The Power and the Glory Blog # 3

Ignorance and Ingenuousness

When I was younger, I never had a clear idea of the problems or situations that where going on around my home. I acted very naive and so did my sister, we where children and therefore didn't have the obligation to worry or to understand what was going on. When I grew up I understood and now I have to take important descions and worry about what is going to happen. Children, most of the times are not aware of the real situations their parents or grown-ups are in. They always act towards most of the situations with ignorance or ingenuousness becuase it is not their problem yet.

In the book, we can see this ignorance and ingenuousness with the daughter of Captain Fellows; Coral. She is thirteen and is not aware of the political and religious situation that is going on in Mexico and of the "real" life her family is going through. The first example of this is when Greene compares Coral with her mother. "Terror was always just behind her shoulder: she was wasted by the effor t of turning round. She dressed up her fear so that she could look at it - in the form of fever, rats, unemployment." Pg. 33. Mrs. Fellows is scared she is tired of life but on the other side Coral was not. "She was very young -about thirteen -and at that age you are not afrai of many things, age and death all the things which may turn up snake-bite and fever and rats and a bad smell. Life hadn't got her yet; she had a false air of impregnability."Pg. 33

We continue seeing Coral as a naive girl when she tells her father that the priest is in the barn. "'Lying? Good God,' Captain Fellows said, 'You dont mean he's here.' 'Of course he is here,'Coral said." Pg. 36. Altough she seems to take "grown-up" decisions such as telling the Leuitenant to stay in the hammoc she does not seem to notice what is really going on. Mr. Fellows knows what is really going on and knows the seriosness of the problem when he is warned by the Leuitenant. " 'He is a priest. I trust you will report at once if he is seen' The Leuitenant paused. 'You are a foreigner living uder the protection of our laws. We expect you to make a proper return for our hospitality.' "Pg. 35. Coral is naive, she does not know what is going on and therefore helps the priest hide in the barn but she doesn't know the consequences because of her ingenuousness and ignorance because she is still a child.