er and the introduction of The Infinite Plan: "[A] message his father, blazing with messianic fervor as a snake coiled about his feet, used to preach at the top of his lungs" (Allende 6).
Gregory's story will end with the memory with which it began, which is quoted above. Allende describes her process of writing as requiring the recall of "the emotions and pains of my fate" (Allende [Hope] 43). By doing so, she states she finds life becomes more comprehensible and the world more tolerable. She feels "my roots [are] recovered and that during that patient exercise of daily writing I [] also recover[] my own soul" (Allende [Hope] 43). As will be demonstrated, Allende uses this frame to illustrate Gregory's physical, mental, and spiritual growth as a spiral governed by an infinite plan.
Charles Reeves preached "The Infinite Plan," which he stated The Master had commanded to him when Charles was alone in the desert (Allende 14). He was, therefore, a self-styled Moses who advocated all people's misfortunes were part of a divine plan and their souls were particles of universal energy (Allende 15). A Great Unifying Spirit gave meaning to life. (Never mind the scar Charles used as evidence of his time in the desert was the result of a cycling accident and the substance of his sermons was gleaned from things his wife had read and other sources such as the Reader's Digest (Allende 15)). However, the strength of Charles' sermon was limited by Charles' own nature. Although the theory of The Infinite Plan would indeed guide Gregory throughout his life, Charles' statement of The Plan was only prophetic in the sense it would be echoed in other philosophies long after he died.
Gregory's mother is, in fact, his moral center as demonstrated by his response to her death later in the novel. Despite the "infinity" of his prophecy, Charles is a man with limitations. His response to the end of World War I demonstrates Charles is not the mor...