Hope is a mad person's fantasy; reality is an inevitable cycle of disturbance and disappointment. Without salvation, love, and even hope, past and present lose their greater meaning. Reality exists only in the absolute power of the local boss and the Church. It is these realities which send the inhabitants of Comala into a never-ending spiral of pitiful restlessness. Pedro Páramo is about the inescapable flaws of religious devotion combined with this tyrannical local political system, seen by Juan Rulfo, in rural Mexico.
The Church's true role in Pedro Páramo is to confirm the suffering of the people of Comala by giving the false impression that salvation through the Church was possible. This illusion of salvation is represented by the tainted Father Rentería, who falls to the will of Páramo. The Father absolves the soul of Miguel for Páramo's money, but later refuses absolution to the spirit of Eduviges Dyada because her sister does not have any money to pay him. Tradition tells the residents that they should seek their salvation through the Father, but the hidden corruption of Father Rentería forces the inhabitants of Comala to cling to the fragile fantasy of salvation through faith. They do so without knowing whether or not there salvation will ever come.
The only resident that does not cling to the illusion of salvation is Susana San Juan, "Then he [Father Rentería] tried once more to speak into her ear, but she shook her head: `Go away Father. Don't bother yourself over me. I am at peace, and very sleepy." Susana San Juan refused to repent for her sins as if her lunacy had given her some sort of clarity into the truth of the corruption represented by Father Rentería. She seemed ...
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...e Church. It is about the disturbance and disappointment that is reality. This reality, for the residents of Comala, and by extension, the residents of Rulfo's rural Mexico, exists only in the absolute power of the local boss and his corruption of the Church. This corrupt reality combined with a submissive population, Rulfo argues, will inevitably dissolve society to a point from which there is no salvation. This complete lack of hope for salvation is represented by the tortured souls of Comala. For these pour souls, joy and hope are elusive but misery and anguish are eternal.
Works Cited
Rulfo, Juan. Pedro Páramo. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Sarah Lawall and Maynard Mack. 2nd Edition. Volume F New York: Norton, 2002. p. 2687.
Roffé, Reina, ed. Autobiografía Armada. "Literature Resource Center, Juan Rulfo." 22 April 2003.
Alfredo Corchado — is the author of the book named " Midnight in Mexico:A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness”. We are, probably, all interested in finding out the facts, news, and gossips about Mexico. This country was always associated with something mysterious. For me personally, the title of the book seemed to be very gripping, I was interested in revealing the secrets of life in Mexico, thus I decided to read this book. I was really curious, what can Alfredo Corchado tell me about the life in this country, the country, where the constant massacre is the picture, people used to see. In his book, the author tells the reader about the real situations, which took place in Mexico, reveals the secrets of the people’s lives and tells the story from the “inside”. He describes the way he lives his life, and does his work. The " Midnight in Mexico: A Reporter's Journey through a Country's Descent into Darkness” is a memoir. Author tries to transform his own experience into the story line. Corchado shows the reader the darkest episodes of Mexican society, while relying on his own experience.
One of the most interesting aspects of Diaz’s narrative is towards the end when Cortés broaches the subject of Christianity with Montezuma. Conversion and missionary work was one of the most important and lasting goals of the conquistadors and other contemporary explorers, they were charged with this duty by the rulers who sent t...
This novel is a story of a Chicano family. Sofi, her husband Domingo together with their four daughters – Esperanza, Fe, Caridad, and Loca live in the little town of Tome, New Mexico. The story focuses on the struggles of Sofi, the death of her daughters and the problems of their town. Sofi endures all the hardships and problems that come her way. Her marriage is deteriorating; her daughters are dying one by one. But, she endures it all and comes out stronger and more enlightened than ever. Sofi is a woman that never gives up no matter how poorly life treats her. The author- Ana Castillo mixes religion, super natural occurrences, sex, laughter and heartbreak in this novel. The novel is tragic, with no happy ending but at the same time funny and inspiring. It is full of the victory of the human spirit. The names of Sofi’s first three daughters denote the three major Christian ideals (Hope, Faith and Charity).
Castillo first shows the reader her distrust of patriarchy and its vertical structures through La Loca Santa’s death. The first structure under scrutiny here is the Catholic Church. After La Loca awakens she throws herself into the air and lands on the top of the Church, saying that those below her carry the same scent that she had smelled while in hell. With Loca high above the others she can be seen as a “substation” for a new Chicana Christ figure (Delgadillo 895). She tells those gathered below that she has been sent back to pray for them so that they would be able to see their Creator in heaven. Father Jerome pleads with her to come down so that the congregation could pray for her. She then reminds him that it is she that was sent to pray for them. With La Loca in the position of a Christ figure of the system, the structure of the system, in this case religion,...
