Genre
Historical fiction
Setting and Context
New Mexico, 1851 to near the end of the 19th century
Narrator and Point of View
Third-person omniscient, focused on Jean Marie Latour
Tone and Mood
Calm, curious, devoted
Protagonist and Antagonist
Jean Marie Latour, Joseph Vaillant (protagonists); separation, alienation (conceptual antagonists)
Major Conflict
Fathers Latour and Vaillant try to establish the Catholic Church in their new diocese of New Mexico and must engage with the existing religious practices of the Mexicans and Native Americans there.
Climax
Father Vaillant leaves for Colorado, and he and Father Latour understand that this is a definitive goodbye for the both of them.
Foreshadowing
Father Vaillant is frequently traveling as a missionary and feels compelled to go where he is needed the most.
Understatement
Father Latour and Father Vaillant do not usually express how much each means to the other in their friendship.
Allusions
The Spanish cardinal in the prologue mentions that he has read James Fenimore Cooper.
Imagery
Cather fills the story with vivid descriptions of the New Mexico landscape through which Father Latour and Father Vaillant travel.
Paradox
Father Latour hopes to improve the spiritual lives of the New Mexicans to whom he brings the Catholic religion, but he is part of the wider trend of Western colonization that is inflicting deep changes on native societies.
Parallelism
Father Latour comes to disdain the company of cultured men just as his former Bishop, Ferrand, does in the prologue.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
Father Vaillant's signet ring comes to stand for him as a metonym after his death.
Personification
Eusabio is described as being like the New Mexican landscape, personified.
