Week 6 – Pedro Paramo
by kenwardt
Hey everyone,
This week’s reading was a little better to analyze than last week’s Labyrinth. I enjoyed Juan Rulfo’s use of memory in the novel and allowed us to focus on how powerful it can be.
The use of memory alongside death were quite strong in the novel and. The dead residents of Comala are stuck in their memories, and they are unable to get rid of these memories that involve their past relationships. This can be a good and bad thing for the residents of Comala. For some, it can be comforting to relive these beautiful moments in time, but for others, they have to relive pain and suffering, and that is just horrible. Memory is so important in our lives, and it shapes how we think of our past and I find that so fascinating. Rulfo’s play on memory allows us to open up our minds and really challenge our ideas of what we think a memory should entail, because in the novel we can see that memories can change, for the better or worse. If I have the time I think I would benefit from a re-read of this novel due to its complexities.
Something that stuck out to me was the use of “I remember” a bunch of times in the novel. This reminds me of the class we had where we had to find a word of importance and figure out why the author decided to use it so often. It then played with my mind as I was using memory to figure that out and how important memory is to me. I then went down a rabbit hole of realizing how important memory was and how people who suffer with Alzheimer’s are not able to relive memories as much as I do. I am very grateful and I feel sympathetic for them.
Although the story wasn’t linear, after watching the lecture video I was able to understand the story a lot more clearly and that made it much more enjoyable for me. This week’s reading has showed me how powerful a novel can impact your understanding of something such as memory, and how creative these authors are with their work. I for one have not read a ton of books during my time at university that weren’t research papers so actually engaging with a book like this one was amazing for me.
My question for you all this week is how important are memories to you?
Perhaps one of the aspects of memory that we can comment on in the novel is its collective aspect, one that goes beyond the merely individual. The murmurs are an expression of that struggle with the past of the characters. I think your final question could have been more specific, for example by focusing on the communal aspect of memories and the trans-individual mechanisms of memory, such as the literary works we have been reading.
Hi there!
Thank you for your insight on this weeks reading on Pedro Paramo. As mentioned by Daniel I think that some interesting aspects of memory illustrated in the reading are the role of communal vs individual mechanisms of memory. I think memories is an interesting concept to bring up in relation to the reading as they are something unique we all hold. Much like how the characters in Pedro Paramo share differing memories of the village, each is real to that person, regardless of if others may feel a different way. Characters in the book often take their memory as fact, so I think having that shift in narration allowed for a more realistic and in depth portrayal of the environment, values and important relationships of each character.