Pedro Paramo

Bartolome tells his daughter Susana that there is an unlucky and inauspicious smell in Comala, especially compared to the fruitful area where he worked in a mine. Whereas La Andromeda was full of life, Comala seems beset by death and “misfortune” (92).

Pedro has offered a house to Bartolome, and Pedro wants something in exchange. Though Bartolome suspected that he wanted the mine, Pedro actually wants Susana. Bartolome is appalled by this idea. Susana, however, agrees to go with Pedro. Bartolome criticizes Pedro for having sex with many women, suggesting that he does not need Susana and that he is “unmitigated evil” (93). Then, Bartolome announces that he plans to return to La Andromeda because he wishes to die there. He reveals that Susana is a widow and that she is still grieving for her dead husband. He insists that Susana belongs to him, not Pedro. Susana rebukes Bartolome: She says that he is not her father. He asks whether she is “mad” (94); she says, yes.

According to Pedro, Susana is the most beautiful woman. He orders Fulgor to deal with Bartolome, telling him to make the man “disappear” (94) when he reaches his mine in La Andromeda. Without her father, Susana will have no choice. She will have to marry Pedro. First, Fulgor must win Bartolome’s trust.

Rain falls on Comala on an “ill-fated day” (95). In the market, a group of Indigenous people tries and fail to sell herbs in the market. The men are out building irrigation in the fields, leaving the town empty. Justina buys some rosemary and then returns to the Media Luna ranch, where Susana is hidden away in “the darkness” (96) of her room. Justina hears a voice, telling her that she should leave Comala. She feels as though she must stay for Susana’s sake, as Susana is sick. She wonders whether the voice belongs to Bartolome. Then, she screams. Her screams wake Susana, who scolds Justina. However, Justina insists that she did not scream. She claims that Susana is “dreaming” (98).

They discuss the house cat, each claiming to have been with the cat the previous night. Justina feels overworked and she has no time for Susana’s hallucinations. She decides that she will quit her job and leave Comala the following morning. Susana knows that this is a bluff. Justina admits that she loves Susana too much to go, as she has raised Susana since she was a little girl. The women are now inseparable.

Susana stirs in the middle of the night but falls back asleep. The next day, she calls for Justina and complains that the cat is disturbing her sleep again. Justina shares bad news: Bartolome “died night before last” (100). Susana is not upset. She believes that the noise in the night that she believed to be the cat must have been her father’s spirit, coming to her. She recalls a time when her father lowered her down into his mine. He showed her a skeleton, which they picked apart to search for “round gold coins” (101). The memory makes Susana laugh, which confuses Justina.

The storm stops but the strong winds continue “to blow, day after day” (102). Father Renteria enters Susana’s room with a candle, though he is cloaked in shadows. They talk about Florencio, Susana’s first husband. When Renteria offers his comfort, Susana asks him to leave. As he leaves, Susana asks why he visits her when he is “dead” (103).

El Tartamudo is nicknamed this due to his stutter. He visits Media Luna ranch to talk to Pedro, claiming that so-called revolutionaries have “m-murdered Don Fulgor” (104). El Tartamudo was allowed to live to pass on the demands of the revolutionaries to Pedro: They want all his land in Comala. Pedro gives a response for El Tartamudo to pass to the revolutionaries, telling them to visit him as quickly as possible. He also wants El Tartamudo to pass a message to a local man named El Tilcuate, asking for a meeting.

After El Tartamudo leaves, Pedro does not spend long thinking about Fulgor. He is more concerned about Susana, who is shut away in her room all day. From the corner of her dark room, Pedro watches her “endless agitation” (105). He knows that she has some hidden trauma. Though he does not understand his wife’s pain, he is pleased that she has come back to him after so many years apart. She is all he needs in life.

In the present, Juan and Dorotea listen to Susana’s voice. She talks about swimming with a man in the ocean. He swam with her, even though he did not like the sea. This made Susana feel pure and whole. She likes the way the ocean water caresses her naked body, so she swims each day. The man does not always go with her when she is “giving [herself] to the waves” (107).

In the past, Pedro welcomes “about 20” (107) revolutionaries into his ranch. He feeds them dinner and they marvel at the breadth of his land. When asked, they explain that they are revolutionaries, but they struggle to explain the purpose or cause for which they fight. They are waiting for their orders, so they do not know why they are in Comala, although one revolutionary claims that they may be fighting against the land-owning elite, stating that men like Pedro are “lowdown bandits and slick thieves” (108). Pedro decides to lend them his support. He offers a large sum of money and promises to bolster them with 300 men of his own. They accept his offer of “both men and money” (109).