The Roles of Cultural Belief Systems in Respects to Theme in Pedro Páramo

Pedro Paramo is a novel that cannot be fully understood without consideration of its rich cultural background. It is this Mexican background, which informs so much of the novel, providing the main conflict. The narrator of the tale remarks “some villages have the smell of misfortune” while describing the locale of Pedro Parámo, the small Mexican town of Comala where the story plays out on many levels (83). On the surface level, this story is merely about a tyranical man who ruins his hometown of Comala. But in reality he does much more than that, his presence detroys the town completely, driving everyone out and converting the town to a type of purgatory. This deeper harm that he causes, by damning the rest of his townsmen is the evil that provides the novel with most of its meaning. Understanding the unique religious background of Mexico, a predominately Catholic country with a tendency for superstition, provides a window by which one can understand the ruin that Comala descends into in Pedro Páramo.

The novel is written in the style of magical realism. This leaves the reader to gradually realize the fantastical nature of the narrative and then interpret it. At first casual remarks made by the townspeople like “‘It doesn’t just look like no one lives here. No one does live here’” and “‘you may find someone who’s still among the living” seem to be exaggerations (7, 9). However, as Juan Preciado, the main character himself, begins to experience these occurrences like when he “saw a woman wrapped in her rebozo; she disappeared as if she had never existed” and when “I lifted my hand to knock, but there was nothing there. My hand met only empty space, as if the wind had blown open the door” the reader begins to understand that he h...

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... in the same air I exhaled, cupping it in my hands before it escaped. I felt it, in and out, less each time… until it was so thin it slipped through my fingers forever. (57)

These sinful people of Comala will “never know glory. Or even see it from a distance” (66).

Ultimately, the villainy and ruin of Pedro Páramo is made even more poignant due to its cultural implications. Pedro doesn’t just terrorize the townspeople of Comala during their mortal lives, but also denies them any hope of salvation in their afterlife. He hurts them in a much more meaningful way. For a Catholic culture that is so concerned with getting to heaven, to have that taken away is the ultimate evil. Through this viewpoint, Pedro Páramo is a novel that deals with ruin in its highest form.

Works Cited

Rulfo, Juan. Pedro Páramo. Trans. Margaret Sayers. Peden. New York: Grove, 1994. Print.