The Kingdom of This World

What is the theme in The Kingdom of This World by Alejo Carpentier?

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Religion is another important theme in this story. Religion is an important part of the cultures in the novel. In the black culture developing on Santo Domingo, a central force is voodoo. The black slaves believe that they draw power from the gods, and Macandal, who organizes the poisoning of the white slave owners, is a voodoo priest, a holy man who channels the Loas. The governor identifies the potential danger of voodoo. He correctly attributes a power to voodoo. It has the power to join the slaves together and to give them a focus as they rise up to combat the white enslavers. The plantation owner, however, can't take voodoo seriously. How could someone take seriously a snake god, or any pantheon? He dismisses the voodoo beliefs as childish and beneath contempt, without recognizing their real power to join together the blacks of the island in a united culture.