This novel showcases the roots of Mexican culture and its beliefs on afterlife through deeply complex characters, spirituality, and a constant transition between realms/dimensions that encompass a nonlinear chronology.
During the course of the novel, these ghostly inhabitants reveal details about life and afterlife in Comala, including that of Preciado's reckless father, Pedro Páramo, and his centrality for the town.
[1][2] Initially, the novel was met with cold critical reception and sold only two thousand copies during the first four years; later, however, the book became highly acclaimed.
Pedro Páramo has been translated into more than 30 different languages and the English version has sold more than a million copies in the United States.
Gabriel García Márquez has said that he felt blocked as a novelist after writing his first four books and that it was only his life-changing discovery of Pedro Páramo in 1961 that opened his way to the composition of his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
[5][6] The story begins with the first-person account of Juan Preciado, who promises his mother on her deathbed that he will return to Comala to meet his father, Pedro Páramo.
The two major competing narrative voices present alternative visions of Comala, one living and one populated with the spirits of the dead.
His old patrón, Don Lucas, informs him that his son Pedro Páramo is totally useless and that he should go and get a new job when he dies.
Despite Miguel's cruel and irredeemable nature, Father Rentería absolves him after Pedro pays him in gold coins.
A stuttering man (Spanish: El Tartamudo) arrives at Pedro's house and informs him that revolutionaries have captured and killed Fulgor Sedano.
To protect himself, Pedro invites local revolutionaries to his house for supper, promising them money and support.
Pedro informs a revolutionary leader, El Tilcuate, that the money has run out and that he should raid a larger town for supplies.
When Susana San Juan dies, she refuses absolution by the priest, and Father Rentería pretends to give her last sacraments.
The people of Comala have a large party, greatly annoying Pedro, who is mourning the loss of Susana.
Dolores Preciado dies, and on her deathbed, she charges her son Juan to head to Comala and find his father Pedro Páramo.
Afterlife in Mexican Culture: The book deeply explores the roots of Mexican culture and its set of beliefs on afterlife, a mixture of indigenous ancient knowledge (souls and their dynamic connection to the physical realm) and Catholicism, in which nearly all characters aim to find redemption after death, both sets of beliefs being partly related to the concept of Karma where a soul "pays its dues" whether alive or after one's death.
Although most characters seem to already know this, they live peacefully with it, suggesting an acceptance of spirit interaction in the physical realm that is deeply rooted in Mexican culture.
As Dolores tells her son, Juan, to return to Comala, she hopes that he will find his father and get what he deserves after all of these years.
[9] Father Rentería lives in hope that he will someday be able to fully fulfill his vows as a Catholic priest, telling Pedro that his son will not go to heaven, instead of pardoning him for his many sins in exchange for a lump of gold.
For example, midway through the book, the original chronology is subverted when the reader finds out that much of what has preceded was a flashback to an earlier time.
Certain critics believe that particular qualities of the novel, including the narrative fragmentation, the physical fragmentation of characters, and the auditory and visual hallucinations described by the primary narrator, suggest that this novel's journey and visions may be more readily associated with the sort of breakdown of the senses present in schizophrenia or schizophrenia-like conditions rather than with magical realism.
As the plot progresses, he encounters different spirits at Comala and naively starts to recreate the story of the town to find out more about his father.
He slowly starts to realize that the people he has encountered are actual spirits, which ignites a deep fear in him that would later cause his death.
It's suggested that Juan goes to Comala to redeem their parents' sins and to aid some of the spirits that live there reach redemption.
He is born with the karma of being Pedro's son, and as we progressively see in the plot, there is a deeply rooted cultural belief (based on a mixture of indigenous spirituality and catholic religious ideals) that involves paying for one's sins whether while alive or in the afterlife.
We can witness this when the mud lady spirit watches Juan shiver on the floor and says to her brother:" look at him, he must be paying some deaths".
Once Juan physically dies of fear, he remains narrating the story as a spirit (now accompanied by Dorotea) to keep unveiling the truth about his father and the town of Comala.
This is ironic since in the end of the work Pedro collapses "like a pile of rocks" after observing what his land had become.
She leaves the town with her dad Bartolomeo at a young age, causing a deep wound in Pedro's heart.
Her dying wish is for Juan to go and see his father and "make him pay for all those years he put us out of his mind".