Flowering Judas Essay -- Analysis, Katherine Anne Porter

Judas Iscariot, the disciple, hanged himself from a tree after betraying Jesus Christ and giving him a kiss. The tree in which Judas hanged himself is known as â€Å"Judas Tree† mainly found in Southern Europe and Western Asia. In the short story â€Å"Flowering Judas† written by Katherine Anne Porter the title is related to this religious event of betrayal, murder, and denial. The two main characters in this short story are Braggioni and Laura. Braggoni is a cruel, powerful leader of Marxist revolutionaries in and around Mexico City. Laura a beautiful American women, age 22, who took up residence in Mexico. The most known theme in Porter’s short story â€Å"Flowering Judas† is betrayal. Laura, Braggioni, Braggioni’s wife, and Eugenio are all guilty of betrayal. Laura betrayals love in her life. By rejecting all men who intend to reach for her heart. Laura pictures Braggioni a â€Å"revolutionist would be lean, animated by heroic faith, a vessel of abstract virtues† (Porter p.1692). Picturing a revolutionist as a Christ figure. Laura betrays Braggioni by leading him to believe that she is interested in him. â€Å"She knows what Braggioni would offer her, and she must resist tenaciously without appearing to resist† (Porter p. 1692). Laura does not intend to tell Bragioni to vanish from her life. Laura fears that she might mess with his pride and knows that Braggioni is powerful that it can lead in to hurting her. Porter states â€Å"Braggioni is cruel to every one, for it is dangerous to offend him, and nobody has this courage† (p. 1992). Not only is Laura betraying Braggioni but Braggioni’s wife as well. Laura is committing adultery by being leading false judgment on a married man, and she can cause a separation of somebody else’s marriage. A nineteen ye... ...ura declares that she has taken the narcotics to Eugenio. In the last supper where Jesus Christ presented his disciples with bread as his body and wine as his blood; they were to eat and drink of it in memory of him and accepting him as their savior. In the end of the story Porter presents to us a related event in a dream that Laura has with Eugenio. Eugenio says to Laura in the dream â€Å"Then eat these flowers, poor prisoner,† and from a Judas tree he stripped the warm bleeding flowers, and held them to her lips (p.1700). Here Porter mentions Judas as to referring to the disciple that betrayed Jesus. By Laura accepting and eating the bleeding leave from Eugenio, ripped from the Judas tree, she is accepting the contribution in his murder. Just as a Christian’s accept Jesus on Sundays by Holly Communion. Laura has betrayed Eugenio by participating in his murder.