Comparison between Book and Movie

The book and the movie do stress the issue that the conquest was more complicated than most believe. The conquest of religion was a complicated issue because of the contradictory actions of the friars. They were both the savior as well as the aggressor. Friar Diego de la Coruna in the movie argues with the other Spanish about the mistreatments of the natives. In the movie he did not approve of the Spanish settlers’ use of corporal punishments against the natives. In the same ways that friar Diego De Landa first helped protect the native from the mistreatments and abuse of the Spanish settlers. The relationship in the movie and the book seem like a father and son relationship. In both the movie and book the friars protected the native and taught them Catholicism. In both case the relationship between the friars and the natives was strained after they discover that native still clung to their old way. In the movie friar Diego Coruna lock Tomas down when he found out that Tomas still did not convert all the way. Friar Diego De Landa when he discovered that the native was still performing human sacrifice he went on a crusade to root out the people responsible through tortures and force confession. Even though the method in the book is much harsher than the movie it still shows us that the relationship was strained.

The natives in both the movie and the book never really converted all the ways they merely adopted some part of Christianity it but still kept some of their old tradition. The situation was complicated in both cases because on the outside they have to keep up the appearance as the obedience native but they still follow the old way at night. Tomas adopted the image of Mary but still kept his old belief rather than truly convert. The native was still sacrificing people while still maintaining an image of a good obedience native to Friar Diego De Landa. You can’t say that they converted but you also cannot say that they were not affected by the friar because they adopted some part of Christianity.