Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Pedro Páramo, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death, Hope, and Despair
Power and Morality
History, Memory, and Narrative
Love and Patriarchy
Summary
Analysis
Fragment 24. Back in the present, Damiana Cisneros tells Juan Preciado that Comala is full of strange echoes—of laughter and old voices, parties and howling dogs, and even her older sister Sixtina, who died young. Juan asks whether his mother told Damiana that he was visiting. But Damiana does not even know that Dolores is dead, so she asks what happened. Juan says that his mother must have died of sadness, of too many sighs. Damiana says she has not heard anything from Dolores. Suddenly, Juan realizes that Damiana might not be dead at all, so he excitedly asks if she is alive. But she has already disappeared—Juan hears only the echo of his own voice calling out her name.
The echoes that fill Comala represent the voices of people who, like Eduviges, have been erased from history even though they still have pressing and important things to say. Accordingly, the echoes show these voices attempting to speak and bring their experiences to bear on the official narrative about the past. When Juan’s voice echoes away at the end of this fragment, then, this represents more than just his uncertainty about whether Damiana is really dead or alive. It also shows that Juan himself is becoming one of Comala’s forgotten residents: his voice echoes out into the abyss without anyone to hear it.
Themes
Fragment 25. Juan calls out to a man, but his own voice echoes back. He hears two women talking about him—they think he’s Filoteo Aréchiga, and they want to avoid him, but then they realize he isn’t following them. They comment that Filoteo helps Pedro seduce women and decide to go home anyway, just in case.
The novel’s next four fragments are examples of the echoes that Juan Preciado hears throughout Comala. While Filoteo Aréchiga does not play a major role in the novel’s plot, his existence reflects the great number of characters who are erased from any conceivable story about Comala. Dolores Preciado’s memories erased characters like Eduviges. Official histories about Pedro Páramo’s oppressive rule inevitably erase many of the people who actually participated in Comala’s downfall and the historical transformations that accompanied it. And even this novel must erase certain echoes and voices that do not fit into the narratives about Juan Preciado, Pedro Páramo, and Susana San Juan. So these passages point out the limits of Rulfo’s own narrative, which can only capture a small part of the whole truth about Comala.
Themes
Fragment 26. Late at night, there are voices: a farmer, Galileo, promises that they will be able to pay at harvest time, and someone else insists that Pedro Páramo actually owns the land the farmer is working. Galileo says he’s never even met Pedro Páramo. But the other man—his brother-in-law—insists that Galileo definitely sold the land, and don Fulgor will be visiting him soon. He tells Galileo to “rest in peace,” just in case he doesn’t survive, and he won’t be coming to dinner because he doesn’t want to be with Galileo on his final night.
Galileo’s debts are similar to the girls running from Filoteo in the last fragment. Both show how Pedro’s seemingly absolute power in Comala and willingness to exercise that power arbitrarily and illegally force the rest of the town to live in terror. In this case, Galileo finds his land title stolen by complicated maneuvers in a legal system he does not fully understand—a system that Pedro Páramo has distorted to his own advantage. When the anonymous voice tells Galileo to “rest in peace,” this is clearly an indirect threat: Fulgor is coming to kill him (just like Toribio Aldrete).
Themes
Fragment 27. Someone tells a girl named Chona that the mules are ready for them to run away together in the morning, but Chona asks to stay at home with her dying father. Chona’s lover comments that she said the same thing last year, and he doesn’t want to wait any longer, but Chona promises that they can be together as soon as her father passes. Her lover threatens to leave her for Juliana. And not only is Chona fine with him seeing Juliana, but in fact she says that she never wants to see him ever again.
In this fragment, the speaker’s identity is purposely kept secret in order to reflect the way that Comala’s dead residents are all trying to speak out about their experiences to anyone who will listen. Although the voices speak of difficult personal experiences, it’s difficult to identify their speakers, contextualize their stories, or do anything to resolve their pain. In this passage, Chona’s lover tries to manipulate and threaten her into giving him what he wants, at the expense of her own father and wellbeing. In other words, the speaker distorts love by turning it into a tool for personal gain. It's not clear whether the speaker is Pedro Páramo himself, his son Miguel, or perhaps one of the other people in Comala who has observed and adopted Pedro’s cruel strategies for selfishly manipulating women. Nevertheless, it’s clear that this passage shows the lasting mark that Pedro Páramo’s misogyny leaves on Comala.
