The unbearable moral dilemma in Endo's Silence

Continuing to read S Endo's Silence, which Scorsese adapted into a film that is, as least so far (about half-way through Endo's novel), faithful to the source. The novel is great in its own right, but reading through makes me even more impressed with Scorsese's adaptation; it's almost impossible not to read the novel w/out thinking of the strong cast Scorsese brought together and his great facility to creating a range of environments - the desolate Japanese landscape, the mountainous coastline, the charcoal hut where the 2 priests live in hiding, the fishing villages, and most of all the period setting and the pervasive sense of loneliness and dread that these 2 priests, believing themselves to be the only priests in all of Japan, trying to bring solace to the few remaining Catholic enclaves, in a time of brutal, almost sadistic repression. The book, as noted yesterday, gives a real sense of verismilitude by conveying the narrative through a series of letters from Father Rodrigues; Endo stops using this narrative device about halfway through (doing this allows him to increase our sense of dread because we don't know if Fa R. actually survives - his communication just stops, like a space mission that has gone beyond the range) and adopts a close 3rd-person narrative, which means the narrator knows not only the action seen and dialog heard but also what's going on in Fa. R's mind. This device is especially important as a great part of the drama in the novel - less so in the film, which by its nature is more about action and dialog - is his questioning of his faith. The pervasive question, and one that people ask to this day of course, is how can a loving god be silent while his faithful adherents are made to suffer? If he's all-powerful, why can't he provide a sign to the faithful? These thoughts torment Father R., as he faces an almost unbearable moral dilemma: Once he is captured by the Inquisitor (another great casting by Scorsese, btw) he is told that they won't torture him but they will torture his Xtian followers until he renounces his faith.

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