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Book 6: The Lady
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
Several years after Latour arrived in Santa Fé, his diocese was extended once more by the Gadsden Purchase. However, because the exact borders of the new United States are not completely clear, Vaillant has to go all the way to Mexico to coordinate with the bishops there. On his return, Vaillant catches malaria, and he is sick for almost two months.
In 1854, the United States and Mexico finalized the Gadsden Purchase, a treaty that added what is now southern New Mexico and Arizona to the United States. Latour’s enlarging territory thus perfectly parallels American’s new, ever-growing power and scope.
Themes
It is May, “the month of Mary.” Vaillant is well enough to appreciate Latour’s blossoming garden, which had been laid out six years ago with fruit trees from St. Louis. Vaillant has trained Fructosa’s husband Tranquilino as a gardener, and now many trees in the town are blossoming. But these more familiar fruit trees stand in contrast with the age-old tamarisk trees, long neglected but still surviving. Latour thinks these trees match the adobe perfectly, while Vaillant loves that they are a familiar feature in front of every house.
Like Montoya, Latour feels that planting fruit trees is an important way a priest can impact his community. But whereas Montoya’s fruit garden was meant only to serve him, Latour ensures that the residents of his diocese are independently invested in these trees, seeing the trees as a continuation of the city’s own history (as peach and apricot plants join the existing tamarisk ones).
Themes
For years, Vaillant has not been able to devote the entire month of May to Mary worship. But now, his sickness gives him time to focus on his prayers to her. Vaillant recalls his youth, when he had convinced a Seminary teacher of the importance of this month. Vaillant also thinks about his sister Philomène, whom he had been close to ever since their mother died. Vaillant still feels guilty about leaving his family for America, though he knows that it was a necessary “betrayal of family trust for a higher trust.”
Vaillant’s departure from his beloved Philomène—a risk that, readers will later learn, he could only take because of Latour’s guidance—foreshadows his eventual departure from his dear friend the bishop. In both cases, Vaillant will leave a flesh-and-blood companion for a spiritual one, a paradox that turns what could be “betrayal” into a very painful kind of “trust.”
Themes
Latour hopes Vaillant will stay in Santa Fé all summer, but Vaillant wants to leave in July to go to Tucson, where he hopes to enliven the Catholic population. Vaillant recalls years ago, when a Pima convert had shown him a cave filled with indigenous treasure, something no white man had ever seen.
Vaillant’s experience in the Pima cave parallels Latour’s experience with Jacinto. In both cases, the men infringe on a location and set of beliefs they are not meant to see, a testament to the more insidious aspects of colonization.
Themes
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Vaillant is insistent that his “particular sympathy” for Mexican customs makes him the only man for this job. Though Latour is greatly disappointed to lose his friend again, after a short walk around the garden, he resolves to let Vaillant go. As the two men reflect on their friendship, they notice a great flock of birds alighting upon Magdalena. Vaillant reflects that the church’s impact on this young woman’s life is akin to the church’s impact in the early days of Christianity. Vaillant calls to her, telling her to come talk: “two men grow lonely when they see nobody but each other.”
Latour’s abiding love for both Vaillant and the church allows him to let his friend go, even though it hurts him deeply. Tellingly, though, Vaillant’s comments to Magdalena suggest that the vicar does not feel the same way; while the more reserved Latour is “lonely” only when Vaillant is away, Vaillant feels lonely anytime he goes too long without exploring new places or making new friends.
Themes
