The Royal Hunt of the Sun :: essays papers

The Royal Hunt of the SunThe Royal Hunt of the Sun is a story mainly based on the conquest ofPeru by Spain. Along the way it explores many different sub-themes andideas. Questions are raised about faith, friendship, leadership, greedand deuce distinctively different ways of life. The two main charactersexhibit conflicting views on all the issues.The overthrow of the Peruvian Empire is a phenomenal story as itdemonstrates the vulnerability of a order of magnitude that considered itselfalmost indestructible. It showed how focused a civilisation can be onone leader, and how simply it can collapse when this leadership isremoved. Pizarro recognised this and that is how his small legions ofalmost two hundred conquered a nation of millions. He told his menOne man thats all. Get him, the rest collapse. (page 28)The conquest of Peru was a wreck between two religions that wereimmediately very different but similar in principal. Christianity wasa religion with a rapidly expanding foll owing. Its leaders virtuallydisposed(p) permission for Christians to kill in order to spread thefaith. This occurred in The Royal Hunt of the Sun when the priestsinferred that Pizarro should take the life of Attahuallpa so that theSpanish would survive and the Christian belief would spread throughoutSouth America. The priest Valverde said the lives of a hundred andseventy of the faithful. Are you going to sacrifice them for onesavage? (page 70) On the other hand the Inca belief was a lot moresettled and humane. The Inca God and ruler Atahuallpa claimed I havepriest powerI squeal my people of all crimes against the sun. (page19) They both believed in a supreme being, who would be killed by itsenemies and rise from the dead.Pizarro and Atahuallpa came from similar backgrounds but theirimmediate appearance was quite different. When they came unneurotictheir similarities became evident and their friendship flourished at anearly stage. While Atahuallpa was Pizarros captive h e said Make mefree. I would fill this room. (With gold) (page 43) However, whenAtahuallpa produces the gold Pizarro qualifies his promise gum olibanum Atahuallpa, you must specify to me that you will not hurt a man in myarmy if I let you go. (page 60) I will not swear this Atahuallpareplied. Three thousand of my servants they killed in the square.Three thousand, without arms. I will avenge them. (page 60) This