Pedro Páramo

Character Analysis

Macho, Macho Man

Pedro Páramo, whose name is on the cover of the book, is obviously the BMIC—Big Man in Comala. He's rich, ruthless, and a little bit romantic, as it turns out. The whole novel is dedicated to figuring him out, so if you have a hard time with him don't too feel bad. Let's try and chisel away at the macho mystique and find out who the real Pedro Páramo is.

Who's Your Daddy? (Hint: If you're from Comala, it's probably Pedro Páramo)

The first thing to know about Pedro is that he's the center of the web of relationships spun by the novel. Not only is he the father of the narrator, Juan Preciado, but he's also father to Abundio, the mule driver who will end up killing him, and Miguel Páramo, the crazy rapist who gets away with murder.

He's slept with almost every woman in town, and almost all the men work for him. He may not exactly be the dude every man wants to be and every woman wants to be with… but nonetheless he's with most of the women and is the source of income for most of the guys. He has the power, and he has the paternity

Just because he's got a relationship with everyone in town doesn't mean that he's well liked, though. Abundio, the mule driver who says that Pedro is his father, calls him "living bile" (2.37). Abundio finally kills Pedro, possibly for not taking care of his many offspring. Pedro's own father-in-law calls him "unmitigated evil" (45.15). These aren't coded pet names: People really hate Pedro.

Fortunately for Pedro (and unfortunately for the rest of the town), he doesn't care if everyone thinks he's a dirtbag. Pedro has the power, and his power comes from his money.

He's the richest person in Comala, and because he ends up buying or stealing all the land, the town's fate depends utterly upon him. When his son, Miguel, dies, Pedro buys off the priest with gold coins so that he will pardon the rotten kid (who raped the priest's niece and killed his brother) and allow him to get into heaven.

Pedro's power also helps him get women. When Pedro Páramo inherits the Media Luna ranch from his father, Lucas, he also inherits some debts. Instead of paying them, he marries the girl he owes, Dolores Preciado, so that his debt will be forgiven and her land will become his. Pedro is a greedy-guts.

All this greed ends up in murder. When one man, Toribio Aldrete, decides to sue Pedro for invading his land and puts up a fence marking the true boundary, Pedro just has him killed. Not only that, but he leaves the body hanging so that its soul won't find rest. He's a mean one, Mr. Páramo.

Tough Exterior, Soft Interior

But, in the grand tradition of anti-heroes, Páramo has a soft side. Even though he's a murderous, rapey, double-dealing scuzzbag, he also has an innocent side that lets him experience true love.

Some flashbacks take us all the way back to Pedro's childhood, when he would get caught daydreaming about the girl he had a crush on, Susana:

I was thinking of you, Susana. Of the green hills. Of when we used to fly kites in the windy season. (6.6)

Aww, here Pedro sounds like a sweet, childish, puppy-lovestruck boy… not a scary, murderous, old man. Sheesh. Way to complicate our emotions there, Pedro.

Even throughout his epic womanzing sessions, Pedro never forgets Susana. He spends a lot searching for her and getting her father to come back to Comala. When she dies, it crushes Pedro. He quits taking care of the ranch and the town dies with it:

Don Pedro spoke to no one. He never left his room. He swore to wreak vengeance on Comala:

"I will cross my arms and Comala will die of hunger." And that was what happened. (64.10-12)

There you go: the best of Pedro Páramo and the worst of Pedro Páramo, all wrapped up in a neat little passage. He's heartbroken that his true love is dead, which is aww-inspiring, but he also decides that the only way to make himself feel better is to starve the city of Comala.

It's also suggested that the reason Pedro Páramo is such a coldhearted snake traces back to his relationship with his father. Young Pedro sees his Daddy brutally murdered, and reads his father's busted-up mug as containing a glimmer of revenge-lust:

He never liked to relive that memory because it brought others with it, as if a bulging sack of grain had burst and he was trying to keep the kernels from spilling out. The death of his father dragged other deaths with it, and in each of them was always the image of that shattered face: one eye mangled, the other staring vengefully. And another memory, and another, until that death was erased from memory and there was no longer anyone to remember it. (39.5)

Although he's deader than a doornail, his father still looks like he wants to get even. Pedro decides that he's going to get his vengeance, perhaps in a warped homage to his Daddy-o. We also learn in the quote above that Pedro represses the memory of his dead dad… and if we've learned anything from the good Dr. Freud, it's that repressed memories lead to some severe acting out.

Pedro Páramo is Pedro Páramo

Pedro's own death marks the end of the book. In fact, the very last sentence describes the fall of the great and terrible man: "He fell to the ground with a thud, and lay there, collapsed like a pile of rocks" (68.14). This ending (along with the title) suggests that his character is the book—it begins with a search for him and ends with his fall.

Just as beneath Pedro Páramo's tough exterior lies a caramel-gooey core of puppy love and missing-Daddy sadness and simplicity, beneath the crazytown literary experimentation of Pedro Páramo lies a pretty straightforward story about the life, times, and death of one dude named Pedro.