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Book 3: The Wooden Parrot
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
It takes Latour almost two days to get to Laguna; he spends that time going through a dry desert plain, with Jacinto guiding him through the tangled brush and sandstorms. Eventually, Jacinto points out Laguna in the distance, surrounded by petrified sand dunes and the big blue lake that gives the pueblo its name.
The consistent mention of the desert once more links Latour’s mission trips back to Christ’s biblical wandering. But tellingly, even as Latour prides himself on his desert home, he does not understand it; only Jacinto can navigate the various hazards and kinds of terrain.
Themes
Father Jesus has already sent news to the people at Laguna that the new priest is kind and does not want money, so Latour receives a warm welcome from this small village. Latour is amazed at the tapestry work that adorns the pueblo’s small church, which reminds him of Persian carpets. The next day will be filled with baptisms, but first, Latour and Jacinto want to spend the night camping on the rocks.
Latour’s mention of the Persian carpets, like his feeling about the Angelus, attributes a kind of Old World antiquity to this new setting. It is also worth noting that while Vaillant rushed to get through the baptisms, the more patient Latour wants to learn about each new village he visits before he begins his work.
Themes
While they set up camp, Latour asks Jacinto about the name of a nearby mesa; Jacinto replies that it is “Snow-Bird mountain.” The priest remarks that this is a pretty name, and Jacinto scoffs that “Indians have nice names too!” Then, worried that he has offended, Jacinto becomes friendly, and Latour marvels at Jacinto’s kindness. He also notices that Jacinto seems to intentionally drop the articles in his speech; Latour wonders if, “in the Indian language, such attachments were superfluous and unpleasing.”
In this exchange, Jacinto and Latour skirt an unspoken truth: though the two men are friends, Latour also personifies the settlement and forced conversion that has upended Jacinto’s tribe. Jacinto’s refusal of possessive “attachment” perhaps foreshadows Latour’s later observations about the radically different ways white and indigenous people use and relate to land.
Themes
While the sun sets, the men fall into silence, as they often do. Jacinto points to a star far off in the sky, which he calls “the guide.” The silence returns, and Latour reflects that he has never asked Jacinto much about his beliefs; he knows that he will never be able to transfer his sense of European history to Jacinto, and he knows that Jacinto would never be able to explain his own “story of experience” to the priests.
In admitting that he and Jacinto may never be able to share a belief system, Latour acknowledges the limits of his own missionary project. Interestingly, Latour also associates “experience” and history with belief, suggesting that his personal Catholic values may not reflect absolute truth as much as they reflect the history they were formed in.
Themes
Literary Devices
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Jacinto asks what Latour thinks of the stars. When Latour replies that they are likely other planets, Jacinto disagrees, believing they are “leaders—great spirits.” The men say their prayers, and as they fall asleep, Latour feels grateful that he has gained Jacinto’s friendship; he admires Jacinto’s sense of being prepared for anything. Jacinto, too, feels fondly towards Latour. Though many white men (Vaillant included) put on “false faces” when they interact with indigenous people, Latour’s face never changes—and Jacinto finds this “remarkable.”
Jacinto’s assessment of white men’s “false faces” nods to the frequent deception that defined early American history; over and over again, U.S. generals and politicians would make and then break their own treaties, redrawing boundaries and forcing indigenous tribes even further from their homelands. This passage is also important for the way it continues to differentiate Latour and Vaillant. While Vaillant is always a social butterfly, there is also something inauthentic about his chattiness—whereas Latour, though quieter, is also more consistent and honest.
Themes
