Effects of Reader Response in Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo Juan Rulfo utilizes the experience of the reader as they progress together through Pedro Paramo as an allegory for Juan Preciado’s journey and as a mechanism to emphasize the meaningless of time. Reader response enhances the effect of structural peculiarities, setting, and time distortion in order to more completely convey the message of the novel. This interaction between reader and text brings the town of Comala to life far more effectively than a standard, chronological narrative could. There are many different narrators throughout the course of Pedro Paramo, many of whom speak from more than one time period. The transitions between these different narrators are unannounced. Situations …show more content…
This unconventional structural choice serves to confuse the reader, making them search for a different way to connect the two perspectives and times. The most logical way to relate Juan and Pedro in this instance, is through there geographic location despite their distance in time and physical space shows the connectedness of those who are geographically in the city of Comala, despite their obvious separation in time. Events are also connected by broader themes such as death and grief. The “penetrating weeping” of Pedro’s mother over the death of his father, gives way to Pedro’s bribery of Father Renteria in order to save Miguel’s soul” (Rulfo 13). Because of these sudden changes and lack of linear form, reading the novel becomes a cyclical experience. Upon reaching the end, it becomes clear that the events at the end of the book could easily be viewed as the beginning. All of the information and dialogue revealed throughout the novel contribute to a greater understanding of Pedro and his effect on others, but the reader is aware of Pedro’s death from the very first page. If the reader began the journey at the end of the book, they would be just as unfamiliar with Pedro as they are at its …show more content…
Comala is a place without time or space, where if one hears silence it is “only because [they] are not yet accustomed to silence” (Rulfo 4). Only in this setting could Juan’s mom lay so “heavy inside [him]”, only there is the “voice of [her] memories stronger than the voice of [her] death” (Rulfo 4). These uniques characteristics of the setting of Comala are communicated through more than colorful descriptions. The reader experiences the hopelessness and desperation of Comala first hand as they grapple to orient themselves despite the ever-changing cast of speakers and inconsistent timeline. Rereading becomes necessary for understanding and this back and forth, and shifting in time directly parallels the predicament of the ghosts in Comala, who are sentenced to an “endless lifetime of dragging [themselves] from pillar to post” (Rulfo 33). Just as the journey to Comala “rises or falls depending on whether you are coming or going”, Pedro Paramo becomes more challenging to take in as you go along. At first both Juan and the reader believe the “used up laughter” and echoes are symbolic, they uncover this new aspect of the setting of Comala together (Rulfo 22). Just as Juan seems to truly realize that he is trapped alive in purgatory, he dies, ending any forward progression in his story and effectively trapping the reader there with him. No resolution
A sense of ominous foreboding permeates the woeful passage from "Three Dirges." The conflict is immediately apparant: "Don Lazaro, you've got five boys in Comitan teaching the campesinos how to read. That's subversive. That's communist. So tonight, you have to kill them." Don Lazaro, the mayor of the war torn village, San Martin Comitan, seems to have no choice but to carry out this heartless command. His response is indicative of a desperate man searching for answers, yet already resigned to carrying out the task at hand. "What can I say? --you tell me!" cries an anguished Don Lazaro to the villagers. Is he pleading for their understanding, or asking for a miraculous solution that would alter the path that lay before him? It is this uncertainty that, when coupled with melancholy foreshadowing, leaves the reader at a suspenseful crossroad; suspecting that events are transpiring, but doubtful as to the outcome.
Throughout the time I spent between the covers of The Prince of Los Cocuyos, I was astounded by Richard Blanco’s dynamic relationship with the novel’s sole “antagonist”: his abuela. It seemed that no matter how many times he was chagrined at her attempts to negotiate the English language, or was forced to repress his very personhood to meet her traditional standards of manhood, she never ceased to be a pillar of support for a young Richard Blanco. But beyond his grandmother, Mr. Blanco made it quite clear that he was surrounded by a pueblo of family and friends throughout his childhood and adolescence, a village that would confound his “becoming” but foster his growth, make him question his identity and yet be intricately connected to it. It
Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo and Religion In the novel Pedro Paramo, Juan Rulfo uses religiousness as a characteristic that contrasts with the characters lack of moral codes and lack of faith normally attributed to religion. The people in the town of Comala are obsessed with the afterlife and prayer, and they even attend church regularly, but these are just habits that have lost their original meaning. Rulfo uses these symbolic activities to make the charactersÕ dichotomous nature more apparent. Father Renter'aÕs occupation, the town priest, demands integrity, purity, and the power to believe his own teachings.
Junot Diaz’s “Otravida, Otravez” postulates a perspective of life where one’s present and future always reflects their past in some way. Diaz incorporates symbolic figures to convey how a person’s past can be carried into the future. Diaz’s use of symbolic figures includes the dirty sheets washed by Yasmin, the letters sent by Virta to Ramon, and the young girl who begins working with Yasmin at the hospital. These symbolic figures and situations remind the readers that the past will always play a major role in one’s present. Additionally, Diaz’s word choice, where Spanish words appear in many different parts of the reading, suggests that indirectly, one’s past habits are not easily broken.
