El Llano En Llamas By Juan Rulfo Summary

This work is from Juan Rulfo’s 1950’s collection of short stories El llano en llamas, which presents scenes from life in rural Jalisco, Rulfo’s native region of Mexico. The collection has been translated by George D. Schade as The Burning Plain (1967). Many of its stories, like this one, involve family relationships in difficult situations. Rulfo himself was an orphan; his father was killed in the long years of the cristero revolts during the time of the Mexican Revolution and his mother died several years later. The theme of the search for the father, for family roots, and for personal or even national identity permeates Rulfo’s writings.

Both sons in this story, the colonel and Justino, feel a sense of family loyalty and duty. The colonel is seeking justice as well as revenge for his father’s murder. He does not attempt to face the guilty man directly, lest he feel some sense of compassion for him. Justino is hesitant, yet he tries to help his father. He seems to accept Juvencio’s admitted guilt, and he finally claims the body for burial. Although Justino had his father with him during his youth, he felt the fear of a life constantly in dread of his father’s potential capture

The Colonel did not have a father growing up because Juvencio killed him. He hunts down Juvencio years after his father was murdered. He is still angry for being robbed of a father figure in his life. He is willing to do anything to get revenge for what was taken from him. Although he never really knew his father his desire to revenge his death is unstoppable. On the other hand Justino grew up with a father. Yet while his father pleaded for Justino to save his life he coldly responds no. It almost seems like he could care less what happens to his father and is only worried about himself. Juan Rulfo delicately intertwines the idea that one person, Justino, does not value what another person, the Colonel, so desperately