Pedro Páramo is a novel by Mexican writer Juan Rulfo, first published in 1955. The novel tells the story of Juan Preciado, a man who promises his mother on her deathbed to meet Preciado's father for the first time in the town of Comala only to come across a literal ghost town, that is, populated by spectral characters. During the course of the novel, these ghostly inhabitants reveal details about life and afterlife in Comala, including that of Preciado's reckless father, Pedro Páramo, and his centrality for the town. Initially, the novel was met with cold critical reception and sold only two thousand copies during the first four years; later, however, the book became highly acclaimed. Páramo was a key influence on Latin American writers such as Gabriel García Márquez. Pedro Páramo has been translated into more than 30 different languages and the English version has sold more than a million copies in the United States. Gabriel García Márquez has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Moreover, García Márquez claimed that he "could recite the whole book, forwards and backwards." Jorge Luis Borges considered Pedro Páramo to be one of the greatest texts written in any language.
Plot
Narrative structure The story begins with the first-person account of Juan Preciado, who promises his mother on her deathbed that he will return to Comala to meet his father, Pedro Páramo. His narration is interspersed with fragments of third-person dialogue from the life of Pedro Páramo, who lived in a time when Comala was a robust, living town, instead of the ghost town Juan now sees. The two major competing narrative voices present alternative visions of Comala, one living and one populated with the spirits of the dead.
The novel is set in the fictional town of Comala and its surroundings, a reference to the real town of Comala in the Mexican state of Colima, close to Juan Rulfo's homeland.
Summary The sequence of events for the plot is broken up in the work in a nonlinear fashion and is at times difficult to discern. The same occurs with the characters, as it is often impossible at first for the reader even to tell which characters are alive or dead.
The earliest moment in the story is Fulgor Sedano's arrival at Media Luna. His old patrón, Don Lucas, informs him that his son Pedro Páramo is totally useless and that he should go and get a new job when he dies. Later, Pedro's grandfather dies, and when his family prays for him after his death to help shorten his time in Purgatory, Pedro instead thinks about playing with Susana San Juan, the love of his life. They would fly kites near the village, and Pedro would help Susana fly hers. He is scolded for taking so long in the outhouse by his mother while he recalls this event. Soon after Señora San Juan dies, the San Juan family moves to the mining region. Exploring the Andromeda mine, Señor San Juan lowers Susana at the end of a rope into the old mine shaft. Searching for gold coins, Susana only finds a skeleton. Later in her life, her husband Florencio dies, and she's driven mad by the belief that he's still alive.
When Lucas Páramo is mistakenly killed at a wedding, Pedro later massacres most of the wedding guests. Fulgor Sedano informs Pedro about his father's debts to the Preciado family. To relieve these debts, they concoct a plan to marry Dolores Preciado. When Sedano tries to convince her, she informs him that she's menstruating and cannot be married so soon. Osorio later warns Dolores not to sleep with Pedro on their wedding night, so she begs Eduviges Dyada to sleep with him in her place. Eduviges agrees, but Pedro is too drunk to have sex.
Pedro's son Miguel is killed when, travelling to Contla, he jumps over a fence with his horse. Despite Miguel's cruel and irredeemable nature, Father Rentería absolves him after Pedro pays him in gold coins. Father Rentería remembers how Miguel killed his brother and raped his niece. Dorotea later confesses to Father Rentería that she was trafficking girls for Miguel Páramo; the priest cannot forgive her.
Pedro Páramo seeks to add Toribio Aldrete's land to his estate, and when Toribio visits the home of Eduviges, Pedro Páramo and Fulgor Sedano hang him. Later, Eduviges kills herself out of despair. Living in the Media Luna estate, Dolores Preciado leaves Pedro Páramo to live with her sister.
At the onset of the Mexican Revolution, the countryside has become too dangerous, and the San Juan family returns to Comala. When Señor San Juan dies, his ghost visits the crazed Susana, who only laughs. A stuttering man (Spanish: El Tartamudo) arrives at Pedro's house and informs him that revolutionaries have captured and killed Fulgor Sedano. To protect himself, Pedro invites local revolutionaries to his house for supper, promising them money and support. Pedro informs a revolutionary leader, El Tilcuate, that the money has run out and that he should raid a larger town for supplies.
When Susana San Juan dies, she refuses absolution by the priest, and Father Rentería pretends to give her last sacraments. The people of Comala have a large party, greatly annoying Pedro, who is mourning the loss of Susana. Out of spite, he lets the town die of starvation. The wife of Abundio Martínez, Refugia, dies of this starvation. He heads into town to drink, and finds Damiana Cisneros, the cook at the Media Luna. Abundio Martínez stabs her to death, captured and dragged to the Media Luna. There, Abundio kills Pedro Páramo, revealing that he's one of his illegitimate sons. As he dies, he thinks of Susana and sees the ghost of Damiana.
