Pedro Paramo

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1955

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Pages 1-29

Pages 29-58

Pages 58-83

Pages 83-111

Pages 111-140

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Comala

In Pedro Paramo, Comala functions as a symbol of moral decay and trauma. Before Pedro’s rise to power, the town is a typical rural Mexican community. This version of Comala is glimpsed very rarely and only in the past tense. Juan hears his mother share her memories of the “beautiful” (2) town and the views, which inspires him to visit. Only when he arrives does he realize that her nostalgia is “laced with sighs” (2). The contrast between the stark desolation of Comala in the present and the nostalgia-tinged memories of the past symbolize the downfall brought about by Pedro Paramo. This divergence between the two versions of Comala is an important juxtaposition, representing the nefarious effect that Pedro has had on the community and the seemingly doomed nature of the present.

During Pedro’s rise to power, the boundaries of Comala are an important demonstration of his transgressions. One of Pedro’s first decisions is to instruct Fulgor to accuse Toribio Aldrete of “falsifying boundaries” (36). Ironically, Aldrete’s boundaries are carefully measured and calculated—it is the accusation itself that has been falsified. Nevertheless, Pedro pursues his false claim and asserts control over the land through his lies and willingness to use violence. This dispute over the nature of land boundaries is an important symbolic demonstration of how Pedro will rise to power: There is no boundary that he will not cross, either physical or moral. There is no Comala any longer, only Pedro.

Once Comala falls under Pedro’s sway, a difference emerges between Comala as a physical place and Comala as a community. The community falters under Pedro’s immoral rule, but they are capable of transgressing against him. The way in which Susana’s funerary rites are turned into a festival is a demonstration of this. The community of Comala unwittingly rebels against the imposition of Pedro’s grief. As a result, Pedro decides to punish all of Comala. He destroys the town financially, communally, and physically. By the time that Juan arrives, Comala is a ghost town. The ghost-filled streets are laced with Pedro’s violence and the trauma that he caused; no soul is allowed to settle out of Pedro’s spite. The decayed version of Comala that swallows up Juan is a symbol of the harmful ways in which cycles of violence perpetuate.

Rain, Floods, and Mud

Rainy weather and its effects are an important motif in the novel, creating a misty, foreboding atmosphere of sadness and decay. It is a constant feature in Comala. Many of Pedro’s fragments begin with the beginning or the end of a storm. The “showers of heavy rain” (11) function as a foreboding symbol of what will happen to the town once Pedro seizes control. The rain functions as a form of pathetic fallacy, a literary device in which the environment reflects the interior feelings of the characters. In Pedro Paramo, the rain falls on everyone, just as Pedro’s violence will affect everyone in the town. Once he has taken control, the rain intensifies. Those who are most affected by Pedro suffer the worst: Susana’s memories are soaked in rain and storms.

The constant rains take on an almost biblical quality. The “diluvial burbling” (99) of the rain evokes the image of Noah’s ark from the Bible. In the biblical story, God sends a great flood to wash away the sins of the world. The word “diluvial” (99) or “diluvian” are typically associated with this biblical reference, speaking to the necessity for a similar flood to wash away the sins of Comala. Like the pre-flood world of Noah, there is too much sin in Comala, and the town cannot be allowed to continue in this fashion. By the time Juan arrives in Comala, the rains have stopped. The attempted flood has failed and Comala has been left as a ghost town, in desperate need of the symbolic flood that never actually arrived.

Though Juan might not witness the rains that bring the flood to Comala, he does see the aftermath of the rains. While staying with Donis, he lays down beside Donis’s wife and sister. Their incestuous relationship is part of why they are caught in Comala, as they are trapped in the desolate town by the nature of their sin. Donis’s sister seems to be “crumbling, melting into a pool of mud” (62). The effect of sin is to deteriorate the people of Comala, to crumble them into dirt and mud by mixing them with the rain and the sweat. The woman turning into mud also has a biblical symbolism, as God created mankind from dust or mud from the ground. Donis’s sister is returning to this pre-human state, removed from the grace of God by the nature of her sins and forced back to the dust and mud. The rain and the flood have failed to contain or deal with the sin in Comala and everything is lost in desolation.

Voices, Echoes, and Murmurs

The disembodied voices, echoes, and murmuring sounds that fill Comala symbolize the lingering effects of trauma in the novel. As soon as Juan arrives in Comala, his head is “filled with sounds and voices” (7). The longer he spends in the town, the more he is able to distinguish and listen to these voices, gradually becoming more and more aware of his father’s violent legacy.

Even the people who seem real and are physically present with Juan possess a strange quality to their voices that he cannot quite comprehend. A woman’s voice has “human overtones” (6), hinting at the unfamiliarity and the strangeness that lingers beneath the surface. The deeper Juan delves into the town, the more pronounced the voices become. They are a “murmuring” (63) that quickly becomes deafening. Juan cannot hear anything else. The voices overpower him, preventing him from resting. Every one of the voices has a story to tell, most of them involving Juan’s father, Pedro. The stories involve violence and trauma. Juan cannot sleep because he is overwhelmed by the trauma and violence caused by his father. In this sense, the voices represent the vestigial pain that exists in a community—the voices are a symbolic demonstration of a community crying out in pain and needing to warn the next generation of the damage that has been done.

Eventually, Juan’s voice joins the ranks of the ghosts. He does not stop narrating after his death, joining his voice to the cacophony that has surrounded him since his arrival. He becomes yet another man who cannot survive the pain caused by Pedro Paramo. His voice then fades into the background of the novel as Pedro’s story takes over. The emergence and disappearance of Juan’s voice are a symbolic reminder of the nature of generational trauma and how it can affect people long after the deaths of those involved.