Pedro Paramo

Fulgor convinces Dolores to marry Pedro by saying that Pedro was merely hiding his love for her out of fear of his father, Don Lucas. He flatters Dolores by saying that Don Lucas never believed that Pedro deserved so beautiful a wife. She accepts the proposal but asks for a week to prepare the wedding. Fulgor refuses to extend the wait, even though Dolores mentions that she is on her period. Settling the deal, Fulgor leaves. He makes a mental note to arrange the joint ownership of the property between Dolores and Pedro. After he leaves, Dolores is excited by her upcoming marriage.

Fulgor brings the good news to Pedro. Father Renteria asks for 60 pesos to perform the wedding ceremony. He is reluctant to do so, as Pedro is not a penitent man. He rarely attends church. Pedro criticizes Fulgor for failing to extract the priest’s fee from Dolores. He sends Fulgor to threaten Toribio Aldrete instead, insisting that he falsely claim that Toribio’s land is measured incorrectly. Pedro does not care about the law. He tells Fulgor that “[they’re] the law” (43) now. Pedro sends Fulgor and a group of henchmen to intimidate Toribio.

Fulgor waits for someone to arrive, playing with his whip while staring at the black bow on the wall of the house. He talks to Pedro, explaining that he has concluded the issue with Toribio. Next, Pedro wants to move on to the Fregosos. First, however, he is “all wrapped up in [his] honeymoon” (44).

In the present, Juan talks to Damiana Cisneros about the strange sounds in Comala. She agrees that the “town is filled with echoes” (44). He hears laughter, howling dogs, and the voices of the dead, including Damiana’s sister Sixtina who died when Damiana was six years old. Damiana is surprised to learn that Juan’s mother is dead; she did not tell her that Juan was coming to Comala. Juan explains that his mother died due to sadness. When Juan excitedly realizes that Damiana might be alive still, he looks up to discover that she has already gone. All that is left is the echo of his voice as he calls out to her.

Juan hears the echo of his voice. Then, he overhears a conversation between two women. They are talking about Juan, but they believe that he is Filoteo Arechiga, who they do not want to talk to. Juan hears them discuss Filoteo, who seduced women alongside Pedro. The women return to their homes.

Juan hears more voices at night. He listens to a farmer named Galileo who is talking about the harvest. Another man insists that Galileo’s land “belongs to Don Pedro” (48), though Galileo claims to have never met him. The man warns that Fulgor will soon visit Galileo, implying that he will be hurt if he does not do as he is instructed.

Juan hears a disembodied voice talk to Chona, a young girl who is planning to run away. The voice claims to have prepared two mules for their escape, but Chona is reluctant to leave her dying father. Chona nearly ran away the previous year, but her father caused her to stay. The disembodied voice cannot wait anymore. Chona promises her unnamed lover that they will be together after her father’s death. This is not enough for her lover, who threatens to abandon her and be with Juliana. Chona does not mind. She tells the man to never contact her again.

Juan listens to voices singing a song about someone gifting a “lace-bordered handkerchief” (50) to their sweetheart.

In Comala, Juan sees carts being pulled through the town by “slowly moving oxen” (50). A ghostly voice explains that the carts carry grain and that the weather in Comala is liable to change at a moment’s notice. When Juan thinks about leaving town, he is stopped by a woman who asks why he is visiting Comala. Juan tells her the story about his search for his father. She invites him into her home, which has half-collapsed and where two people complain to him that he was hitting his head against their door. The man (Donis) is “naked” (51) and the woman (Donis’s wife) joins in the complaints. Juan insists that he merely wants to sleep. He is very tired. The unnamed woman, Donis, and Donis’s wife invite Juan to sleep, as they have been sleeping for a long time.

In the morning, Juan wakes to realize that, even though he has been hearing words, they have not made an actual sound. He likens this to hearing a voice in a dream. Donis and his wife discuss Juan’s identity and whether he is lost. Many of the people they meet are lost; many are searching for “Los Confines” (52). When the couple argues about whether they should return to sleep, Juan feels as though he is still in a dream.

He wakes up again and the voices return. Donis’s wife mentions that Juan is “thrashing” (53) around in his sleep, much like she once did. She claims that she did this because of something Donis did, but Donis only wants to sleep. When she notices that dawn is about to break, she wonders whether Juan could be a killer. She decides to leave, exiting the room past the slumbering Juan. Juan wakes up. He makes coffee and asks the woman about the way out of Comala. He wants to head to the nearby town of Sayula, which she says is much busier than Comala.

Donis’s wife reveals to Juan that Donis is actually her brother. She says Donis is searching for “a stray calf” (55). Since she has always lived in Comala, Juan asks the woman whether she knew Dolores. However, she has been locked away for many years because she does not want people to see her face. She believes that her sins have caused “purplish spots” (56) to appear on her face. Most people in the town, she explains, lock themselves away at night to avoid the many ghosts.

These townspeople are also ashamed of their past actions and their sins. She remembers telling the local Bishop about her sexual relationship with her brother, only to be told that this particular sin was unforgivable. The Bishop eventually abandoned Comala and left the townspeople to wallow in their own sin. Donis returns and complains that he has not found his calf. He will have to search for it later that night. He is annoyed when Juan reveals that he knows about the couple’s incestuous relationship. However, he recommends that Juan wait until morning before leaving. The roads out of town, he says, are “grown over” (58).