New Mexico ain't exactly a fancy terrace in Paris, especially at the midpoint of the 19th century. The land is harsh and filled with bandits and tons of other people who'd kill you just for looking at them the wrong way.
This is the kind of world that Father Latour has moved to in order to spread the teachings of the Catholic religion. During his travels, the guy almost gets himself murdered. He also hears stories of people who weren't lucky enough to survive in this place. But rather than despairing, he looks at violence and threats as things designed to test his faith. And, by the end of Death Comes for the Archbishop, he's come through these tests in good shape… although the same can't be said of some of the men he hears about in local stories.
Questions About Violence
- What do you think is the most violent part of this book? Why?
- How does this book connect the theme of violence to the setting of New Mexico? Is there something naturally violent about the land, or just the kinds of people who live on it?
- How do you judge the violence that Kit Carson commits against the Navajo and Hopi peoples of New Mexico? Do you hold him personally responsible for killing them, or is he innocent because he's acting under orders from the government?
- How does Magdalena fare after her life of abuse as a wife? Who is responsible for helping her?
Chew on This
In Death Comes for the Archbishop, we learn that without a strong police force and clear-cut laws, people will naturally become violent with each other.
In Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather shows us that the white colonizers of North America are far more violent than the so-called "savages" who they drove off the land.