Dolores Preciado dies, and on her deathbed, she charges her son Juan to head to Comala and find his father Pedro Páramo. There, he finds the ghosts of Abundio, Eduviges, and Damiana, who tell him the stories of the town. He meets an incestuous couple, Donis and his sister, and spends the night at their house. Haunted by the ghosts of Comala, Juan dies of fright, buried in a shared grave with Dorotea. Trapped in his grave, he experiences the story and life of Pedro Páramo.
Themes Afterlife in Mexican Culture: The book deeply explores the roots of Mexican culture and its set of beliefs on afterlife, a mixture of indigenous ancient knowledge (souls and their dynamic connection to the physical realm) and Catholicism, in which nearly all characters aim to find redemption after death, both sets of beliefs being partly related to the concept of Karma where a soul "pays its dues" whether alive or after one's death. We see this extensively on all the spirits whom Juan encounters while he is still alive, for example, the mud woman who pays for the sin of sleeping with her brother, or Dorotea, who becomes the narrator with dead Juan towards the end of the novel.
There is also a concept of interconnection between the spiritual and physical realms, where most souls, even when their bodies die, are able to appear in the physical realm and interact with others who are still alive, this is the case of Miguel Paramo when he dies and appears at Eduvige's house, or the case with Damiana appearing to aid Pedro towards the end. Throughout the book, we see a constant leaping from the two realms, suggesting a non-linear sense of time and dimension. For example, on the day Lucas Paramo (Pedro's father) dies, we get to see how Lucas' soul touches young Pedro to literally wake him up. Another case is Susana, the day her father dies, she feels his presence on her bed (she doesn't even know he died). However, when she gets told about it the next day she immediately realizes it was her abusive Father's soul saying goodbye to her. Although most characters seem to already know this, they live peacefully with it, suggesting an acceptance of spirit interaction in the physical realm that is deeply rooted in Mexican culture.
Hope: A major theme in the book is people's hopes and dreams as sources of the motivation they need to succeed. Hope is each character's central motive for action. As Dolores tells her son, Juan, to return to Comala, she hopes that he will find his father and get what he deserves after all of these years. Despair is the other main theme in the novel. Each character's hopes lead to despair since none of their attempts to attain their goals are successful.
Juan goes to Comala instilled with the hope that he will meet and finally get to know his father. He fails to accomplish this and dies fearful, having lost all hope.
Pedro hopes that Susana San Juan will return to him after so long. He was infatuated with her as a young boy and recalls flying kites with her in his youth. When she finally returns to him, she has gone mad and behaves as though her first husband were still alive. Nevertheless, Pedro hopes that she will eventually come to love him. Dorotea says that Pedro truly loved Susana and wanted nothing but the best for her.
Father Rentería lives in hope that he will someday be able to fully fulfill his vows as a Catholic priest, telling Pedro that his son will not go to heaven, instead of pardoning him for his many sins in exchange for a lump of gold.
Ghosts and the ethereal nature of the truth are also recurrent themes in the text. When Juan arrives in Comala it is a ghost town, yet this is only gradually revealed to the reader. For example, in an episode with Damiana Cisneros, Juan talks to her believing that she is alive. They walk through the town together until he becomes suspicious as to how she knew that he was in town, and he nervously asks, "Damiana Cisneros, are you alive?" This encounter shows the truth as fleeting, always changing, and impossible to pin down. It is difficult to truly know who is dead and who is alive in Comala.
Sometimes the order and nature of events that occur in the work are not as they first seem. For example, midway through the book, the original chronology is subverted when the reader finds out that much of what has preceded was a flashback to an earlier time.
Interpretation Critics primarily consider Pedro Páramo as either a work of magic realism or a precursor to later works of magic realism; this is the standard Latin American interpretation. However, magical realism is a term coined to note the juxtaposition of the surreal to the mundane, with each bearing traits of the other. It is a means of adding surreal or supernatural qualities to a written work while avoiding total disbelief. Pedro Páramo is unlike other works of this type because the primary narrator states clearly in the second paragraph of the novel that his mind has filled with dreams and that he has given flight to illusion and that a world has formed in his mind around the hopes of finding a man named Pedro Páramo. Likewise, several sections into this narration, Juan Preciado states that his head has filled with noises and voices. He is unable to distinguish living persons from apparitions. Certain critics believe that particular qualities of the novel, including the narrative fragmentation, the physical fragmentation of characters, and the auditory and visual hallucinations described by the primary narrator, suggest that this novel's journey and visions may be more readily associated with the sort of breakdown of the senses present in schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like conditions rather than with magical realism.
Meaning of title The title underscores the importance of the character of Pedro Páramo. His life and decisions are key to the survival of the town of Comala. His last name means "barren plain" or "wasteland", which is what the town of Comala becomes as a result of his manipulations.