Death Comes for the Archbishop
Book Club Discussion Questions
Questions:
1.
Willa Cather was not a Catholic. Why do you think she chose to write about two Catholic priests?
Is Death Comes for the Archbishop a religious book?
2.
Think about the Native Americans’ way of living within their landscape versus Latour’s building
of a diocese. Which do you think Cather most respects?
3.
Compare Father Latour and Father Vaillant. How are they similar and how are they different
in their approach to their work? Do you believe one is a better man than the other? Is one a better
priest than the other? Is there a difference in those definitions?
4.
What role does landscape play in this novel? In what ways does Cather use it as a character?
5.
Cather once said she purposely understated some incidents in the book; which scenes do you
think she referred to with that statement? Do you agree with her methodology?
6.
What is the purpose of the story of Friar Baltazar being included in Book Three? What was
his great failure?
7.
Is Latour an ambitious man? Or a pious man? How do those two qualities intersect in the role of
a priest in a colony? Looking through a 21st century lens of colonialism, is this book more
difficult to enjoy? Is looking at a 20th century book through a 21st century lens an unfair tactic?
8.
How does the comparison of Latour’s building of the cathedral and Valliant’s mission to
Pike’s Peak highlight the difference between the two men?
9.
What is the significance of Latour’s last dream?