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Fragments 47-59, Pages 86-108
Themes
and Colors
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 60. At daybreak, Susana tells Justina that life and the world are made of nothing but sin. Justina believes Susana, even if she can’t hear the ominous sounds Susana hears emanating from the bowels of the earth. As Justina cleans the room, Susana lies on her bed and asks her questions about death and hell. Susana says she just believes in hell—not heaven—and falls asleep when Justina finishes cleaning.
As she starts to fixate on death, Susana expresses a number of ideas that shed light on the eternal despair and misery of Comala’s lost souls. If the world is just made of sin and there is only hell, not heaven, then this explains why the inhabitants of Comala are not rewarded for their good acts. Instead, they only live with their sins until others manage to pray them away. Under this bleak vision of human life, there is no value in doing good at all—of course, this happens to be nothing less than Pedro Páramo’s worldview.
Active
Themes
Outside, Justina reports to Pedro that Susana has given up on life. Father Rentería was supposed to bring her communion today, but he didn’t. Justina thinks this means that God has turned his back on Susana, but Pedro disagrees and goes to visit her. He finds her convulsing violently in bed, so he rushes up to her and starts saying her name. At this precise moment, Father Rentería shows up with the communion, which he and Pedro administer to the delirious Susana. Afterwards, Susana says, “We had a glorious day, Florencio,” and then falls back asleep.
In the past, Pedro has always lamented Susana’s condition from a distance but never approached or interacted with her. Now, he comes up to her and says her name directly for the first time. It’s no coincidence that Father Rentería—who is essentially just Pedro’s henchman by this point in the novel—shows up with the communion at the same moment. When Susana speaks the name of her beloved first husband, Florencio, this confirms that Pedro has never managed to get through to her, even though he spent his whole life hoping to be with her. Of course, the Susana whom Pedro wanted to marry was the girl he knew as a child, ultimately more a product of his imagination than the actual person in front of him. He was just chasing shadows of his past—just like Juan, Susana, and arguably even Juan Rulfo himself in writing a novel steeped in the places, traditions, and national historical upheavals that defined his own childhood.
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Themes
Fragment 61. Two old women named Angeles and Fausta notice that a window at the Media Luna ranch has gone dark. For the last three years, this window—reportedly Susana’s—has been lit up every night. The women wonder whether Susana might have died. Angeles sympathizes with don Pedro, but Fausta thinks that marrying Susana was Pedro’s punishment for being a wicked man.
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On their way home from the church, Angeles and Fausta see Doctor Valencia hurrying toward the Media Luna, before the light in Susana’s room comes back on. They hope Father Rentería makes it to hear Susana’s last confession and fear that Susana’s death will overshadow the Christmas celebration at the church, which they’ve been decorating. Angeles says she God to do what is right, which comforts Fausta, and then the two women return to their separate homes.
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Themes
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Fragment 62. Father Rentería tells Susana to say “My mouth is filled with earth,” but she doesn’t understand. He explains that he’s helping her get ready to die, but she asks him to go away so that she can die alone and in peace. He says she can die peacefully if she recites the phrase, but instead of repeating it, she starts talking about Father Rentería devouring her mouth with his. Then, he starts whispering to her, and she hears him talk about his face melting and burning, about seeing God in one’s last moments before going to face eternal damnation and agony in hell.
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Father Rentería looks over to Pedro, Doctor Valencia, and the other men waiting in the doorway. He decides he has to give Susana the chance to repent, but she just tells him to leave. Justina starts sobbing in the hallway, and Susana suddenly sits up and yells at her to go away. She then collapses again and starts losing her breath.
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Fragment 64. All the churches in Comala are ringing their bells on the morning of December 8th to mark Susana’s death. They do not stop for days. People, musicians, and circus performers from Contla and beyond follow the bells to Comala, where they throw a huge party that lasts even longer than the church bells. While everybody celebrates in town, everyone is solemn at the Media Luna. Pedro locks himself in his room and, furious at the boisterous townspeople, decides that he will take revenge on them by letting them starve to death.
Fragment 65. El Tilcuate offers updates on the war: his militia joins various competing factions, like the ones led by General Carranza and General Obregón. Pedro just says, “Fine.” Even Father Rentería takes up arms with the rebels. Pedro says that his men should be on the government’s side, but El Tilcuate points out that the government sees them as enemies. Plus, he wants to fight alongside Rentería. Pedro says this is fine and lets him—he just doesn’t care anymore.
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Fragment 66. Years after Susana’s death, Pedro spends all night alone in his chair, unable to sleep and waiting to die. Watching the early morning light, he waits for the exact minute when Susana died. He relives the memory over and over again, whispering inaudibly to himself.
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Fragment 67. At precisely the same moment early that morning, Abundio Martínez visits Gamaliel Villalpando’s store, but Gamaliel is asleep. When his mother Inés wakes him up, Gamaliel is hungover, angry, and delirious: he makes a vulgar complaint about his life and falls back asleep. Abundio asks doña Inés for some liquor. He needs it to cope: his wife, Refugio, died last night. Abundio did everything possible to care for her—including selling his burros—but it wasn’t enough.
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Doña Inés initially doesn’t understand what’s happened, but soon she starts claiming that she sensed the death, and then she starts complaining about Gamaliel again. Abundio admits that nobody’s coming to his wife’s wake, and Inés offers him a prayer and two pints of liquor—one is free. Abundio’s wife’s body is still at home. Father Rentería did not even make it for her last rites, as he is busy fighting in the revolution. Abundio drinks his first pint, and then Inés asks him to have his wife pray for her. Abundio takes his second drink to go.
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On the way home, Abundio gets lost and ends up on the outskirts of town. Pedro Páramo sees him in the distance and sends Damiana Cisneros to go investigate. When Damiana finds Abundio, he is crawling on the ground, too drunk to get up, and he asks her for money for his wife’s wake. She makes the sign of the cross at him, and each of them thinks that the Devil has sent the other.
Off in the distance, Pedro Páramo seems to suddenly disappear underneath his coat. Damiana calls out that Pedro is being murdered, and Abundio thinks of his dead wife, whose body is all alone on their house’s patio. Again, he asks for money, but Damiana does not seem to notice. Several men arrive on the scene. They find Damiana on the ground, Pedro bloody but alive, and Abundio wielding a knife. The men bring Abundio back into town; on the way, he vomits bile and says he’s been drinking.
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Themes
Fragment 68. Pedro Páramo watches the men lead Abundio into town from his chair. He notices that he can’t use his left hand, but this is nothing new, because “some part of him die[s] every day.” He returns to thinking about Susana and imagines being blinded by her beauty in the moonlight. Then, he realizes that he can’t use his other hand either, and he knows that he is dying. His eyes freeze, his heart stops, and he tells himself that he will no longer have to endure terrifying nights surrounded by ghosts. But he also knows that he will no longer be able to avoid Abundio’s plea for help. Damiana comes over and asks if Pedro wants dinner. Pedro says he’s coming, but when he tries to get up, he falls over dead “like a pile of rocks.”
