DOCUMENTARY: Nero's Guests

WAKE UP CALL

No matter how much documentaries are run down as boring and preachy, there is a viewership
and a market for them, even it is small and scattered. If only feature filmmakers had the courage
and imagination, there are thousands of stories out there, just waiting to be told. If they were
made in the fiction format, maybe many more issues would reach a larger audience.

Unfortunately, film is now equated only with entertainment, and even new has to be ‘packaged’
and ‘marketed.’ So if any degree of truth is to reach the people -- those who are interested in the
truth that is -- it is through the medium of documentary.

A small band of documentary filmmakers is committed enough to go where no new reporter or

filmmaker will care or dare to go. And somehow, the impact is always more when a subject is
seen through an honest and dispassionate medium.  Marathi cinema has produced films like
Gabhricha Paus and Paangira about farmer suicides in Vidarbha, but Deepa Bhatia’s film
Nero’s Guests, that follows journalist-activist P.Sainath through areas of devastation, and also
comes up with startling facts, leaves a lasting impression on the viewer’s mind.  A fear years
ago, Rakesh Sharma’s Final Solution did more for creating awareness about the Gujarat riots
than any newspaper or TV report could do.  

As Sainath points out in the film, a fashion week gets over 500 reporters covering it, but hardly
any publication has a full-fledged rural reporting department. Sainath’s, relentless campaign for
creating awareness about rural poverty and farmer suicides has not just won him awards but the
undying admiration of journalists all over the country. He is a forceful and fearless speaker,
sarcastic and scathing by turn.
The title Nero's Guests, refers to a horrifying historical episode, when Nero burnt alive humans
to illuminate a party he had thrown, and not one of the guests protested against the atrocity.
Sainath and Bhatia say that if we keep ignoring the suffering of our farmers, we are no better
than Nero's guests.  The film won two awards at MIFF* earlier this year.

(*MIFF: Mumbai International Film Festival of Documentary, Short and Animation Films)

Nero’s Guests, the age of inequality: A Review

The reason why I have taken up to write a review of Nero’s Guests is because it needs to be
widely circulated, written and talked about, as much as possible; so that everyone gets to see it,
those who still do not get the time to watch it, may further need to be motivated to do so, and
only then it will reach out to the wider audience and be able to make a real impact.

The mainstream media today is totally degenerated and corrupted as it does not cover anything
that is not “breaking news” or that is not considered “glamorous” enough to catch eye balls. For
this obvious reason, Nero’s Guests has been completely ignored by the mainstream media (both
print & electronic) and is not given its due space & visibility.

The subject itself is not new to any of us and it has become a part of our daily lives - mere
statistics. It is about the severe agrarian crisis that the country is faced with, as a result of which
farmers are still committing suicide and as many as 200,000 farmers have already paid a price by
giving away their lives, over the last decade or so. It has been written, talked and debated about
in certain sections of the press; but the film is extremely thought provoking, highly emotive,
heart rending and at times is absolutely shocking and painful.

The angst and frustration of journalist P. Sainath, Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu (Protagonist
and the man behind the film), is highly contagious. His aggressive and emotionally charged
narration (supported with well researched facts and data) has been able to drive home the
message loud and clear. It not only brings out the absolute failure in handling of the crisis by the
respective Center and State Governments (both BJP & Congress) but also their complete apathy
& inaction towards the crisis, government after government.
Directed by Deepa Bhatia, a noted Bollywood film editor with heavy commercial titles such as
Taare Zameen Par and My name is Khan to her credit, this one comes out as a brilliant body of
work in the script, the fluid edits without any frills and fills.

Sainath’s talking straight into the camera between the shots, apparently without any pre-
rehearsed lines and caution, immediately connects with the audience through interactive viewing
and a strong storyline.

Though would love to but rather not talk about the title of the film that finds its origin in Roman
History and Tacitus – I would leave it to Sainath himself for he alone would be able to do full
justice explaining the background and the relevance of the title to the subject.

The film is a documentary on ground report, narration of facts and situation in the rural India. It
does not talk about any solutions or remedy. Sainath believes there could be more than one way
to solve the agrarian crisis but it is the apathy and inaction towards farmers committing suicide
that actually brings him to this business.

Finally, it was this below  line in Credits that drew my attention:

This documentary has been realised with the support of
The Jan Vrijman Fund
Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland

For those in a rush, just to get a glimpse of the documentary, here is the Trailer, courtesy: IDFA.

