Ambiguities in Pedro Paramo Writing Assignment Paper (Essay Sample)

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Ambiguities in Pedro Paramo
Juan Ruflo’s Pedro Paramo is one of the widely read and analyzed novels in many Latin American countries and even in countries abroad. The exact art of Rulfo’s novel, however, had often confused many readers and analysts alike. The book seems to be very ambiguous that it is difficult for a reader to understand it without rereading the book. This ambiguity, on the other hand, both confuses and uplifts the interest of the readers. In this article, we are to look at about three ambiguities that many readers may not seem to understand. First would be the first question as to who Pedro Paramo is. Was he a selfish man who deceives and cheats the people around him? Or was he simply a confused boy who in time learned how to shield his heart from any pain and in doing so he instinctively inflicted pain—both physical and emotional—to the ones around him? The second ambiguity is the question as to who is dead and who is alive in the novel. Were they all dead? Or was “death” used as a literary tool and not to be taken as what it really is? In short, was it symbolizing for something? If it did, then what was the purpose of Juan Preciado’s death? Finally, the third arising ambiguous thought from the book is the very relationship of the characters to each other. One example of such confusing relationship would be Bartolome San Juan’s relationship to Susana. Were they involved with each other sexually? In expanding and addressing these so-called ambiguities, we could then comprehend on the said novel despite providing answers that might contradict each other or be completely different from one another.
Pedro Paramo
Readers would usually have the idea that the story of this novel would deal on the character of Pedro Paramo. This is why, more often than not, readers tend to force themselves to answer who Pedro Paramo was. Was he a tragic hero or the mean villain of the novel? Whether Pedro Paramo was a hero or a villain, we could still assert ourselves that the novel was entitled as such since the story revolved around Pedro Paramo. In fact, the story began with him wherein Juan Preciado stated “I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Paramo…” even though he was not the one stating the story itself.
We then now know that the novel Pedro Paramo was entitled with the name of the character since the stories of the other characters revolved around him. Still, we are left with the question of who Pedro Paramo was. Was he a selfish man who cheats or a man in pain who does not know how to relieve himself from the pain except from inflicting pain?
In the majority of the story, Pedro Paramo was described as a cruel and selfish man who seems to cheat his way out of things to get what he wanted and needed. One example of Pedro’s deceit was with his false proposal of marriage to Doloritas Preciado so that his family’s debt to Doloritas’s family would be void. In here, he had commanded his administrator, Fulgor Sedan, to ask for Doloritas hand:
“Then tomorrow I want you to ask for Lola’s hand.”
“What makes you think she’ll have me? I’m an old man.”
“You’ll ask her for me…Tell her I’m very much in love with her…”
Of course, we already know that “…tell her I’m very much in love with her…” is a lie that Pedro conjured up so that he could pay for his family’s debt. However, even without the issue of the debt, Pedro’s line would still be difficult for a reader to accept as the truth since from the very beginning, Doloritas or Lola had already introduced her loath of the man with her final words to her son:
“Don’t ask for anything. Just what is ours…Make him pay, son, for all those years he put us out of his mind.”
From that line on the first page of the novel, Doloritas seemed to be very angry with Pedro. As the story went on, we then discover that her anger was from her forced eviction from Pedro’s house wherein Pedro drove her to stay with her sister in another village with their son, Juan. Doloritas decided to leave Pedro and she had hoped that he would come to fetch her, but he never did. This broke Doloritas’s heart and made her want to make Pedro suffer the way she did.
Another thought that made Pedro’s “love” for Doloritas questionable was the thoughts of the young Pedro wherein he had stated “I was thinking of you, Susana.” This line, even though coming from the young Pedro, indicates that Susana had already taken Pedro’s heart even at a young age. This was supported by Pedro’s reaction when Susana died where “…he spent the rest of his days, slumped in a chair, staring down the road where they’d carried her to the holy ground.”
Therefore, with such reasoning, we could say that Pedro Paramo was simply lying to Doloritas so that she would marry Pedro for the debts to be void and for her properties to be his. This then points out that Pedro was a selfish deceitful man who uses people for his gain and disposes them when he no longer needs them.
On the other hand, Pedro’s infliction of such deceitful tricks could be because that he himself was a hurt man who seems not to have any way of letting out his pain except inflicting pain to others. One concrete example of this would be the sufferings of the people of Comala, especially those who worked in Media Luna, after the death of Susana, Pedro’s wife. From what was earlier cited, Pedro no longer moved when Susana died. He just “…spent the rest of his days, slumped in a chair…” while his lands lay wasted ad he even “…gave orders for the tools that worked it to be destroyed…”. With this, “…people fell on hard times.” They no longer had food to eat and money to buy anything to eat. Such an example would then open the idea that he did not mean to inflict pain, it was just that he was in pain and he no longer knew what to do but to do nothing and allow the pain to succumb him. This then tells us that Pedro was not evil, he simply was human who could not contemplate pain, instead, he dwelled on it.
With the two arguments presented, we then face one of the confusing paths of the novel. The question of who Pedro Paramo that should have been answered by the story becomes a debatable subject, making the character of Pedro Paramo complex to understand and ambiguous a well.
Concept of Death
Another big issue that is difficult to tackle in the novel is the presentation of death. Our question would be who are dead and who are alive? Or if it was not about who was dead and alive, then what was death? Was it a symbolism for anything?
Death was the opening of the novel and it was the end of it as well. Aside from Pedro Paramo as an element of the story’s building up of events, death also played a key role in this. Juan was pushed to go to Comala since his mother died and he would do anything to make his mother’s dying wish come true. Therefore, he then embarked on a journey towards the seemingly dead town of Comala as an order from his dead mother. With this, we could already see that death is a major key player in the story.
Aside from being a key player, death also brings about much confusion on the story. First, let us answer who are dead and who are not. We know that Rulfo’s pattern in writing the story was that he was moving from the present then to the past and then back again. Therefore, we know that those from the past are alive and if they appear in the present, they are then trapped ghosts. One example would be Eduviges Dyada wherein she introduced herself as an innkeeper and as Doloritas’s friend. She claims to have heard Doloritas tell her that Juan was coming over and then as the story went on, we learned that Eduviges, despite being the one who first accommodated Juan in Comala, was dead herself.
“Eduviges Dyada?”
“Yes, she was the one.”
“Poor Eduviges. That must still mean she’s wandering like a lost soul.”
We could then say that characters such as Eduviges who are members of the past are dead and their interactions with the present are dead. That would then be the analogy to this. However, if we were to look at this, Juan also dies, defying the give analogy. Juan was not part of the past although he was mentioned in it, he still represents the future generation of Pedro. Therefore, he was supposed to be part of the living present who interacts with the dead. However, we see that he died:
“I felt it, in and out, less each time…until it was so thin it slipped through my fingers forever. I mean, forever”
This then gives us, the readers, confused idea. Why would Juan die? What was the purpose of his death? Then, it comes to mind that dea...