Pedro Paramo: Reviewing the Female Perspective Anonymous College

In one of the only two novels written by Juan Rulfo, "Pedro Paramo" is one unlike the stories from the conventional era it was published in, conveying a labyrinth of carefully crafted characters drifting through a world of magical realism and supernatural occurrences. The novel is considered one of the most important pieces of literature in Latin American history and for good reason. Every sentence Rulfo utilizes is purposeful, and each name fits keenly into the grander picture of what he writes about both literally and symbolically.

The story begins with a simple promise, uttered between a dying mother and her young son as she clings to her final breathes and urges him to travel to her hometown, Comala to meet his estranged father. Almost immediately, it’s made clear that the man named Pedro Paramo is a figure of infamy within the novel. When Juan meets another weary traveler, Abundio, along a deserted route to Comala, the mystery around Pedro quickly begins to unravel with a reference to the man being “living bile” and, oddly enough, already dead. The story follows a variety of different narrations from that moment on, jumping from one fragmented memory to the next, guiding the reader towards a dreamlike set of events that...