Conclusion:
Sorry, but Socialism and Socialist Policies can just do this much. A step ahead, Socialist
Liberalism is nothing but Crony Capitalism. It can only make the rich even richer and the poor
even poorer, thereby increasing the divide, the poverty and the disparity among its citizens. And
if this is topped with the corrupt and inefficient governance, we can only thank God for not
taking us through a civil war already.  There will be many more Nero’s Guests and life will go
on.

If this has to change for good, we need to look for serious alternatives – alternatives to change
the complete system of governance – to throw away Socialist Policies and embrace Freedom and
Liberty.

First of all, the educated common man has to come out of this “I don’t care” attitude, tagged as
“Apolitical” and start seriously thinking about connecting with Politics and Governance, as a
responsible citizen. This does not necessarily mean everyone needs to jump into active politics,
but everyone must be politically aware and actively support a political movement or initiative
that could bring about a change to the degenerating Indian Polity which also matches to their
personal ideology. There are plenty of such new initiatives trying to make a difference in this
space and one has to just look around, identify and connect with.
One such serious movement catching up momentum, the one and only propagating concept of
Freedom and Liberty is Freedom Team of India (FTI). Please join FTI as a Freedom Team
Member  or just become a Freedom Partner to connect with and support FTI on various social
networking platforms. There is a lot happening around here and one just needs to “get involved”
to feel the excitement.

This, in my honest opinion, is the only way to refuse to be among the Nero’s Guests list.
Posted by Ashish Jauhari at 5:46 PM
 LOVE AT FIRST SGHT
Though “Love at First Sight” is not set in a specific time or place, one can imagine the poet observing two
lovers engaged in a display of public affection. But she implicates herself only once, when she says “I
want to ask them / if they don’t remember – / a moment face to face / in some revolving door?”.
Szymborska seems convinced that some guiding force – what begins as “Chance”, then becomes
“Destiny” – “pushed them close, drove them apart”. In a poem about the beginnings of a love affair, we
anticipate a certain depth of feeling, sensuousness and rapture, but Szymborska denies us these
conventions, arguing against “love at first sight” and debunking the myth of serendipitous encounters:
our lives were scripted long ago in a “book of events”, which we cannot alter, try as we might.

"My Grandmother's House" - Kamala Das - Critical Summary

My Grandmother's House (representative)

Introduction:

Kamala Das is one of the three most significant Indian poets writing in English today, the other
two being Nissim Ezekiel and Ramanujan. Her poetry is all about herself, about her intensely
felt desire for love, for emotional involvement, and her failure to achieve such a relationship. In
this poem, “My Grandmother’s House” Kamala Das, recalls her ancestral home and her dead
grandmother. This poem takes the form of a confession comparing her present broken state
with that of being unconditionally loved by her grandmother.

Themes in the Poetry of Kamala Das:

The poetry of Kamala Das is a search for the essential woman, and hence the woman persona
of her poems plays the various roles of unhappy woman, unhappy wife, mistress to lusty men,
reluctant nymphomaniac, silent Devdasi and love-lorn Radha. Kamala Das has also been called
a poet in the confessional mode. The confessional poets deal with emotional experiences which
are generally taboo. There is a ruthless self-analysis and a tone of utter sincerity. As
E.V.Ramakrishnan rightly says, “In her poetry, Kamala has always dealt with private
humiliations and sufferings which are the stock themes of confessional poetry.”

Reminiscent of the Poet’s Ancestral Home:

The poem is a reminiscence of the poetess’ grandmother and their ancestral home at Malabar
in Kerala. Her memory of love she received from her grandmother is associated with the image
of her ancestral home, where she had passed some of the happiest days of her life, and where
her old grandmother had showered her love and affection. With the death of her grandmother
the house withdrew into silence. When her grandmother died, even the house seemed to share
her grief, which is poignantly expressed in the phrase “the House withdrew”. The house soon
became desolate and snakes crawled among books. Her blood became cold like the moon
because there was none to love her the way she wanted.

Yearning for the Past: Choked with Grief:

The poet now lives in another city, a long distance away from her grandmother’s house. But the
memories of her ancestral house make her sad. She is almost heart-broken. The intensity of her
emotions is shown by the ellipses in the form of a few dots. Now, in another city, living another
life, she longs to go back. She understands that she cannot reclaim the past but she wants to go
back home, look once again through its windows and bring back a handful of darkness – sad
and painful memories, which she would have made her constant companion, to keep as a
reminder of her past happiness. The poet is unable to proceed with her thoughts for sometime
as is indicated by the ellipses (dots).

