Christian Purgatory and Redemption in Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo

Abstract

Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo has been read as archetype, capitalist critique, or modernist surrealism. Its religious interpretations have generally seen the novel as pessimistic and its characters damned. However, the text gains clarity and religious meaning once Comala is understood as a Christian purgatory with an indeterminate geography, physicality, and time, and we realize that Juan arrives already physically dead. Some of the novel’s characters spiritually stagnate or decline, as does Pedro Páramo and Renteria, but others are purified and attain self-understanding, as do Dorotea and Juan. Climactically, Susana’s death and salvation affirms the purgatorial aspect of Comala as Páramo’s defeat results in his dissolution and regeneration for the town’s inhabitants.