Of course, my edition of this book might be slightly
different from yours, but this quote comes on page 179 in Chapter Fifteen, as part of
the conversation that Antonio's mother had with Antonio after he recovers from the fever
he contracted after healing Andrew with Ultima. The conversation again conveys the
pressure that Antonio is under from his mother to become a Luna and lead his people as a
priest. Antonio, throughout the novel, is trying to search for knowledge, for answers to
questions that he has such as the reason for the existence of evil. He asks his mother
whether at First Communion he will be given "the knowledge of God," and his mother
replies in the affirmative:
readability="14">I hope you will use your knowledge to carry out
God's will. You are a very bright boy, you understand so much, you can be a great
leader, a priest--I do not want you to waste your life in dreams, like your father. You
must make something of yourself, you must serve the people. The people need good
leaders, and the greatest leader is a
priest--Note the way that
this introduces one side of the conflict that Antonio endures as he has to face the
wishes of his mother that he would become a priest on the one hand, and then the wishes
of his father that he follows his family and becomes a restless wanderer on the
plains.
No comments:
Post a Comment