Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why does the novel have so many narrators?
- In Pedro Páramo, what is the difference between the townspeople's real lives and their "lives" as ghosts? Is there a difference?
- How would the novel be different if it took place in the rural US instead of Mexico?
- Pedro Páramo's unusual collection of narrators had a huge impact on literature in Spanish, especially the genre of Magical Realism. What elements does the book use to create a real, yet impossible, setting and story?
- The narrator goes from being, as far as the reader knows, a living person to sharing a grave with Dorotea halfway through the book. How does this change in his status affect the plot of the book?
- Why do you think that, of all of his illegitimate children, Pedro chose to recognize Miguel as his son?
- The sexual relationships in the novel are all somehow tainted—they are incestuous, rape, or just plain crazy. What do these relationships reveal about the novel's attitude toward sex as a whole?
- At many points during the novel the voices that fill Comala overlap and make it impossible to know who is speaking. In what position does this put the reader?
- Does the novel take sides? Is it criticizing or just describing the economic injustice its characters endure?