Pedro Paramo

In the past, a heavy storm ends and the sun appears. A woman shouts at her son for spending too long in the bathroom. The boy (Pedro Paramo) is daydreaming about flying kites and Susana, the girl that he loves. Pedro is criticized by his mother for not being useful. He is told to go help his grandmother “shell corn” (12).

By the time Pedro speaks to his grandmother, she has finished shelling the corn. Together, they grind the chocolate. Pedro tells his grandmother that he was watching the rain, though she really knows that he was daydreaming about Susana. Pedro objects to the idea that he should clean the mill; he says that the mill is broken and that the family should “buy a new one” (13). He does not grasp that the family is in dire financial straits since the death of his grandfather.

Nevertheless, his grandmother says that they will buy a new mill. She sends him to buy a mill from a woman named Dona Ines Villalpando, but also to mention that the family will not be able to pay for it until after the harvest. Pedro’s mother also tells him to collect aspirin and cloth from the store. As he runs through the streets, people call out his name, but he does not hear because he is “far, far away” (14).

During another storm, Pedro thinks about Susana. He wakes during the night and finds his mother and grandmother at prayer. When asked why he does not also pray for his dead grandfather, Pedro claims that he is “sad” (15). After, he can hear his mother cry. The church bells toll throughout the night.

Dona Eduviges explains that she was “nearly [Juan’s] mother” (15). Juan claims to have never heard her name until it was told to him by Abundio. In the past, Abundio received a small commission for sending travelers to stay in Eduviges’s home. These days, however, no one comes to Comala. Eduviges reveals that Abundio once delivered the mail in Comala but was forced to quit after becoming deaf by fireworks. After the incident, he never spoke again. Juan claims to have heard Abundio speak, but Eduviges insists that Abundio is dead. Juan must have met a different person, she says.

She then tells Juan about Inocencio Osorio, a horse tamer who told fortunes by giving massages. During his trancelike moments, Inocencio would occasionally strip “stark naked“ (17). Famously, he issued many predictions, so many that one would eventually come true. When Pedro Paramo married Dolores, Inocencio warned Dolores that the position of the moon was inauspicious. He warned her not to have sex with her husband. When Dolores asked Eduviges to swap places with her, Eduviges agreed. She secretly loved Pedro and went to bed with him, though he never attempted to have sex with her. Instead, he “spent the whole night snoring“ (18). A year after this, Eduviges explains, Juan was born. This, she says, is why she might have been his mother.

When Juan asks about Comala’s past beauty, Eduviges changes tact. She talks about how Pedro’s demeanor made Dolores sad. Dolores would dream of running away to her sister’s house. When she mentioned this to Pedro, he kicked her out of the house. He harbored a resentment against her for many years. Juan now understands why his mother talked about Pedro in the way she did.

Juan tries to tell Eduviges his life story, growing up in Colima with his aunt, Gertrudis. Eventually, Gertrudis told Juan and Dolores to leave. Juan stops, however, realizing that Eduviges is not listening. She asks him whether he would like to rest again.

In the past, Pedro thinks about Susana. She wanted to leave Comala for many years, despite her affection for Pedro. Rather than work his own job at the telegram office, Pedro watches another perform the role. He thinks about his grandmother’s advice, when she cautioned him to be patient. However, Pedro is “not one for patience” (21). He knows that this will affect his future.

In the present, Juan hears a sound. Dona Eduviges explains that he is hearing the sound of “Miguel Paramo’s horse, galloping down the road to the Media Luna” (21). Miguel was Pedro’s son and the ghost of his horse wanders Comala, searching guiltily for its former owner. Eduviges tells the story of Miguel’s death. Miguel would visit “his sweetheart” (22) in the neighboring town of Contla each night. Eduviges had a relationship with Miguel, and she would watch him ride past. One evening, however, he stopped at her house. The town of Contla, he said, had vanished. In its stead, “everything was smoke, smoke, smoke” (23). Eduviges wondered whether Miguel was actually dead. When she said this to him, he remembered trying to jump one of his father’s stone fences on his horse. He wondered whether the horse fell, killing him. Eduviges wished Miguel a happy afterlife.

She remembers how Pedro sent a message to her the next day, describing how the grief-ridden horse had returned home without its rider. Eduviges talks to Juan about the sounds made by the dead. Juan, she says, is lucky that he does not know “the moan of a dead man” (24).

In the past, Pedro hears the sound of dripping water and then footsteps in the distance. An unfamiliar voice calls to him, asking him to get up. The voice belongs to his mother. His father died just before dawn. She assures Pedro that his father has not been killed. He wonders whether the same killers might have “killed” (25) her as well.

On the day of Miguel’s funeral, the sun shines. The local priest, Father Renteria, refuses to perform the blessing because he believes that Miguel was immoral, so “will never know God’s grace” (26). The priest avoids Pedro, sprinkling the holy water on the body while asking for God’s mercy. Miguel is carried into the streets. After, Pedro confronts Renteria. He admits that he has heard Miguel’s secret: Miguel murdered the priest’s brother and raped Ana, the priest’s niece. Still, however, Pedro asks the priest for forgiveness for his son. He tries to bribe Renteria with “a handful of gold coins” (27). Renteria takes the money as he and his church are in desperate need. After Pedro leaves, however, Renteria prays to God. He accepts God’s punishment, whatever it may be, and cries.

Later, Renteria informs Ana of Miguel’s death. Ana suggests that she is still “not positive” (28) that Miguel was her rapist, as she was attacked in a dark bedroom. She remembers being frozen with fear; she has deliberately forgotten the incident, remembering only the next morning. However, she knows that Miguel killed her father. She believes that he has gone to hell, though Renteria is quietly not as certain. He offers his thanks to God, nonetheless, as God has “taken him from this earth where he caused such harm” (29).