The poet is now choked with the intensity of grief. She yearns for love like a beggar going from
one door to another asking for love in small change. Her need for love and approval is not
satisfied in marriage and she goes after strangers for love at least in small quantity. But she
does not get it even in small change or coins. Her love-hunger remains unsatisfied, and there is
a big void, a blank within her, she seeks to fill up with love but to no avail. The image of the
window is a link between the past and the present. It signifies the desire of the poet for a
nostalgic peep into her past and resurrect her dreams and desires.

Conclusion:
The poem springs from her own disillusionment with her expectation of unconditional love from
the one she loves. In the poem, the image of the ancestral home stands for the strong support
and unconditional love she received from her grandmother. The imagery is personal and
beautifully articulates her plight in a loveless marriage. Thus, the old house was for her a place
of symbolic retreat to a world of innocence, purity and simplicity, an Edenic world where love
and happiness are still possible

“Lājwantī”
by Rajinder Singh Bedi

“Lājwantī” by Rajinder Singh Bedi explores the plight of abducted women during the violence
and upheaval of the Subcontinent’s partition in 1947. Sundarlal, an abusive husband whose own
wife went missing during the conflict, actively campaigns for the repatriation of abducted
women but is taken aback by the unsettling emotional transformations that attend the acceptance
of his own wife back into his home. Bedi raises the problem of silence—the inability of
survivors and perpetrators of violence to talk about what happened—which is a common theme
in partition literature. One issue astutely raised by students in this course was that Bedi’s choice
of narrational mode serves utterly to silence the main female character Lājwantī herself. In any
event, the stark emotional landscape of partition violence is chillingly captured in this
remarkable short story by a leading writer of the generation that lived through it.

South Indian Filter Coffee with Amma by Julie Sahni

This chapter of our textbook appears to be written for non-Indian people, as we see when the
authors writes the English version of the word before the Hindi one, as in "elixir 'amrita'",
"creamy pudding kheer", "jaggery gur", "mother, Amma" and the unfunny joke: "form an asana
(in my language it means twist into a pretzel!)"
She tries too hard to get the reader to relate to the magic of the milk-related memories of her
childhood, and her attachment to her mother, but for reasons I can't place my finger on, fails, and
fails miserably at that - succeeding only in getting us mildly irritated.
Perhaps it is the pretentious Nigella tone of the text, or the occasional lapses in meaningful
sentence-formation: "She just isn't fond of it, but obsessed with it."
Also, there is the issue of her over-zealous description of everything.

One question that caught my attention: Examine the interconnected themes of memory and taste.

Note to self: do not let hate in mind get transformed into hate on page.

Analysis:

 author loves milk not because of ancient Vedic significance as God's favorite food or its
referral to as amrita, but because of childhood and younger experiences being greatly
influenced by milk
 milk in kheer, kulfi, barfi, rabri, thandai form. When emotionally drained, warm frothy
milk + jaggery + crushed Malabar cardamom +  Kashmiri saffron. Also, khoya with
Granny Smith apples
 or khoya + decoction = milky South Indian filter coffee
 mom a foodie - author blessed with that special gene
 describes morning scene: New York to Delhi flight - reached late - jet lag, Delhi air, not
early riser - at dawn, bells, bhajans, azan, yoga instructor on neighbor's TV set - back to
sleep, but mom whispers, "Julu, come smell the coffee" - author deliberates but only
momentarily - will not miss mother's coffee "not today, not any day, never"
 mother preparing sambar: picks lentils clean of stones, (mention of perfect 20-20
eyesight) then washes and adds them to deep pot for slow uncovered boiling. Seasons
with turmeric (rhizome or powder) virgin sesame oil, spices, tamarind, adds shallots and
tiny eggplants
 sambar usu. accompanies idli
 coffee decoction almost ready
 now for milk
 launches into childhood-milkman-memory-recounting-mode <facepalm> <whyyy????>
 cool winter morning in Kanpur
 Chandramukhi the cow - adorable calf - secret pact between Lallan and Chandramukhi
 handful of raw milk straight from cow for author - ensured by mother
 memory of buffalo-milk from farm - buffalo feisty, kicked Lallan; milk: scent pure and
primal
 back to present - milkman bring 2 litres in morning, and set quantity in evening - ice cold
packets - crisis if not used till last drop - donor/receiver list: sister at top of list - excess
milk packed and sent to her
 why mom doesn't bring milk home herself, and why doesn't she use "gadgets meant to zip
through cooking"
 answer: 1. "Employing a person is the best one can do for this country and its people.
This is how we are going to build self-worth and esteem." Milkman can now send kids to
school - kids can aspire (not only dream) to achieve anything they want
 answer: 2. A. gets philosophical about cooking lentils (end result equated to butter
poached oysters)
 answer: 2. B. food evolves and transforms - pay attention to detail and you have a recipe
for success in life and in food
 then describes kitchens - hers, sister's, mother's
 describes mother's appearance: decked up and beautiful but not to go out - to cook; art
form and sensual display
 how to stir boiling milk
 mother pours coffee, they sip it, author praises mother
 strong person of character, perseverance and generosity
 inspires and empowers anyone who comes in contact with her
 not a rich woman of material wealth - rich within
 beautiful woman of 84
 mother of four very fortunate daughters
 still creating and perfecting the recipe of food and life
  an eternal optimist - the true Renaissance woman
 FINALLY, the end of this stupid essay - birds chirping louder, sun rays entering kitchen,
slowly flooding it; author has had coffee and is now warm all over

Now that I have summarized this chapter of ungodly length, here are the questions that could be
asked:
The role women play at home
Narrator's childhood experiences with milk
Narrator's relationship with mother
Mother's character
Connection between love for mother and love for milk
Memory and taste
Continuation of past into present
Lastly, cliche but possible: How does milk affect the author?

Home : Pedro Paramo : Study Guide : Pedro Paramo Summary

Pedro Paramo Summary

by Juan Rulfo

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Pedro Paramo Summary

Pedro Páramo is both a simple and very difficult work to summarize. It follows a labyrinthine
structure in which the past is interspersed with the present, sometimes in ways that are not clear
until halfway through a section. Much of the responsibility for crafting a chronological narrative
falls to the reader. Furthermore, there are several narrators, some first-person and some third-
person omniscient. This short summary will present events more or less as they unfold in the
novel, though with some synthesis of events for the sake of a more cohesive summary.

The story begins with Juan Preciado narrating a trip he takes to his mother's home village of
Comala. She has recently died and asked him to find his father, Pedro Páramo, in the village
where she was born. As he approaches, a man on a burro, Abundio, overtakes him and leads him
down to the valley. Abundio tells him that he is Pedro's son as well, and that their father has been
dead a long time. He introduces Juan to the large expanse of land around Comala, called the
Media Luna.

Once in the village, Juan finds it is deserted. He seeks out a woman named doña Eduviges on
Abundio's recommendation, and finds her in an old house. She tells him that the voices of the
dead can be heard in Comala, and confesses she knew he was coming, as his mother sent a
message despite being dead. She tells Juan a bit about his mother's childhood and also that
Abundio has been long dead as well. Juan tries to tell her about his aunt whom he grew up with,
but she ignores him. Juan hears a horse galloping by, and is told about Miguel Páramo, Pedro's
cruel bastard son - yet the only child he recognized - who was killed on a horse ride. His horse
rides forever lamenting his owner's passing. She tells him about the night Miguel died, and
seems sad about it.

Interspersed with Juan's first hours in Comala is a narrative recounting the childhood of Pedro
Páramo. He is young and poor, and he pines for a girl named Susana who had left the village
long before. He is reprimanded by his family for dreaming, and they send him to run errands. He
later gets a job but shows an independent streak that keeps him from impressing his family. His
memories shift to the moment when his father died, and the anger he felt over it.

The narrative shifts to the story of Father Rentería, the parish priest of Comala who hates the
Páramo family but nevertheless forgives them their sins because they can pay. He hates himself
for having blessed Miguel's corpse at the boy's funeral, since Miguel had raped the priest's niece
Ana and killed her father. He is further haunted by memories of having denied Eduviges
atonement because she killed herself, a hypocrisy considering he had forgiven Miguel for worse
sins.

Back in Juan's present, Eduviges leaves him to sleep, but he is kept awake by howling in his
room. Suddenly, Damiana Cisneros, another childhood friend of his mother, arrives and takes
him to her house. She tells him the cries he heard were those of Toribio Aldrete, a man Pedro
had murdered for refusing to cooperate with his takeover of the Media Luna.

