Previous
Similes
Book 5: The Miser
Explanation and Analysis—Bags of Coins:
In this quotation from the period surrounding Father Lucero’s death, Cather describes the community around him finding an enormous pile of coins under his floorboards. She employs situational irony to highlight the stark contrast between Lucero's seemingly self-denying lifestyle and the discovery of fabulous wealth hidden under his hovel:
When the floor of the priest’s house was taken up, according to his last instructions, people came from as far as Taos and Santa Cruz and Mora to see the buckskin bags of gold and silver coin that were buried beneath it. Spanish coins, French, American, English, some of them very old. When it was at length conveyed to a Government mint and examined, it was valued at nearly twenty thousand dollars in American money. A great sum for one old priest to have scraped together in a country parish down at the bottom of a ditch.
The irony of the penniless priest living like a dragon on a pile of gold challenges the reader's perception of Lucero. For the most part, Cather portrays him as a figure of humility and simplicity. It’s shocking to both the reader and Cather’s characters to discover this secret.
The situational irony intensifies if one considers that Lucero—despite his substantial wealth, garnered from wise investments of church funds—chose not to use the money either for his personal comfort or to aid others. Catholic priests are not supposed to be materialistic, and they certainly aren’t supposed to deprive their communities of the funds they collect.
The coins unearthed, of “French, American and English” varieties, also point to another aspect of this passage’s situational irony. For Lucero to have collected this varied hoard, he must have been storing money for a very long time. Cather's irony highlights the potential impact this wealth could have had in his community, as does the translation into dollars the author then provides. Lucero could have completely changed his parish with this wealth, but instead he chose to keep it all hidden away.
Related Themes:
