Father Latour

In Willa Cather’s Death Comes For The Archbishop, the bishop, Jean Latour, goes through many experiences that develop his character throughout the beginning to the end of book four. Latour is actually a very cool character. He is witty yet remains calm throughout situations. He is also intelligent and appears to be a very polite individual. It is also obvious that he is very strong which is evident in the beginning of the story. On his journey to New Mexico, the boat he is on sinks which causes him to lose all of his belongings with the exception of his books. He also injures his leg while attempting to jump off a carriage. The accident with his leg delays his mission for about three months. Still determined, he continues by horse and gets lost and travels through the desert for a long time without any food or water. However, despite these setbacks and what seems to be hallucinations, he is determined to reach New Mexico. Then Latour finally catches a break when he hops on a wagon headed for Sante Fe, New Mexico. Latour is thrilled that he has finally reached his destination when he runs into another problem. After he reaches the church in New Mexico, he is informed that the church never received notice that he was coming to the church. He is then told that in order to get the paper work he must travel a journey of about 3,000 miles to the Bishop of Durango. Although he gets lost again he does reach the Bishop in a much easier fashion then his first journey. When he returns to Sante Fe he discovers that Father Vaillant has made many changes to the church that make it better. In the second book, he meets a Mexican woman by the name of Magdalena. While trying to make a deal with her husband, Buck, Magdalena tells Latour that her husband will kill them and is an evil man. She leaves with them and further explains to them that he was a murderer and a very mean and dangerous man. We then read on to meet their tour guide. We then discover that the Father Gallegos has been everything except for his duties at the church. He has been dancing and partying and meeting girls. Throughout their journey, the tour guide, Jacinto and Father Vaillant exchange information and we learn a lot about both characters. In the fourth book, Father Vaillant takes over the church since Father Gallegos is not doing his job. Father Valliant is assigned to be stationed in Las Vegas and catches black measles. On his way to help Father Valliant, Father Latour has to stop due to the weather and discovers a tribe that kills babies. The next night they have to set up camp again. Fortunately, by the time they reach Father Valliant his fever has broken. All of his journeys prove that Father Latour is an extremely strong and caring individual.

Death Comes For The Archbishop

The character of Jean Marie Latour was the bishop of Agathonica, which is in Cincinnati, but he is also a vicar apostolic of New Mexico. He is described as very sharp man, calm, valiant, insightful, and very good etiquette. In the beginning is he has been through some trouble to get where he has been stationed to be. In the year 1851 he is going to New Mexico one a horse with a donkey. We find him lost in the desert and all he sees are red hills. He has gotten this far, which is thirty miles with no water or food. Then there is a flash back to where he got directions to get to Santa Fe. He got the directions from Ohio merchants. He was following the directions but ran into some bad luck. He took a boat and in the Galveston harbor the boat sank and he lost all his precious belongings, but he did manage to save his books. Then he was taking a carriage ride and jumped off at his stop and hurt his leg very badly. The injury was so terrible that an Irish family took care of him for three months. He then had gotten on this wagon with another priest on it as well. His name was Father Joseph Vaillant. He was too on his way to Santa Fe. But he finally made it to Santa Fe, and he was in such high spirits just to be in the place that was so time-consuming to get to. He had made it! He saw the whole little town, and he even could he the church. Once he got to the church he hit another dilemma. The Mexican priest told him that they had no paper work saying that he was coming to Santa Fe. The bishop of Durango had not notified them of this circumstance. They said that he had to go get the paper work from him. Bishop of Durango was 3,000 miles of a journey. So he went on his way again, and father Latour got lost again. But he made his way and got the proof. When he got back from bishop Durango the man that he had ridden that wagon with father Vaillant had taken over the church as the new head priest. Father Vaillant has built up the church with volunteers and it has turned out amazing.
In book two they are riding thought Mora and it was raining and storming real bad. And they come up to this rickety house and a white man lived there, named Buck Scales. He had a snake-like neck, with a small bony head, and evil-looking. They said he seemed “half human”. And he offered to put there mules away and before the man could the wife, which was Mexican, she made motions to get out because that the man would kill them and it appeared that she had been beaten by the man. The women came with them because she was scared and she felt that the men were good people. Her name is Magdalena. She began to talk and to tell her story. She was married to buck for six years. He was a robber and has killed many people who come to stay there. And apparently they have had three children and he has killed all of them. So he was a very bad man.

In the third book we meet Jacinto. He is an Indian from the tribe Pecos pueblo. He helped them by being their guide. And he led them west. But father Vaillant was reviewing the case of Father Gallegos and he was a ten years older than Vaillant. He had many friends with the Americans he went dancing and played poker and gambled and had many wine from “el paso del norte”, and he had women after his service go out to dinner. So this priest was not doing his duties of the church and Father Vaillant had many problems with that. On the other hand, Jacinto is still there guide and are leaving for Isleta. And when they got there it was all good and a messenger went through the place saying that the good bishop was coming. People thought of him as a good man. During the night the fathers are with Jacinto and they talk about the stars and they listen to him and are very nice, and we find out that Jacinto is twenty—six and has a child. Father Latour thinks, he was beginning to have some sort of human companionship with his Indian boy.” And as Jacinto takes him through these villages he learns more about then and sees what each village is about.
They in the fourth book Father Vaillant took over father Gallegos because he was in trouble and when Vaillant changed all the holy days and he wrote to his sister named Philomene saying that this village was like school boy to a headmaster. But father Vaillant was the vicar general and in February he was reassigned to Las Vegas. He did not return so Father Latour became very worried. Then one day an Indian boy on a white mule, named Contiento which belonged to Father Vaillant, came bring bad news. He said that Father Vaillant came through the village and helped them by giving last rights and he caught the illness. The illness was black measles. So two hours after the boy came he rode out to help his friend. The go with Jacinto and he guides them. It begins to snow and storm so they had to camp. He found out that the tribe worship snakes and they have a great snake and they sacrifice infants. This is why their tribe is diminishing. But they left in the morning and rode all day and got caught in another storm and stayed in a cave thing and the next day they reached Father Vaillant and he had broke his fever and on the way of recovery. But in this chapter I think Jacinto and Father Latour made a bond.

Character Analysis of Jean Latour from Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather

Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop is an American novel published in 1927 which tells the story of a bishop and priest who try to establish a diocese in the New Mexico Territory. Their objective was to restore the Catholic faith and traditions into a country that has seemingly lost its way. Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop creatively reveals the characteristics of Bishop Jean Marie Latour by his own actions and interactions.

The Prologue opens with three Cardinals and a missionary Bishop “from America dining together in the gardens of a villa in the Sabine hills, overlooking Rome (pg 1).” They were having a discussion about “an anticipated appeal from the Provincial Council at Baltimore for the founding of an Apostolic Vicarate in New Mexico-a part of a North America recently annexed to the United States (pg 2).” Although the New Mexico territory was not in need of salvation, they were in desperate need of correction and guidance. The missionary Bishop Ferrand introduced Bishop Jean Marie Latour to the other Cardinals and missionary Bishop.

Bishop Ferrand discusses where Bishop Latour is from and where he is now. “He is a parish priest, on the shores of Lake Ontario, in my diocese. I have watched his work for nine years. He is but thirty-five now. He came to us directly from the Seminary (pg 9).” He also describes Bishop Latour as intelligent. After attaining the other priests’ attention, Bishop Ferrand continues to sell his idea and even suggests that Maria de Allande to use his influence the Provincial Council.

The story of Jean Marie Latour begins with him wandering in the “arid stretch of country somewhere in central New Mexico (pg 14).” The bishop has obviously lost his way, and since no has ever really travelled to this new territory, no one could give him a shorter or clearer way to reach his destination. Latour is obviously a patient and tolerant man because there is no way that someone of today would wander around in a desert without any water for days on end. Instead of complaining he focused on God which further develops his faith.

Bishop Latour's calm and friendly manner allows him to get along with others. Jacinto did not care for the bishop at first. After observing him for awhile, Jacinto sees that Latour treats everyone the same. No one is above the next. For that Jacinto relaxes and begins to trust the bishop. Willa Cather paints a wonderful description of Bishop Jean Marie Latour through his actions and interactions.

My papa’s waltz by Theodore Roethke
Well this poem is a bit weird and abusive. I read the poem a couple of times because I was in shock with the poem and what it was saying. I think it is about a father fighting with his child. The father is drunk and has a bad relationship with his family. The mother is not happy with the fact that her husband is drunk in front of their child and abusing him as well. We know she is unhappy by the sentence saying, “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself.” As the father and the child fight it says in the poem that, “we romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf” and it says, “But I hung on like death.” We know that this child is young because when he stands up against his father he comes up to his belt buckle. But his father is dirty, clumsy, and drunk as he takes his child off to bed and we know this because it says, “the whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy …. Such waltzing was not easy” and “at every step you missed”. But I agree with Mary mostly I think we have the same views about this poem. We both think that the father is abusing the child and they have an unhealthy relationship and the mother is not happy about the relationship of the family.