Themes
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Fragment 28. High voices sing from far away: “My sweetheart gave me a lace-bordered / handkerchief to dry my tears…”
These singing voices are unidentifiable, except for that they’re clearly female. They could easily be talking about Chona’s story or Dolores’s, for instance. But because they are anonymous, they reveal that most of the women Pedro hurt in Comala also remain anonymous. Their song suggests that a man is hurting or leaving them, and giving them “a lace-bordered / handkerchief” as a kind of replacement for genuine sympathy or care. This reflects Pedro Páramo’s manipulative vision of love and relationships, which is based on power, not genuine care.
Themes
Fragment 29. Juan Preciado watches ox-drawn carts passing through town, and a voice mentions that these carts come through with grain in the mornings, but the weather tends to change suddenly in Comala. But it is night, and Juan hears empty carts leaving town. He considers leaving Comala, going out the way he came, and then a woman stops him and asks why he is in town. He explains that he’s looking for 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] door.” Juan says that he is tired and wants to sleep—the three people say that they have been sleeping and invite him to join them.
The ox-carts are a metaphor for Juan’s own journey: they come to Comala full of grain, like Juan came full of hope, and they are leaving empty, which shows Juan that he might want to cut his losses and move on. The strange house where he ends up is a symbolic substitute for the Media Luna ranch, where Damiana Cisneros was supposed to take him before disappearing. But if Juan was really “moaning and butting his head against [a] door” without realizing it, then this suggests that he is no longer fully in control of his actions, and his perceptions are unreliable. The core elements of his self are starting to fall apart, and he is starting to dissolve into Comala. He might even be turning into another of its ghosts.
Themes
Fragment 30. Juan realizes in the 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 if he might have lost his way, like the people they met who were searching for something called “Los Confines.” The man asks to go back to sleep, and the woman says he asked her to wake him up, but the man insists on going back to sleep anyway. Juan thinks this is a dream.
Juan’s perceptions continue to fail him as reality becomes indistinguishable from dreams and illusions. It is worth remembering the very first page of the novel, when Juan said that his “head began to swim with dreams and [his] imagination took flight.” This should cause readers to question their grasp on reality so far in the novel. Could everything in Comala be one giant hallucination? Could Juan himself be delusional, lying, or dead? And if his experiences in Comala are echoes of the past or illusions invented by his own mind, does this make them any less real?
Themes
When Juan starts 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 man (Donis) did something to her. But the man just wants to go back to sleep. Meanwhile, the woman comments that dawn is breaking and hypothesizes that Juan is a criminal who will bring them trouble. As Juan starts to see the light and wake up, the woman starts speculating that he must be a murderer, and she decides to go elsewhere. She gets out of bed and passes the half-sleeping Juan.
The man and woman’s paranoid speculation about Juan suggests that they, too, are living in a world of delusions and paranoia. Their cynical attitude contrasts with the cautious hope that many of the book’s other characters seem to feel—but all those other characters suffered one tragedy or another, so perhaps these anonymous people have a more realistic view of the world.
Themes
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 where he is going—he wants to head for Sayula, and she comments that she’s heard it’s busy, not empty like Comala. Juan asks about her husband (Donis). She clarifies that he’s actually her brother, and she comments that he said he was going to search for a lost calf.
The anonymous woman and her brother are noteworthy because they seem to be living, breathing humans—unlike the rest of the beings Juan has encountered so far. For instance, they eat, drink, and sleep. But ghostly characters like Eduviges Dyada simply fade in and out of existence, with none of these ordinary human needs or interests. But if there are so many roads out of Comala, readers are bound to wonder, why do this woman and her brother stay there? After all, Juan is ready to leave, presumably because he has given up on his quest to find Pedro Páramo and has already learned about his mother’s rocky relationship with him.
Themes
The woman says she’s always lived 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 nothing noteworthy about it, but she’s convinced that it’s covered with purple spots that reveal her sin. Inside, she says, she’s “a sea of mud.” Juan says that there’s nobody around to see her, but she says that a few people—like Dorotea—still live in the town. It’s just that they lock themselves inside at night to avoid the ghosts. People are even tired of praying for them.
Donis’s unnamed sister is a third maternal figure in Comala, following Eduviges and Damiana, and proceeding Dorotea. It’s no coincidence that their names all start with or prominently feature a “D”—Juan Preciado’s mother was named Dolores. Donis and his sister are also a clear reference to Adam and Eve, only in a totally distorted, inverted form, perhaps after the fall of man. They live naked and all alone in Comala, which used to be lush and fertile like the mythical Garden of Eden, but is now an arid wasteland. Instead of a state of purity and harmony with God and nature, they live in a kind of state of permanent sin, for which they cannot possibly atone. Donis’s sister (like Eve) seems to carry the full burden of this sin, whereas Donis seems indifferent to it. They have given up on salvation for themselves and the ghosts that surround them. Their lives are meaningless and full of despair.
