Now this is an interesting trick: Endō changes the point of view from letters written in the first person to a third person limited (Rodrigues’ POV). I almost didn’t even notice at first, but it makes sense now that he’s questioning God’s silence at every turn.
Rodrigues does seem to take some prideful comfort in comparing his situation to Christ, but I get the feeling this won’t last.
The imagery is incredible
In Grizzly Man, Herzog said “I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature”. Here, Huxley is saying something almost the same. The people are absolutely un-nostalgic, everything is trying to eat everything else, and every action to improve the land is met with a thousand frustrations. She even talks about how there are no traces of any old civilization in Africa, it all gets lost to time.
Yet it’s not bleak.