Flowering Judas

This story may be the most complicated and also the most beautifully written story we have yet read from Porter. My initial question when reading “Flowering Judas” was: who is Judas? Laura, Braggioni, Mrs. Braggioni…humanity? My other immediate question related to the importance of the allusion to the Judas tree. I looked up the Judas tree online and found that it is not native to Mexico, but originally seen in Southern Europe and Asia minor. The myths say that Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, hung himself on the Judas Tree. At the beautiful ending of this story, Laura, in her dream, takes the flowers of the Judas tree and eats them, only to discover she is eating the bread and blood of Eugenio, the imprisoned, dying revolutionary. One could argue, then, of Laura as the Judas figure. She is a “murderer” perhaps by association with Mr. Braggioni. The political tension of the setting is blurry to me. Is this an allegorical story of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920? I assume that both sides of the revolution believe Laura to be on its side. The wonderful part of Porter’s plot is that we never find out who she really sides with. Her Catholic roots allude to her allegiance but the ending dilutes even that interpretation.

Despite all my questions and confusions about the setting and the relationship between Laura and Braggioni, I found myself enamored by the imagery of this piece, especially in the contrast between Braggioni and Laura and in the ending. Phrases like “every sea shall be merely a tangle of gaping trenches” or “his eye sockets were without light, but she ate the flowers greedily” turned this political tale into a poem, a song. I also was enthralled how Porter shaped the entire text to be a foreshadowing of Laura’s death—or as I interpreted it, her spiritual death.