In the beginning of The Mission the characters are introduced. We see Father Gabriel the leader of the Jesuit order in the new world, Rodrigo Mendoza the famous slave trader and mercenary, Don Cabeza a lobbyist for the dehumanization of Native Peoples and Felipe and Mendoza's girlfriend who are responsible for Mendoza's dramatic change in that if Mendoza's girlfriend wouldn't have cheated on him with his brother Mendoza would've never killed his brother and in turn never had to seek penance for his sudden outburst of anger which left his brother laying lifeless on the city street.

After murdering his brother Felipe, Mendoza goes to a mission to mope and pretty much give up on his life. While Mendoza is sitting in the mission Father Gabriel comes to visit him. Father Gabriel offers him penance for murdering his brother which Mendoza refuses at first but after further convincing by Father Gabriel he agrees to carry a bag full of armor and other such items of war around with him until he thinks he deserves to be set free. The bag of war items symbolizes all the weight killing puts on the shoulders of your conscience with each kill the more weight you put on your on shoulders. In an ironic twist of events Mendoza doesn't set himself free the Guaraní set him free and kick his bag into the river symbolizing the forgiveness of all his past transgressions.

After being set free by the Guaraní Mendoza is never the same. First of all during a presentation of the Guarani's ability to sing and play music in front of the Cardinal Don Cabeza tries to tell the Cardinal that his plantations don't keep slaves but Mendoza having been a slave trader know that he does and not only owns them but also treats them with less respect then a dog or swine Don Cabeza used this as an excuse to try and adulterate the good name of the Jesuit order saying they taught contempt for lawful profit. Mendoza's speech during the Cardinals review of the missions was a major turning point for him. He went from an enemy of the Native Americans to their most outspoken protector and advocate. However to make up brownie points with the Cardinal Mendoza prepared and recited a lengthy speech of apology addressing practically every member in the crowd from Don Cabeza to the little native boy that was singing.

After showing his loyalties lie with the Guaraní he set forth to help Father Gabriel and the other Jesuits build a mission for the Native peoples. The Mission was special to the Guaraní because it was one of the only places left for the Natives to live without slavery and keep their dignity by only having to convert to the Catholic faith in order to live there. People like Don Cabeza were looking to destroy the missions and were greatly set back by Mendoza since Mendoza was a former slave trader and knew all of their deceitful tricks and knew how to inept what they were saying in slave trade talk.

When the Cardinal finally decided the mission was to be closed down the Natives responded in defiance saying that it was their home they built it, if they went back into the jungle the devil would get them, ect, the Portuguese slave traders responded by letting them know that by the end of the week either the Guaraní were going to be dead or slaves.

The Portuguese statement split the Guaraní camp in half. Father Gabriel and half of the Guaraní wanted to resist through love and faith, and Mendoza and the remaining half wanting to fight for the lives of the Guaraní and their right to live without slavery.

Both sides brought up good reasons as to why they thought that they should either fight or just let faith guide them. On the faith side was Father Gabriel his point of view was that if Mendoza went back to his violent ways that all the repenting was a waste; he was hoping that by showing the Portuguese that the Guaraní were civil and Christian through holding an extravagant mass and march up to the river to meet the Portuguese's. This approach had no chance of success.

Robert Mendoza's plan was to resist with everything he had in him. His thinking was that if he could catch the Portuguese off guard in an ambush killing their leader and seizing some of their guns the Portuguese would think that the slaves weren't worth all the lives they would have to pay in order to get them and would leave them alone. This approach had a small chance of success but still more then Father Gabriel's' plan.

Mendoza much like myself thought that a life of slavery is worse than death and that human dignity was worth protecting even if it means using violence. By standing up to the Portuguese he sent a message that the Natives would not just stand idly by and watch themselves be conquered and enslaved.