Parallels of Latin American Culture in Pedro Paramo and No One Writes to the Colonel
The fragment we were given is a three paragraph narration that has longer sentences at the beginning and little by little begins shortening them until by the final paragraph they are very short. The long sentences being used to slow down the time that will be very important in the passage and hence to build up the suspense and tension in the ambience until the sentences become short and speed up the time in the story, building the tension more and more to a point where it seems like something is coming or something will occur. The story is also told by a protagonist narrator which we know thanks to the use of the first person and the direct access to the character’s mind along with his feelings and thoughts. This narrator is retelling us the story (“I have naturally no wish to enlarge on this phase of my story. (…) I would have passed it over if I didn’t think that some account of it was necessary for a full understanding of what follows”[line 19-20]) of his trip over to Ransom’s house, a path which will trigger his paranoia and fear. The style of the writing is very direct as the narrator is practically in a one-sided dialogue with his readers.
Little is known about Pedro de Cieza de Leon’s youth. Historians have discovered that Pedro de Cieza de Leon was a Spaniard, a conquistador, and a writer of Peru’s history. Pedro de Cieza de Leon was not well educated and had only the most basic education from his local school parish (Atlantis). Although he did not have a superior education, his four part book is reliable because he wrote about what he observed as a conquistador. This document is full of interesting information for the reader to discover the Inca’s way of living.
With assertive shouts and short tempers, the prominent character, Ricardo, is characterized as a feisty townsman, doing nothing except trying to protect his town and its members from the judgments of the western world. For example, the characterization of the “‘…quaint’” man is exemplified through the simplicity of his life and the fact that he is “‘…employed’” and is full of knowledge, not a “‘cow in the forest’” (55, 29, 32). Ricardo desperately wants to establish the notion that he is not a heartless, feebleminded man, only an indigent, simple man striving to protect his friends and family from the criticisms of callous cultures. Incessantly Ricardo attempts to make it clear to the photographer the irritation elicited by his prese...
Throughout his novel, Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes effectively uses the transformation of reality to critique and reflect societal and literary norms. In three distinct scenes, Don Quixote or his partner, Sancho, transform reality. Often they are met with other’s discontent. It is through the innkeeper scene, the windmill scene, the Benedictine friar scene, and Quixote’s deathbed scene that Cervantes contemplates revolutionary philosophies and literary techniques. The theme of reality transformation does not even stop there. Sometimes the transformations of reality scenes act as mimetic devices. Ultimately, Miguel Cervantes’ use of transformative scenes acts as a creative backdrop for deeper observations and critiques on seventeenth-century Spanish society.
Elena Poniatowska escrita durante una epoca de cambio en Mexico. Antes de sus obras las mujeres mexicanas eran sometidos, docil, y pasivo. En la tiempo de sus obras las mujeres estaba tratando salir de los estereotipos de antes. Esta problema social tomo un afecto en Elena. Aunque ella no viene de un movimiento literatura directamente, ella escrita con el concepto de compremetido. En su narrative El Recado ella crea un mujer estereotipical que no puede controlar sus emociones. La titula es eso porque ella viene a ver su amante, pero el no esta, asi ella escribe las cosas que sentia. La perspectiva es de un personaje y ella nunca interacta con otros personajes. En facto la unica descripcion de un personaje otro de la protagonista es de su amante Martin. Habla de otros personajes, pero solamente de sus acciones. Porque ellas es la unica perspectiva que tenemos es sencillo a sentar compasion para una protagonista de quien nombre no aun sabemos. Ella da la descripcion de toda que vea, y mas importante todo que se sienta. Tambien tropos y figuras retoricas dan un tono significante al poema. Estos sentimientos de la portagonista y el tono emocional de la narrativa transporta una tema de una mujer estereotipical y debil quien quiere ser reconocido.
In great literature, a scene where death or dying takes place can serve as a fictional prism through which the reader comes to a clearer understanding of the work as a whole. During the encierro, or “bull-running” in The Sun Also Rises, a bull gores Vicente Girones, leaving him to suffer an agonizing death. The death of Girones is a dramatic parable for the downfall of Robert Cohn. Girones’ decision to run with the bulls, his tragic accident, and the crowd’s indifference to his injury mirror the journey of Robert Cohn.
The narrator is inferred to be semi-delirious from his wounds, and basically a little loopy almost. The narrator continues to take a stronger liking in the paintings, and other such fancies within the chatea. He had Pedro close the
In “The Fortune Teller,” a strange letter trembles the heart of the story’s protagonist, Camillo as he to understand the tone and meaning. The author, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, attempts to make the reader believe that the letter is very ambiguous. This devious letter is a symbol of Camillo’s inability to realize that the treacherous deeds he has committed in the dark have finally come to light. This letter will ultimately change his life forever something he never expected. Not thinking of the large multitude of possible adverse outcomes, he reads the letter. Frightened that he has ruined what should have never been started, he broods over his decision to love a married woman. In light of this, Camillo continues his dubious love affair with his best friend’s wife, unconvinced that he will ever get caught. “The Fortune Teller” focuses on an intimate affair between three people that ends in death due to a letter, and Camillo will not understand what the true consequences that the letter entails until he is face to face with his best friend, Villela.
As previously noted, the goal of Engel’s non-chronological narrative is to allow the distinct moments in life to be able to stand individually on paper. Consequently, this lends to the ability to change point of view in various individual chapters. Specifically, Engel changes narration in two chapters in the novel: “Green” and “Cielito Lindo....
The story unfolds in the form of letters written between the principal characters, giving it a unique literary texture. By using this style, de Laclos is able to give the reader a shockingly intimate look at these people as they divulge their most intimate secrets and bring to fruition their sinister plans.