Looking

To do or not to do, that is the question. Like everyone else, people in positions of power have jobs or duties they must perform in their everyday lives. In many cases, people with power come across choices in which they are obliged to fulfill and those in which they believe or know is right. We find these truths because of our societal duties, professions, or just because of our good nature, but there’s still a side of them that holds back. Sure, one can talk about doing the right thing in a casual conversation, but what happens when the problem presents itself right before him/her? This contradicting nature of personal versus social obligations presented in both By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano and Death & The Maiden by Ariel Dorfman. By Night In Chile speaks of a priest who finds himself acting as he’s supposed to rather than what he at heart feels. Death & The Maiden tells the story of a married couple who has had a bloody past of torment and rape and comes across a chance to reconcile their troubles with the accused. Characters from both stories go through a series of ordeals where their individual roles are either forcefully or passively segregated. While encountering “trials” and tribulations, individuals find they must sometimes make decisions that go against the moral fiber and content of their character. Although very firm in their beliefs and what the right thing to do is, people of power in By Night In Chile and Death & The Maiden find themselves in a conscience struggle with their societal roles.

Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, our narrator from By Night in Chile, is no ordinary Chilean priest. A priest is a known to have authority or power to perform and administer religious rites in which people of a community come and look up to. They are commonly known to be dignified people who exert themselves in a selfless for God’s sake. I simply couldn’t.”(10) If priestly manners consisted of being a jerk degrading the less fortunate, I’d have to pass. While outwardly playing the role of a good priest and tending to the child, he’s slurring god’s name in a vulgar way. What kind religious worshipper says that?

When it comes to Sebastian’s actions, he doesn’t fail to become a doubtful holy priest or hypocrite either. Upon arriving at Farewell’s estate, he encounters a dark desolate atmosphere.

“I paid the taxi driver, got out with my suitcase, surveyed my surroundings, and just as I was turning to ask the driver something or get back into the taxi and return forthwith to Chillan and then to Santiago, it sped off without warning, as if the somewhat ominous solitude of the place had unleashed atavistic fears in the driver’s mind. For a moment I too was afraid. I must have been a sorry sight standing there helplessly with y suitcase from the seminary holding a copy of Farewell’s Anthology in one hand. Some birds flew out from behind a clump of trees. Hey seemed to be screaming the name of that forsaken village, Querquen, but they also seemed to be enquiring who: quien, quien, quien. I said a hasty prayer and headed for a wooden bench there to recover composure more in keeping with what I was, or what at the time I considered myself to be. Our Lady, do not abandon your servant, I murmured, while the black birds, about twenty-five centimeters I length cried quien, quien, quien, our Lady of Loudest do not abandon your poor priest, I murmured.” Why should a priest be afraid of a dark atmosphere? Didn’t the bible state in ACT 17:11 “Sins grow in the dark but Christians are called into shed light?”(6-7)

As a priest, Sebastian should be exerting himself in an atmosphere where there is light to needed. His path should be one without doubt so he can reflect that upon others. However, he’s more of a wimp. He stands in the middle of nowhere and leaves the “black birds” alone because he’s afraid of them. Also, when he needs help, much like the peasants prayers, he calls forth on someone of higher religious standing, in our case, “Our lady.” What he doesn’t realize is that he’s no better than those that call upon him in times of need or trouble. After this ordeal, it still doesn’t knock the sense into him that he’s an elitist.

There is a major link between the black birds in front of Farewell’s mansion to the white pigeons and doves at church in Avignon. Although treading into dark territory where things are unknown and could be a dangerous path into meeting Farewell, he goes on relentless and cowers in the face of danger with pleas of help. He does nothing to the black crows. However, when the priests begin shedding the blood of pigeons and doves, he takes part by using the Falcon to pick them apart in the sky. “…and stooped on the huge flocks of starlings coming out of the west like swarms of flies, darkening the sky with their erratic fluttering, and after a few minutes the fluttering of the starlings was bloodied, scattered and bloodied, and afternoon on the outskirts of Avignon took on a deep red hue.”(72) He compares what is well known to be one of god’s creatures to “flies”, a derogatory term for those who consider things pitiful and unworthy. He then continues onto show his division and realization of his “maybe” wrong doing, “After an initial period of enthusiasm (towards killing the birds) the priest had begun to have doubts about using such expeditive method to rid of birds which in their shitting, were God’s creatures too.”(73) Even too he mentions later “”Maybe this business with the falcons is not such a good idea, it’s true they protect churches from the corrosive and in the long term, destructive effects of pigeon shit, but one mustn’t’ forget that pigeons or doves are earthly symbol of the Holy Spirit, are they not?” Here, the author is clearly showing the humor in the thoughts of those in holy power like Sebastian. He comes off in a raw aspect to ask what harm does “pigeon shit” really do? Is it such a crime for a bird to take a “shit”? It is as if the elitist of their churches don’t even take shits on a regular basis. Everyone one of God’s creatures does. We’re no better than anything else. Even though Sebastian realizes the wrong in this he still goes on about