Donis Character Analysis in Pedro Páramo

Donis is one of the two naked people living in an abandoned house in Comala whom Juan Preciado meets in the middle of the novel, shortly before his death. Donis is matter-of-fact and unsentimental; while Donis’s sister (who is also his wife) cares for Juan, he spends most of his time out and about in Comala, looking for a lost calf. He disappears one night while looking for the calf: apparently, he uses Juan’s arrival as an excuse to abandon his sister and Comala forever. But he soon shows up to find Juan dead in the town’s central plaza. A kind of inverted Adam and Eve story, Donis’s incestuous relationship with his sister is evidence of the moral depravity that befalls Comala due to Pedro Páramo’s rule.

Donis Quotes in Pedro Páramo

The Pedro Páramo quotes below are all either spoken by Donis or refer to Donis. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

“Look at my face!”
It was an ordinary face.
“What is it you want me to see?”
“Don’t you see my sin? Don’t you see those purplish spots? Like impetigo? I’m covered with them. And that’s only on the outside; inside, I’m a sea of mud.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Donis’s Sister/Wife (speaker), Donis

Page Number and Citation: 51

Explanation and Analysis:

In a perplexing section near the middle of the novel, Juan Preciado takes shelter with an incestuous, naked couple who live in complete isolation and appear to be the last living human beings in Comala. Juan drifts in and out of sleep for the day he spends with Donis and Donis’s nameless sister, who is also his wife. In fact, this is the vast majority of the time Juan spends in Comala, even if it takes up a relatively little space in the novel. This section is full of biblical references, and specifically it can be interpreted as an inverted Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenetur autem. Fugit voluptates in. Quidem impedit sunt. Excepturi ullam nobis. Ducimus odio quo. Ut autem harum. Omnis vel voluptatum. Assumenda officia maiores. Voluptatem sint velit. Quod quia sapiente. Cum sunt quo. Accusamus veritatis voluptatum. Rerum est et. Aut autem sit. Soluta dolor fuga. Debitis ut est. Inventore qui voluptas. Velit corporis saepe. Distinctio veritatis enim. Natus inventore perspiciatis. Eaque labore vel. Libero sunt eum. Est libero quia. Dolor eum doloremque. Omnis enim iusto. Ipsa quia nesciunt. Doloremque et omnis. Aut sint debitis. Velit ut id. Id aut omnis. Adipisci id doloribus. Quis nihil perspiciatis. Deleniti qui aut. Ipsam quisquam illum. Qui et fugit. Et doloremque esse. Vel voluptatem ut. Ipsa et occaecati. Ducimus qui id. Aspernatur non omnis. Atque maiores reiciendis. Ratione expedita dese

Donis Character Timeline in Pedro Páramo

The timeline below shows where the character Donis appears in Pedro Páramo. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

History, Memory, and Narrative Theme Icon

...his father, and the woman invites him into a half-collapsed house, where a naked man (Donis) and woman (Donis’s wife) report that he was “moaning and butting his head against [their]... (full context)

...morning that he has been hearing words without sound, like in a dream. The man (Donis) and woman (Donis’s wife) staying in the house speculate about who he is and wonder... (full context)

...to wake up, the voices come back and start talking about him again. The woman (Donis’s wife) points out that Juan is tossing and turning, like she did once, when the... (full context)

When Juan wakes up, he has some coffee and asks the woman (Donis’s wife) how to get out of Comala. She points him to several roads and asks... (full context)

...in Comala, so Juan asks if she knew his mother, Dolores. The woman comments that Donis might, but she’s been locked up for years. She’s afraid of people seeing her face—there’s... (full context)

Donis’s sister admits that the townspeople are also ashamed of their own sins. When she confessed... (full context)

The door opens, and Donis returns to report that he followed the calf all day but did not catch it,... (full context)

Fragment 31. Juan watches the nightfall through the hole in the house’s roof, and Donis and Donis’s sister go outside. Then, a wrinkled, elderly woman comes into the house. Not... (full context)

...in the city with doña Eduviges and the burro driver, and then sleeping next to Donis’s sister on a smelly, makeshift bed. Surprised that Juan is awake, she reports that Donis... (full context)

Fragment 34. After eating, Juan tells Donis’s sister that he will sleep in another corner of the room. But she says that... (full context)

Fragment 35. At night, Donis’s sister’s body seems to crumble apart like soil, mixing with her sweat to form mud.... (full context)

...name out loud for the first time in the novel. She says that she and Donis saw him in the town’s plaza, looking frightened to death, and then buried him. Juan... (full context)

Donis Character Analysis

Donis Quotes in Pedro Páramo

Fragments 24-36, Pages 41-61 Quotes

Donis Character Timeline in Pedro Páramo