Going into this weeks lecture, I was somewhat fascinated and disturbed by Juan Rulfo’s description of Comala and the Mexican rural countryside that Juan Preciado moves through during his search for his supposed father Pedro Paramo. I went into the text having listened to Professor Jon’s lecture and his introduction for the ghostly and almost surrealist landscape that Rulfo created. I can see why Gabo cited Pedro Paramo as a great influence on his own Magical Realism works, as the world of Pero Paramo is inhabited by an almost, but not quite, unearthly collection of ghosts that still have a great impact on the living. The story of Pedro Paramo reminded me a lot of Dante’s Inferno and Purgatorio, where the principal character who takes the first name of the author, journeys across the afterlife in search of love and sense of being regardless if dead are actually dead or not, as they act as if they were simply still alive.
Just like with Dante’s works, I find that Catholicism plays an important part in the story and the ideas of Catholic Morality are the principal driving force behind the attitudes of the priest towards the dead and Juan Preciado’s quest to find his father. The priest’s attitudes towards the now dead inhabitants are driven by a sort of Catholic Guilt and blame towards Pedro Paramo, as he blames Paramo and his selfish greed for leading the townspeople astray. Juan on the other hand portrays a more positive side of Catholicism, through the idea of forgiveness for his father, as although his father is arguably the reason that his mother’s life and his own life fell into ruin, he does not necessarily blame his father for the fate that befalls him halfway through the novel, but rather forgives him so that Paramo can rest peacefully in the land of the dead.
What I also find interesting is the relationship that Juan Rulfo shows between Mexican rural society in the cacique system and the new gender roles and norms that arose during the Mexican Revolution. While Pedro Paramo represents the old way of caciquismo and machismo in Mexico before the revolution, Juan Preciado represents the new, more modern Mexico that treats gender roles less rigidly. Another way that Pedro Paramo represents gendered social relationships, is through the interactions of Susana San Juan and Pedro. I can say that I was somewhat surprised by the mostly positive portrayal Pedro and Susana’s relationship throughout the novel, as although they do not meet an entirely happy ending, it is definitely better than the ending of other female characters in other works of Latin American literature, Gabo’s short story Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, come to mind.
My question for this week’s discussion is: Do you think that Juan Preciado will stay in his grave, or is he still wondering Comala after his death?
You have made a very perceptive reading of the novel, because several critics have also spoken of the parallelism between the Divine Comedy and Pedro Páramo. They could probably both fit into a strange genre, that of “speculative theology.” Indeed, one of the great questions that the novel leaves us is about the performance of Father Rentería, as a priest and guide of the people. What do you think Rulfo’s personal position has been, as an author, on these issues?
Hi David, I really like your observation about the relatively positive gendered social relationship portrayed between Pedro and Susana, as I totally missed this even after reading most parts of the story, which tend to objectify women in some way or another! Regarding your question, I think the novel purposely leaves Juan Preciado’s fate open to interpretation. Throughout the novel, there are references to the fluidity of life and death, and how the dead continue to exist among the living. Therefore, it’s possible that Juan Preciado’s spirit continues to wander through Comala, haunting the living and perpetuating the cycle of life and death. Alternatively, it’s also possible that he has found peace in the afterlife and has moved on from the world of the living.