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Book 1: Hidden Water
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Death Comes for the Archbishop, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Spirituality vs. the Material World
Friendship and Compromise
Humanity’s Relationship with Nature
Colonialism, Industry, and Loss
Memory, Death, and Afterlives
Summary
Analysis
Now, it’s late afternoon on Christmas Day, and Latour is writing letters to his hometown of Auvergne; as he writes, he happily pictures the old chestnut trees. He has just returned from his trip to Durango, with all the documents he needs to prove his authority as a bishop. Meanwhile, Father Vaillant has endeared himself to the people, putting the old former priest’s adobe house in order with the help of the Santa Fé locals.
Even in their first few months of being in Santa Fé, the essential difference between Latour and Vaillant is clear. While Latour spends his time alone, dealing with complex church politics, Vaillant is energetic and social, concerned with practical matters and making new friends.
Themes
As his study, Latour has chosen a whitewashed room at the end of the house; he takes great comfort in the clean color and the solid feel of the adobe, with that “irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand.” The room is decorated with indigenous rugs and tapestries, as well as some of his most prized books. In his letter to his brother, Latour describes the American customs and sights that make up his days. He is grateful that on Christmas, Father Vaillant has sent away their Mexican cook and is making a traditional French meal.
Latour’s attention to the “irregular and intimate quality” of the handmade home exemplifies another way in which “worldly” attention to detail can create an almost spiritual feeling. Crucially, even as the story emphasizes the differences between Latour and Vaillant, it is clear that they are always bonded by homesickness and history, by their desire for the chestnut trees in their hometown of Auvergne or a traditional French meal.
Themes
As Latour sits down to dinner, he reflects on how unusually ugly Father Vaillant is; he is bow-legged from a life on horseback, and though he is only 40, he looks much older. Yet despite his strange appearance, everyone (from the men at the Seminary to the villagers of Santa Fé) always recognizes Vaillant’s persistence and fierceness right away.
Later, Latour will remark that Vaillant is defined by his contradictions. Part of that contradiction comes from his appearance; though Vaillant lacks the good bone structure and physical strength of his old friend Latour, there is something intensely appealing and invigorating about his strange features.
Themes
Literary Devices
After they pray, Latour praises Vaillant’s soup, noting that there is probably not another one like it for hundreds of miles: “a soup like this is not the work of one man,” Latour reflects. “It is the result of a constantly refined tradition. There are nearly a thousand years of history in this soup.” For his part, Vaillant just misses the leeks and salad greens he is accustomed to cooking with. Back in the old diocese, at Lake Erie, Vaillant had been able to build up a vineyard—but now, he has had to leave all that work behind.
Just as Latour understands the soup to be the work of countless generations, his job now—to expand the Catholic church in America—continues the legacy of hundreds of earlier figures. Vaillant’s complaint about the leeks and salad greens echoes a familiar cry in the novel: wherever the story’s priests go, they are anxious to introduce the produce they knew from back home. Vaillant’s frustration with having to move around is the first real acknowledgment of the power dynamic between himself and Latour; though the two men are best friends, Latour is also Vaillant’s boss (as the term “vicar” literally means second-in-command).
Themes
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As Vaillant uncorks a bottle of red wine, rare in this part of the world, he insists that he does not want to keep being dragged around by Latour. But Vaillant knows that his life will continue to exist in a series of new places, as he carries the Cross into territories “yet unknown and unnamed.” The men begin to talk about the trees back home, lapsing into nostalgia. When they are interrupted by the sounds of shouts and gunshots, Vaillant assures Latour he has nothing to worry about—the cowboys always do this on holidays.
Though Vaillant whines about having to move from place to place, he also correctly predicts that this kind of far-flung missionary work will be both his calling and his central duty in life. And fortunately, Vaillant adapts easily—even as Latour feels rattled by the shouting outside, Vaillant has already adjusted to his new home’s customs.
Themes