Themes
Donis’s sister admits that the townspeople are also ashamed of their own sins. When she confessed her relationship with her brother, the Bishop told her that her sin was unpardonable: she and Donis had to separate, even if there was nobody else around. Then, the Bishop left Comala, abandoning the townspeople to permanently suffer the consequences of their sin.
Later events in the novel suggest that the Bishop Donis’s sister is talking about is probably Father Rentería. This calls into question whether his criticism of her sins is truly legitimate, given that he lived a sinful life of servitude to Pedro Páramo and betrayed the message of the Church. Donis’s sister clarifies that her relationship with her really is incestuous. There is an important question lingering under the surface: are they brother and sister because (like almost everyone else in Comala) they are both children of Pedro Páramo? Does this mean that Juan is their brother, too?
Themes
The door opens, and Donis returns to report that he followed the calf all day but did not catch it, so he will have to go looking for it again that night. Juan says that he knows that the couple are brother and sister, but Donis objects to him getting too involved in their business. Juan says he wants to get going, but Donis suggests he wait until the morning, since the roads are so run down.
If Donis and his sister are a kind of anti-Adam and Eve, then their lost calf might represent the biblical story of the golden calf, an idol that the Hebrews worshipped in place of God. Accordingly, Donis’s search for the lost calf suggests that he is sinfully chasing after an alternative to God.
Themes
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 realizing that Juan is awake, she takes sheets from a trunk under the bed. Juan looks at her, and she offers him some tea for his nerves. He recognizes her but does not reveal who she is. Her husband appears and asks Juan if he is sick, and Juan comments on the town’s ghosts and voices. The man tells his wife that they should leave, because Juan “talks like a mystic.” The woman wants to let Juan sleep on the bed, but her husband says Juan is a swindler who just wants attention, like an old colleague from the Media Luna ranch.
Although the elderly woman is familiar to Juan, she remains totally anonymous to the reader, who is forced to speculate about what and whom she resembles. Just as Juan strives to uncover his mother’s memories and the story of Comala’s past but finds them just barely out of reach, to the reader, a total picture of Juan’s experience is now inaccessible, too. In caring for him, the woman is clearly yet another maternal figure, but her husband—much like Juan’s real father, Pedro Páramo—rejects Juan. He works under the same assumptions about human nature as Pedro: that everyone just wants to get ahead in the world, even if it means deceiving and hurting others. In fact, by connecting Juan to the Media Luna, he even suggests that Juan might have visibly inherited Pedro Páramo’s evil blood.
Themes
Fragment 32. Night turns back into afternoon, and Juan feels himself 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 left again to search for the calf, and may not return—she suspects he has seen an opportunity to go forever and leave her with Juan. Juan tells her that it’ll be fine and then eats the tortillas and small piece of beef that the woman has left out for him. She got the food from her sister, the elderly woman who visited during the day, in exchange for the sheets.
In this scene, time starts moving in reverse: Pedro Páramo and Juan Preciado’s stories are juxtaposed, and the voices of the past continue to intervene in the present. Not only does the past influence the present in a broad, historical sense, but individuals actually experience traces of the past constantly in their lives. If Donis’s departure really means that Juan is now stuck in Comala, then this suggests that Donis was self-interestedly manipulating Juan the night before. Donis said it was too dangerous to leave Comala at night and encouraged Juan to wait until morning—but then Donis himself left at night. He seems to have taken Pedro Páramo’s vicious principles of deception and competition to heart.
Themes
Fragment 33. Juan asks, “Don’t you hear me,” and his mother’s voice replies, asking where he is. He says he’s in Comala, but she laments that she doesn’t see him.
Juan’s mother’s voice finally makes it to Comala, and yet her experience of the place still does not match up with what Juan sees. Of course, it’s also completely possible that Juan is just imagining or dreaming about his mother’s voice.
Themes
Fragment 34. After eating, Juan tells Donis’s sister that he will sleep in another corner of the room. But she says that she’s sure Donis has left forever, and she asks Juan to join her in bed, which he does.
Juan replaces Donis, who has managed to escape Comala, so it seems that now Juan might be stuck there (despite his desire to leave). As a maternal figure who cares for Juan, Donis’s sister also indirectly represents Juan’s own mother, and if she is Pedro Páramo’s daughter, then she is Juan’s sister, too. So in a sense, Juan is now committing the same symbolic incest that initially frightened him.