A Close Reading: "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” is a very interesting poem. It draws forth many different views creating quite a controversy of the meaning of this poem. When I first read this poem I thought: “Wow, this child has a very abusive relationship with his father,” but after reading it again I realized that the boy is not, in fact, in an abusive relationship at all, contrary to popular belief. I then researched the poet and found out that most of his writings were based on his childhood which prompted me to find out about his relationship with his father, specifically. According to four students from Eastern Illinois University, Roethke describes his father in two different ways. His father was very strict and had high standards of which he expected Theodore to uphold. When he did not, his father tended to look down upon him, but Theodore is also noted for describing his father in a more loving way. He admired the way his father nurtured his garden, which was a source of the family’s income. His father, Otto, valued hard work at the greenhouse and Theodore wanted to become a poet. Theodore Roethke revisits his childhood in “My Papa’s Waltz” by reflecting upon one intimate and memorable moment they shared.

The opening line, “The whiskey on your breath,” and line 3, “But I hung on like death,” is probably what misleads most readers into believing that the relationship between Theodore and Otto as that of an abusive one. Being that the father was obviously intoxicated would make the dance uneasy thus requiring him to hang “like death (line 3).” Line 5 gives you an idea of where the story takes place and line 6 simply confirms that the setting of this poem is in the kitchen. While the word “romped” in line 5 may have a negative connotation, especially after the first stanza, the denotation of the word means to play or frolic in a lively or boisterous manner which could very well explain the mother’s “countenance (line 7)” not being able to “unfrown itself (line 8).” The reader can infer that the mother had to go back and straighten up the mess her husband and son created in her clean kitchen. The mother is obviously displeased about their behavior (stanza 2).

Stanza 3 is also one that proves of great interest because the sign of the alleged abuse is here: “At every step you missed/My right ear scraped a buckle. (Lines 11-12)” Being that this is a childhood memory, these lines reveal how tall the child actually is, at the waist. Therefore, if Theodore did not keep up with his father’s steps, then his right ear would scrap the buckle. In Stanza 4, the father is still dancing with his child and waltz him off to bed. “You beat time on my head (line 13).” The father is obviously counting the time to the waltz on the child’s head by tapping his head with his hand, not literally beating him as if to cause harm. “With a palm caked hard by dirt (line 14)” reveals that the father came home and played with his son before he cleaned himself up. The child, enjoying the attention of his father and loving his version of the waltz, clings to his shirt as he goes off to bed (lines 15-16).

The Unhealthy Relationship in My Papa's Waltz

There are many words used to hint that the relationship described in the poem “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke’s is a very negative and unhealthy relationship. From reading the poem I believe that the relationship is between an abusive father and a son. The poem describes the father as an angry alcoholic who beats his son. In the first stanza Roethke’s uses words such as whiskey, dizzy and death to create a negative atmosphere. Roethke’s wrote “But I hung on like death” in the third line of the first stanza. The dramatic sentence implies that the boy was hanging on death meaning that the father was doing something to harm the son. In the second stanza Roethke goes on to describe the beating taking place by saying “We romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf.” The sentence is describing the father and son fighting in the kitchen while everything is crashing around them. The second stanza also goes on to explain that the mother is always frowning due to the fact that her husband hits her son. The sentence “My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself” means that the mother’s facial expression was always frowning. In the third stanza the author hints towards the relationship being an abusive relationship between a father and son by talking about how his father is holding his son’s wrist with bruised hands as a result of the son fighting back against his father’s abuse. The author also talks about the abusive relationship in the fourth stanza by saying, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt.” To me the sentence means that his father beat him through his childhood years. The poem “My Papa’s Waltz” discusses the abusive relationship between a father and son.

Blog to my Papa's Waltz

After reading My Papa's Waltz, I felt pretty sad. I believe it is talking about a father beating his son. The term "waltz" to me, means that it happens all the time. The setting of the poem takes place in a house. More specifically, the kitchen. The tone he uses in the poem seems as if the child is scared and has to go through a lot of pain, both physically and mentally. The father is a classic case abuser. In the poem the son compares the dancing to being "like death." Nothing in the poem suggests that the boy is enjoying himself in any way. The son describes his mother's expression as being sad. As if she was aware of what was going on, but had no control over doing anything about it. The son is helpless in a situation that no one can get him out of. I think the phrase "beat time" is an indication of him being abused. Though, this poem could not be a metaphor at all and it could be talking about dancing, the words the poet describes are too harsh. At the end of the poem, the author says that the father takes him off to bed still dancing. In this section, I think the son is saying that even when he was about to go to bed, the dad is still beating him. This poem has an underlying meaning other than just a dance between a son and father. I think Roethke's purpose was to bring to light a very serious, and dark subject.