Father Kraus Character Analysis

Father Gunter Kraus Character analysis

In The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy Father Gunter Kraus is a catholic priest in Dissan, Germany. He is a very good man but believes he isn’t. Father Kraus and Henry Wingo met when henry got shot out of the sky and barely made it to the church Father Kraus was saying mass at before he passed out from the injuring’s he sustained form his crash.

Henry Wingo was a Bomber in world war 3 when he got shot down, but he survived the crash and had barely made it to the church just outside of Dissan, Germany. After making it to the church he passed out and when he regained consciousness Father Kraus was standing over him trying to determine whether or not to turn him in. Father Kraus precedes to help even though when they first meet they Henry Wingo points a gun at him. After this Henry Wingo putts the gun away saying he can’t shoot a priest, he then is token upstairs where he passes out again. At this time he could easily report

The Priest brought sausages, loaves of bread, great jars of pungent sauerkraut, bottles of wine, and the best beer my father ever tasted. The first days were very bad for my father because of the pain. But the priest ministered to him with those clumsy, soft hands through one long hard night when my father thought he might die. (Conroy)88

The Prince of tides is told by Henry Wingo’s son Pat Conroy so when he says father he means Henry Wingo. This quote shows that Father Kraus is very caring of Henry Wingo even though with all the care puts him in even more danger by tending to him while he’s in pain. A bad man would never do this they would just rat him out to the Nazis instead of taking a lot of risk for him with absolutely nothing to gain from it. Father Kraus even brings up wine, beer and good food for Henry