The reader is introduced to adult Pedro, and his attempts to purchase the entire Media Luna.
With the help of a supervisor named don Fulgor Sedano, who had also worked for Pedro's father
Lucas Páramo, Pedro devises a plan to marry or romance the women to whom his family owes
debts in order to avoid paying them back. Their first target is Dolorita Preciado (who will later
give birth to Juan). They are able to secure the marriage, and so does Pedro's conquest of the
Media Luna begin. His first order of business is the murder of the man whose ghost Juan heard.

In the present, as Damiana walks Juan through town, she explains to him that many spirits haunt
Comala, reliving their past lives. After she suddenly disappears from his sight, he overhears
several conversations from spirits, most about Pedro. He begins to wonder whether he should
leave the village, when a woman taps him on the shoulder and invites him to her home. He
accepts, and there he meets the woman's brother, Donis. Donis and his sister are involved in an
incestuous relationship, which has particularly scarred the sister. They seem to be alive, and
invite him to stay. The next morning, he overhears them wondering whether his presence will
damn their house. Donis is out when he awakes, and so the sister explains the extent of her
misery living alone in Comala in such an unhealthy relationship.

Donis returns, and he and his sister leave together. Juan sleeps, until woken by an old woman
who is taking sheets from under Donis's bed. He spends several days caught between sleep and
waking. When he does wake up, he finds Donis's sister lying next to him. She tells him that
Donis has left, perhaps forever, and that Juan can now take care of her. He wakes again later
feeling stifled from the heat, and escapes out into the town square where, unable to breathe, he
dies.

Juan then wakes underground, buried next to a woman named Dorotea. The rest of the novel
involves their conversation and the voices they overhear. She challenges his account of his death,
and he admits he died not from asphyxiation but from the "murmuring." She tells him to find
comfort in the fact that he will be there for a long time, and argues that one should not be
overcome with guilt and suffering. Every since Father Rentería once convinced her she would
never be forgiven of her sins, she has been happy to live without excessive guilt.

Back in Pedro's day, don Fulgor oversees the success of the Media Luna, but is resentful about
Miguel, who runs around without supervision, wreaking havoc on women and the community.
Miguel has been accused of several murders, all of which Pedro's employees are expected to
hide. Miguel is told about Dorotea, who, when alive, was a simpleton desperate to have a baby,
and he recruits her to collect women for him in exchange for pay.

Later, Pedro is woken to find that Miguel has died, having been thrown off his galloping horse as
the reader earlier learned from Eduviges. The father feels no sadness but knows he is beginning
to pay for his sins. That night, Father Rentería wanders the countryside alone, upset about his
weakness in allowing the Páramo family to buy their absolution. The priest recalls how he sought
atonement for his own sins from a colleague in Contla, but was denied. Because of his shame
over the denial, Father Rentería continues to refuse absolution to the poor of Comala, a
hypocrisy that makes him feel even more guilty.

In Juan's present, he hears the voice of Susana San Juan, the girl whom Pedro loved most of all.
She talks to herself about her own mother's funeral, which was organized by her nursemaid
Justina. Nobody came to her mother's funeral. Dorotea explains to Juan how Susana, after
returning in adulthood to Comala, was married quickly to Pedro, even though she was mentally
unstable. Pedro was madly in love with her, and when she died, he gave up on life and let
Comala and the surrounding countryside (all of which he owned) slowly die off. This is what led
to the mass exodus from Comala, and the suffering that has followed many spirits into the
afterlife.

In Pedro's day, Susana and her father, Bartolomé San Juan, return to Comala on Pedro's
invitation. He had been searching for them for many years, and finally lured them back with the
promise of a house. Though Bartolomé accepts the gift, he does not want his daughter involved
with Pedro. There is a strong implication that he and Susana are involved in an incestuous
relationship. Because of his resistance, Pedro and don Fulgor devise a plan to send Bartolomé to
a mine where he can easily be killed.
Both through a voice that Juan hears and through an omniscient narrator, we learn how,
following her father's death, Susana retreated into a feverish fantasy world where she revisited
memories of her dead husband Florencio, whom she loved deeply. She refuses to accept Father
Rentería's forgiveness, and is unaware of how deeply Pedro pines for her, watching her in the
midst of feverish dreams each night, wishing he knew what she dreamed of.

