between us all being the determination to do so. Graham Greene illustrates a good point, in that if we don't do something, if our days are filled with the same thing over and over again, we aren't fit to live, if we cannot do something to change it, and have the courage to try to.