Pedro Paramo had two characters that had qualities of an Übermensch: Miguel and Pedro. Miguel was just like his father, Pedro, as both were self centered and didn’t care or show any regard for others as they frightened and destroyed the city and collected women as nothing more than mere objects. But Pedro was a more prominent depiction of the Übermensch as he acts from a very prudent, mental state. After his father’s death, Pedro uses what has happened to him as a way of punishing Comala. Pedro is very ruthless and can assert any type of unjustified action without feeling pain. He is ruthless and he murders those who come...
...time. Las Casas’ retains a basic concern for the spread of the gospel. Yet he attends to what the gospel itself means for how it should be spread. Church and state, contends Las Casas, commandeer the power of Christ when they compel conversion by violence. Thus, they abrogate the very civilization and gospel they claim to serve. For Las Casas, the true messengers of God adhere to the true message of God: they call people to Christ by the love due to equal, rational beings created in the image of God.
Throughout Death Comes for the Archbishop, New Mexico is described as a very harsh environment, especially for those who are not used to living in it. Unlike the Native Americans and the Mexicans who had lived there for a thousand generations, Father Latour does not know his way around and ends of getting lost in the New Mexico desert, which was “so featureless—or rather, that it was crowded with features, all exactly alike” (Cather, 17). The New Mexico desert is not only “featureless,” but also very brutal. According to Father Latour it is “… like a country of dry ashes; no juniper, no rabbit brush, nothing but thickets of withered, dead-looking cactus, and patches of wild pumpkin—the only vegetation that had any vitality” (Cather, 88). A major theme of Death Comes for the Archbishop is perseverance. For instance, Father Latour did not let the harshness and brutality of New Mexico stop him from planting the seed of Catholicism. He kept preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins until this seed had grown in the strange and “featureless”
The entire book was leading up to the murder of the notorious Mirabal sisters which also put into perspective how oppressed these people were. Not only did this book give the reader an insight on the life of a citizen of the Dominican Republic between the years of 1930 and 1960 but, it showed how an oppressive government could affect the people in both negative and positive ways, using the sisters as examples. Obviously, negative aspects included citizens being jailed and killed by their own government. In a situation such as this, fear was in every person, whether they were brave enough to join the resistance or not. Families were torn apart, as shown in the book. Minerva, Maria Teresa, and their husbands, along with Patria’s husband, were taken from their children, home, church and family to be jailed for going against the government. Alvarez vividly describes the hurt that came to the families when they were broken apart. In jail, the sisters and husbands were also physically ill. They were being starved and being diagnosed with pneumonia which was not unheard
Family is one of the most important institutions in society. Family influences different aspects of a person’s life, such as their religion, values, morals and behavior. Unfortunately, problems may arise when an individual’s belief system or behavior does not coincide with that of family standards. Consequently, individuals may be forced to repress their emotions or avoid acting in ways that that are not acceptable to the family. In the novel The Rain God, written by Arturo Islas, we are presented with a story about a matriarchal family that deals with various conflicts. One major internal conflict is repression. Throughout the novel the characters act in strange ways and many of the family members have internal “monsters” that represent the past that they are repressing. In his article, “The Historical Imagination in Arturo Islas’s The Rain God and Migrant Souls”, Antonio C. Marquez’s implicitly asserts a true idea that The Rain God is a story about repression. Marquez’s idea can be supported from an analysis of secondary sources and a reading of the primary text.
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
...all want to believe that the crime was truly “foretold”, and that nothing could have been done to change that, each one of the characters share in a part of Santiago Nasar’s death. Gabriel Garcia Marquez writes about the true selfishness and ignorance that people have today. Everyone waits for someone else to step in and take the lead so something dreadful can be prevented or stopped. What people still do not notice is that if everyone was to stand back and wait for others, who is going to be the one who decides to do something? People don’t care who gets hurt, as long as it’s not themselves, like Angela Vicario, while other try to reassure themselves by thinking that they did all that they could, like Colonel Lazaro Aponte and Clotilde Armenta. And finally, some people try to fight for something necessary, but lose track of what they set out for in the first place.
...e that even if they are having a hard life, something beautiful will happen someday to take you out of that ugly and ordinary position, just like the arrival of the angel. Marquez demonstrates that even if someone is physically and/or mentally different, he always has beautiful aspects, just like the villagers described the old man as ugly but they called it “angel” which is a beautiful supernatural being. The story shows also that even in things we dislike or find gross, there is always something great and beautiful. Through these fictional devices, we can clearly see the theme of see the beauty in the ugly and ordinary. This story should convince many people that even if they are going through tough moments in their life, they simply have to look from an outside point of view and they will find out that there is always something beautiful in the ugly and ordinary.
Swanson, Philip. "The Critical Reception of Garciá Márquez." The Cambridge Companion to Gabriel Garciá Márquez. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010. 25-40. Print.
Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Peter Simon. 3rd. ed. Vol. B. New York and London:
Central Character: A very old man with enormous wings that they call an angel and that was found in a stormy night in the rear of Pelayo's courtyard. Other characters: Pelayo, Elisenda, a neighbor woman who knew every thing about life and death, Father Gonzaga, a woman that had turned into a spider, the whole neighborhood and other people that came from everywhere to watch the angel.