Themes
Fragment 35. At night, Donis’s sister’s body seems to crumble apart like soil, mixing with her sweat to form mud. Unable to breathe, Juan gets up and goes outside, but the August heat is oppressive. He still can’t breathe, until he loses his breath forever. He remembers clouds encircling and absorbing him and nothing more afterward.
Donis’s sister dissolves back into the earth, echoing her earlier claim to be a “sea of mud” on the inside. Just like incest breaks down the usual structure of family, which is the basis of social organization, her melting breaks down the physical structure of her body. Juan undergoes a similar transformation, as the novel implies that he is dying, too. Suddenly and inexplicably, he becomes another of Comala’s faceless victims. Like Donis’s sister melts into the earth and loses her individuality, Juan melts into Comala, perhaps destined to become another anonymous echo, awaiting an improbable salvation. But Comala also represents his own origin story, so it would also be reasonable to interpret this passage as saying that his past is killing him. This would mean he is being swallowed up by history, turning from a living, breathing man into a static, disembodied story.
Themes
Fragment 36. Dorotea addresses Juan Preciado, saying his 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 replies that “the murmuring killed” him, and then his mother’s voice intercedes with a nostalgic description of Comala. He says he followed voices to the plaza, where they seemed to be coming out of the walls. As he walked on, chasing after these voices, he began feeling cold and terrified, although he thought that someone would save him. (Dorotea and Donis did not find him until the morning.) He felt the voices surrounding and attacking him, asking for prayers. But then his soul froze and he died.
The narrator’s identity as Juan—Dolores Preciado and Pedro Páramo’s son—has been clearly defined throughout the novel. However, it’s not until this passage—the moment of his death—that his first name actually gets revealed in the book. This is significant: it shows that his complex, important story could have been easily forgotten or left unattributed. The same is true of all the stories told by Comala’s departed souls. Rulfo implies that this happens to most people: they never get mentioned in stories about the people, places, and events that they knew intimately, or that defined their lives. Through anonymity and forgetting, they lose ownership over their stories. It’s also important that Juan dies in the plaza at the very center of town, while hearing a chorus of anonymous voices from the town’s former residents. This suggests that he’s killed by the collective weight of Comala’s forgotten history. (This is what he calls “the murmuring.”) He discovers that the story he is trying to uncover is just one of countless similar stories in Comala. And so it turns out that he belongs there, with the rest of its forgotten residents.
Themes
Dorotea asks why Juan didn’t stay home, and he explains that he came for Pedro Páramo, motivated by hope. Dorotea replies that hope is deadly dangerous: she came looking for a son she never had, convinced that someone was hiding him from her. But now, she understands that this all resulted from her dreams: a good one that convinced her she had a son, and a bad one in which angels in heaven told her that she had a whore’s womb and no son at all. By the time she had this dream, she was already old and Comala’s residents were already leaving.
Dorotea’s bleak message about hope essentially captures Rulfo’s suspicion of it throughout this novel. All of Dorotea's hopes turn out to be false—which is also the case for Juan, Pedro, and most everyone else in the novel. In fact, Rulfo uses the Spanish word ilusión here, which means both “hope” and “illusion.” This makes it totally clear that Dorotea sees hope as a delusional form of self-deception that ultimately leads to long-term disappointment and regret. Dorotea’s story about her imaginary son resembles the Mexican folk tale of La Llorona, the ghost of a woman who wanders the world endlessly, looking for the souls of her children, whom she drowned. While Dorotea does not exactly fit the narrative, there are many variations on the story, and the overall message is the same: La Llorona’s hope to reunite her family turns out to be a delusion, and she cannot bear to live with the despair of reality.
Themes
Although everybody else was leaving, Dorotea decided to stay in Comala and wait to die. She tells Juan that she was buried together with him, between his arms. She says it is raining—Juan hears a sound like footsteps up above them—and Dorotea tells Juan not to worry, since they will be stuck there in the ground together for the foreseeable future.
Dorotea and Juan become one another’s symbolic family: he replaces the son she spent her life searching for, and she replaces the dear mother whose memory he has been chasing in Comala. The rain overhead is significant: remember that Comala is now totally dry and infertile, but the scenes from the past generally include rain, which in part reflects the way Comala was lush and full of life. This could mean that Juan and Dorotea’s death somehow redeems Comala, undoing the evil that Pedro Páramo unleashed upon the town. Or it could specifically refer to the fact that Susana San Juan, who is often associated with rain throughout the novel, is buried nearby.
Themes
