This weeks reading, Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo is a fragmented story that begins with a young man seeking out his estranged father in a town called Comala to fulfil his mother’s dying request. As the novel progresses the young man dies and the tale focusses on the father, Pedro Páramo, and how he caused the town to turn from the beautiful place that the young man’s mother described to a haunted place that appears abandoned but is still occupied by old inhabitants who are dead but keep many traits of the living. Three themes stuck out to me as particularly interesting: time, boundaries, and sex.
The frequent time jumps and the lack of clarity in time passed, as well as the fact it is not obvious at any time who is dead and who is alive even if they are actively taking part in the narrative gives the impression that the whole history of the town is happening at once. This combines the vibrant town that Comala was originally with the desolate town that the young man finds and the slightly crazed place that Comala is when Páramo decides to forsake it. The effect renders the town as truly haunting combining all of these time into one seen, allowing the reader to at all times to see the town at all times: how it existed, exists, and will exist.
Particularly at the beginning of the novel boundaries are repeatedly mentioned, most notably when Miguel dies leaping over a fence on his horse. This quite literally is a boundary to death: on one side of the fence he is alive, on the other he is dead. This might function as something of a metaphor for the town, in which everyone hovers on the border between truly dead and alive.
Sex is a prominent theme in the novel, usually in the form of rape, especially of young girls. The purpose of this remains unclear to me, unless it functions to highlight the disregard for respect for religious virtue which permeates the town from the beginning. This disregard for non-sinful religious practice and instead simply confessing endless sins is then brought to a head when Susana’s death goes practically unnoticed. Sex also contributes to the stark differentiation between women and men in the novel.
I enjoyed this work, if I was somewhat confused at times – by the time-jumps and the many names. Rulfo manages to rather elegantly still draw a complete picture, even if not all individual interactions are understood by the reader.
Question:
- What do you think Miguel’s function in the work is?
- Do you think that the young man’s mother escaped the town in the nick of time?
You are right, Kara… nothing is obvious in this novel. One of the most interesting features of her, it seems to me, is that while she is giving information about what has happened in Comala and about the characters, the ambiguity also increases, even contradicting herself. You said it better than I could have put it: Rulfo does it with elegance.