The Power and the Glory Blog # 6

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

This quote has been used throughout time to give advice when people are in trouble or have the need to succeed. This quote or phrase of advice can have in some cases good consequences but in others people can have negative consequences. By the way, this can benefit people but it is still a bad thing to do, this is an act of hypocrisy towards the enemy. In my opinion this advice is two phased and can prejudice as well as benefit someone. Throughout the book we have seen how the priest is in trouble, he has been chased for a long time now and he can’t trust nobody. In any minute he can be discovered and accused by some one in the various towns he has visited.

During the journey to Carmen, the priest meets a “mestizo” that wants to accompany him to Carmen. The priest who does not trust anyone tells him he does not want any company, the priest believes everyone is his enemy. “‘I didn’t need a guide,’ he protested mildly” Pg. 89. But after seeing that the “mestizo” won’t leave him alone, the priest then realizes it is better to have his enemy close and tell him the truth. “A voice said ‘You are the priest, aren’t you?’ ‘Yes.’ It was as if they had climbed out of their opposing trenches and met to fraternize among the wires in No Man’s Land. He remembered stories of the European war- how during the last years men had sometimes met on an impulse between the lines.” Pg. 100. The priest then confesses to his company that he is the priest the lieutenant has been looking for. The priest thinks the “mestizo” is his enemy and that is why he tells him, he thinks it is better to keep him close.

Even though the priest thought of keeping his enemy close it wasn’t any good for him. Enemies are enemies, and therefore as soon as they both arrived to Carmen the “mestizo” blamed on the priest. ‘Oh, he hasn’t any real chance. Unless he gets over the border. We’ve got a man who knows him. Spoke to him, spent a night with him.” Pg. 114. The enemy accuses the priest and in this case, the phrase of advice was no good to the priest. The lieutenant now knows where the priest is and has no where to go except the border.