Abundio Martínez

Character Analysis

Abundio is like the credits of Pedro Páramo: He only shows up at the beginning and the end of the novel. He's not just a deaf mule driver; he's also an important catalyst for the action of the story.

First, he gets the narrator, Juan Preciado, to Comala. He lets Juan know that things aren't going to be all hunky dory (seriously though: He should have said something a little more explicit, like "You're going into GhostsVille") and moves on. He sends Juan to Eduviges' house, and she's the first one to say something about Abundio being dead—our first hint that not all the characters in this novel are among the living:

"The man I'm talking about heard fine."

"Then it can't have been him. Besides, Abundio died. I'm sure he's dead. So you see? It couldn't have been him." (9.6-7)

Dum dum dummm.

It's also Abundio who kills Pedro at the end of the novel. Drunk and grief-stricken over the death of his wife, he goes to ask for money to help pay for her burial. Abundio doesn't really know what he's doing, but ends up being taken away with a bloody knife in his hand and leaving a fatally wounded Pedro behind:

As if he were hiding from the sunlight, Pedro Páramo's face vanished beneath the shawl covering his shoulders, as Damiana's cries grew louder, cutting through the fields: "They're murdering don Pedro!"

Abundio Martínez could hear a woman screaming. He didn't know how to make her stop, and he couldn't find the thread of his thoughts. […]

The men lifted [Damiana] from the ground and carried her inside the house.

"Are you all right, patrón?" they asked.

Pedro Páramo's head appeared. He nodded.

They disarmed Abundio, he still held the bloody knife in his hand. (67.40-48)

Way to go Abundio. That's pretty much our only reaction to this pretty gory situation. We want to buy Abundio a giant celebratory ice-cream sundae and a puppy.

Abundio's awesomesauce killing (hey, in a novel with so many murders you have to root for some of them) is made even more praiseworthy because Abundio is one of Pedro's many illegitimate children. His act of killing his father reminds us of the ancient story of Oedipus.

In the Greek play, Oedipus doesn't know that the man he kills is his father (and ends up stabbing out his own eyes because he's so upset when he finds out). In the novel, Abundio is so drunk that he doesn't really know what he's doing (although his eyes stay intact). So in both cases there is a sense of ignorance: The murderer isn't aware of his actions.

In the case of Abundio and Pedro, however, Abundio really is taking revenge on his father. Pedro has not only abandoned his children, or never even recognized them, but he's deliberately starved them by closing down the ranch. Abundio is poor and can't save his wife because of Pedro's action.

Abundio also helps close down this novel by giving Juan Preciado a sense of closure. Sure, Juan didn't get to off his dirtbag daddy… but at least he can rest easy in his coffin knowing that his half-bro Abundio did the job for him.