Meanwhile, news is brought to Pedro that don Fulgor has been killed by a burgeoning revolution
against the landowning class of rural Mexico. Pedro sends for the revolutionary leaders, and also
recruits a mercenary named El Tilcuate to infiltrate the movement. When the leaders arrive, they
are clearly disorganized and easy to manipulate, and Pedro convinces them to accept money and
men from him, amongst whose number will be El Tilcuate.

Pedro's lawer, Gerardo Trujillo, tries to quit his employer's service but is forced to stay when not
given a bonus. Pedro has continued to rape young women because he is unwilling to force
himself on Susana, but he is terribly sad over her condition. Meanwhile, the revolution continues
to grow, and now includes priests including Father Rentería. Pedro convinces El Tilcuate to
continue to fight, but to leave him alone.

When Susana finally dies, after refusing again to receive last rites from Father Rentería, Pedro is
devastated. When Comala coincidentally holds a fiesta in the days following her death, the
grieved and angry Pedro promises to destroy them, which he ultimately does in the way
previously explained by Dorotea. Pedro then retreats into an idle, depressive life, where he sits
outside his house all day and does nothing.

Abundio, the guide who first brought Juan into Comala, is introduced in the context of the past.
His wife has recently died, and he convinces a shopkeeper's mother to sell him cheap liquor. He
gets drunk and stumbles around until he ends up begging money from Pedro, who denies him.
Without knowing what he is doing, Abundio stabs Pedro and Damiana, who tried to protect the
don. Though men arrive quickly to take Abundio away, Pedro slowly dies, thinking of Susana all
the while, and happy to finally be released

How does the narrative style aid in the development of the plot in Rulfo's
Pedro...
Topic: Pedro Páramo

demiblust | Student, Undergraduate | eNotes Newbie

Posted July 13, 2012 at 3:14 PM via web

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How does the narrative style aid in the development of the plot in Rulfo's Pedro Páramo? 

2 Answers | Add Yours

Michelle Ossa | College Teacher | (Level 3) Educator Emeritus

Posted July 15, 2012 at 3:24 AM (Answer #1)

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The narrative style of Pedro Páramo combines first person subjective and third person
omniscient subjective points of view. The first person point of view often comes from main
character Juan Preciado, who has promised his dying mother that he will visit the town of
Cómala in order to meet the father whom he has never known: Pedro Páramo. The third person
omniscient narrative permeates the story, particularly after Juan Preciado dies sometime in the
middle of the story. After this part is reached, the narrative breaks once more into first person
accounts from Pedro Páramo himself, since the story takes the non-traditional approach of going
back in time after the death of Juan Preciado, which occurs in the present time.

This is precisely what helps the plot develop: when you consider the fact that this is actually a
ghost story, the mixture of the past and the present makes sense, for it gives the tale a very
ethereal and surreal flavor. Pedro Páramo has been dead for a while at the time that Juan
Preciado searches for him. However, the people who Juan Preciado meets along the way are,
presumably, ghosts which foreshadow his future imminent death. The Gothic and fantastic nature
of this novel grants the use of unique narrative styles that will keep the reader wondering exactly
what is going on. However, the themes of life, death, the afterlife, and redemption are very
complex topics; non-traditional topics are often best presented in a non-traditional story-telling
way so that the purity of their complexity is best appreciated. 

Therefore, Pedro Páramo uses first person and third person narrative points of view to effectively
convey the essence of the topics that are being treated: the reality of death, the mystery of a
possible afterlife, and the possibility of redemption long after life no longer is. Hence, the
convoluted nature of the narrative helps to accentuate an equally complex treatment of the topic
of life. This is, perhaps, the best way to really understand the depth of the main idea.

Pedro Páramo Summary

Summary (Society and Self, Critical Representations in Literature)

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Pedro Páramo is one of the most important Mexican novels of the second half of the twentieth
century. In episodes that recall a number of universal myths, and with Mexican characters who
recall Odysseus, Telemachus, Oedipus, Electra, and others, Rulfo tells about people searching
for identity in love, family origins, and interpersonal relationships.

Juan Preciado is sent by his mother Dolores to find Pedro Páramo, the father he never knew.
Páramo abandoned Juan and Dolores before Juan was born. Juan’s half-brother Abundio guides
him to Comala, located “at the mouth of Hell,” where ghosts speak from the grave to describe
the sinister influence of Pedro Páramo on the town and its inhabitants. Juan dies without
discovering his identity, since he never meets his father. Páramo died years before Juan’s arrival,
murdered by his son Abundio.

