what impact do the characters have on the setting, the environment?

The last half of this book centers around the later years of Bishop Latour and Father Vaillant. It shows how their friendship progresses near the end of their lives. Latour and Vaillant knew each other before they came to America but in their missionary journeys they sometimes had to spend time apart. This was because they had to each help the people in different ways.

" It was the indian manner to vanish into the landscape, not to stand out against it." "They seemed to have none of the European's desire to 'master' nature, to arrange and re-create." pg. 233 I think that those quotes from the book explain sthe question perfectly. The indians lived with nature and did not try to take over. As more Americans and European settlers came to the less populated areas, they started building, creating a railroad system, searching for gold, and hunting the native people.

The Setting of "Death Comes for the Archbishop"

I believe Cather fully shows the unique character of Latour in book nine when she develops the setting where Latour wishes to spend the remainder of his years. "He chose this place in the red hills spotted with juniper against the advice of his friends, because he believed it to be admirably suited for the growing of fruit" (263). This shows Latour's uniqueness because it was not popular to grow fruit in Mexico deserts during this time. Cather gives Latour a strong interest in fruit to demonstrate his righteous and pure soul. Fruit has always been a common term in religion which was first brought up in the story of the Garden Of Eden, "the Man was lost and saved in a garden" (265). By describing where Latour wishes to spend his last years, Cather gives him the characteristics of being a good, honest, and loyal human being. Latour did not care about the large sand hills, but instead just wanted a place where he would be able to garden and grow fruit.
The setting of the novel strongly impacted the characters and developed the story. It showed how faithful Latour, Vaillant, and other characters where in the novel by constantly traveling through the desert. They had to travel up and down all the sand-hills whether the temperature was hot or cold just to spread and protect the Catholic faith. Sometimes they had to sleep in raggedy homes in cruel places, but it showed their true righteous character as they continued on. In some places they cheated death and still continued on their mission. Mexico was a the perfect place for this story to occur because it was home to many myths and legends held by many different cultures. Hidden in the land itself was great stories and rituals including The Mass at Acoma and Snake Root (Book 3 & 4).