Fray Gomez's Scorpion Analysis

Ricardo Palma struck a chord with me as I read his short story, Fray Gomez’s Scorpion. Throughout the text, Palma was—in simple terms—hilarious. The example I will be focusing on comes from Palma’s description of the first miracle performed by Fray Gomez. In just one small section, I can find three instances of unexpected humor coming from the author.
The first occurrence happens at the very beginning of the short story. At the very beginning of telling this tale, Palma begins with the words “Once upon a time.” What could be more cliché for telling a story than “Once upon a time”? That in itself is humorous, because it is as if Palma is trying to discredit himself from the get-go with this introduction that is more often used in fairy tales than by resected Latin American writers like himself.
Next, as Palma tries to give a quick biography of Fray Gomez, he says, “Fray Gomez performed miracles left and right in my land.” What a peculiar way of phrasing a religiously significant, Sainthood-worthy event—using the term “left and right” in the way a sports announcer would describe Stephen Curry,

Palmas, at this time, took the task of retelling a traditional religious tale with his own twist, and that twist allowed him to entertain as well as criticize his own material. Criticizing religious folklore with methods of “costumbrismo” was vital in teaching his Latin American audience to be able to find the humor and irony in what they absorb through literature, and that is especially important with religious text. In a time when social and political reform went hand in hand with Latin American writing, Palmas did not just want to entertain with this humorous and enthralling piece, he wanted his audience to learn to be able to challenge religion in literature, and finally and most importantly, within the government in order to form a more liberal, secular