Among the ghostly voices of Comala is that of Susana San Juan, Páramo’s childhood sweetheart
and the obsession of his life. When young Susana left Comala in the company of her father,
Bartolomé, Páramo waited thirty years for her return. When she reappeared, she was
psychologically disturbed by an incestuous relationship forced upon her by Bartolomé. In her
delirium, Susana confuses Bartolomé and Páramo with a third man: Florencio. Florencio is
Susana’s husband, or perhaps he is a sublimation of the father figure in Susana’s mind. Susana
finds happiness and fulfillment in fantasies about her relationship with Florencio. Her madness
makes her inaccessible to Páramo. As does Juan, Páramo dies without finding the identity
sought, in Páramo’s case, in the love of Susana San Juan.

Rulfo’s novel is presented in two sections. In the first, which has no chronology, the point of
view is Juan Preciado’s, who is dead when the novel begins. The second section has an
omniscient narrator who gives the history of Comala from Páramo’s childhood to the moment of
his death. Thus, the time of the second section is prior to that of the first one.

The fragments of Pedro Páramo are like the shards of a broken mirror. They reflect the
characters, their relationships, and their identities. It is up to the reader to reconstruct the mirror
in order to discover the truth reflected in it.

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1. Masterpieces of World Literature, Critical Edition

2. Critical Survey of Literature for Students

Pedro Páramo Summary (Masterpieces of World Literature, Critical Edition)

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Juan Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo stands at the forefront of Latin American works employing
the techniques of modernism and Magical Realism. The novel begins in a straightforward
fashion with a traveller, Juan Preciado, returning to the village of his mother’s birth, Comala. At
a fateful crossroads meeting, he encounters his half brother, Abundio Martínez, who serves as his
guide as he descends into the village.

As Juan Preciado arrives in Comala, he finds a town totally at odds with his mother’s
recollections. Instead of the verdant, fertile town of her youth, he finds a deserted and rundown
ghost town, whose scarce inhabitants lurk in the shadows and mumble mysterious comments.
The novel rapidly becomes much more complex, introducing a series of plotlines in rapid,
abruptly introduced vignettes that travel in and out of the minds of such characters as Pedro
Páramo, Susana San Juan, Dorotea, Damiana, the village priest Father Rentéria, and Abundio
Martínez, and back and forth across time.

The chronology of the story follows events in Comala from approximately 1880 to the Mexican
Revolution in 1910 to the Cristero Revolt of 1926. The earliest events in the narrative describe
the childhood and adolescence of Pedro Páramo, Juan Preciado’s father, and his love for Susana
San Juan. Pedro Páramo grows up in a prominent landowning family in Comala, which has
fallen on hard times as a result of the murder of Luis Páramo, Pedro’s father. Pedro grows up to
take control of the family through ruthless behavior, violence, and murder, restoring the fortunes
and power of his family at the expense of the people of Comala. He routinely preys sexually
upon the young women of the town and eventually marries Juan Preciado’s mother, Dolores, as...

(The entire section is 725 words.)

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Pedro Páramo Summary (Critical Survey of Literature for Students)

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Juan Preciado, a peasant and Pedro Páramo’s son, in fulfillment of the last will of his mother,
arrives on foot to Comala looking for his father. During his journey, another man had joined him;
the traveler turns out to be another of Páramo’s sons. He tells Juan Preciado that their father was
a “kindled rancor” and that he is dead. Preciado finds only one other person in Comala, Eduviges
Dyada, an old friend of his mother, and she gives him shelter. The woman is dead, as is the
companion of Preciado during the journey.

Pedro Páramo appears as a boy, dreaming of his childhood sweetheart, Susana San Juan, and
doing some domestic chores. Susana is the only true, deep love of Páramo, in contrast to the
many other women whom he has seduced, and raped. Eduviges Dyada tells Preciado that she
should have been his mother, for on her nuptial night his true mother, advised by a soothsayer,
asked Eduviges to take her place beside Páramo. Little by little, Páramo’s moral profile is drawn
by Eduviges. She continues to tell Preciado what kind of man his father is. She tells of Miguel
Páramo—the only son whom Pedro acknowledges—a violent, sexual predator who died in an
accident. Father Rentería, the local priest, enters the plot. His brother had been murdered and his
niece raped by Miguel Páramo, but he nevertheless had to celebrate a funeral mass and perform
the last Catholic rites for the soul of Miguel.

To add to this conflict of...