Pedro Páramo

by

Juan Rulfo

Juan Preciado Character Analysis

Juan Preciado is one of the novel’s three main protagonists, along with Pedro Páramo and Susana San Juan. His narrative voice dominates the first part of the novel, until his death around halfway through. Pedro Páramo begins with Juan Preciado explaining that he came to Comala to fulfill his mother Dolores Preciado’s dying wish: that he track down his father, Pedro Páramo, and take revenge on him by claiming his rightful inheritance. But when he arrives in Comala, he learns that the town has long since been abandoned and Pedro Páramo has long since died. He spends the next quarter of the novel meeting the ghosts of various people who lived and died there, learning about the town’s history from these ghosts, and finally taking shelter with Donis’s sister and getting caught up in vivid dreams. Just when he’s planning to leave Comala, the murmurs of the town’s endless ghosts overwhelm him and frighten him to death. He spends the rest of the book as one of these ghosts, buried in a grave with Dorotea, listening in on other dead people’s conversations. At the beginning of the novel, Juan Preciado looks like an archetypal male protagonist: he is an estranged son seeking to prove himself by journeying into the underworld and confronting his father. Even his last name, which means “valuable” or “prized,” makes it clear that he’s the chosen one. But Juan’s epic journey soon turns on its head when he dies without fulfilling his mission and instead cedes his portion of the narrative to the voices of Comala’s forgotten ghosts. His narrative gives way to that of Susana San Juan, whose last name fittingly links her with Juan’s first name. In transforming from hero into antihero, Juan Preciado undertakes a journey that Rulfo truly believes to be universal: the transformation from purposefulness to meaninglessness and from hope to despair.

Juan Preciado Quotes in Pedro Páramo

The Pedro Páramo quotes below are all either spoken by Juan Preciado or refer to Juan Preciado. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Death, Hope, and Despair Theme Icon
).
Fragments 1-12, Pages 3-24 Quotes

I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived there. It was my mother who told me. And I had promised her that after she died I would go see him. I squeezed her hands as a sign I would do it. She was near death, and I would have promised her anything. “Don’t fail to go see him,” she had insisted. “Some call him one thing, some another. I’m sure he will want to know you.” At the time all I could do was tell her I would do what she asked, and from promising so often I kept repeating the promise even after I had pulled my hands free of her death grip.
Still earlier she had told me: “Don’t ask him for anything. Just what’s ours. What he should have given me but never did… Make him pay, son, for all those years he put us out of his mind.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dolores Preciado (Juan’s Mother) (speaker), Pedro Páramo
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

I had expected to see the town of my mother’s memories, of her nostalgia—nostalgia laced with sighs. She had lived her lifetime sighing about Comala, about going back. But she never had. Now I had come in her place. I was seeing things through her eyes, as she had seen them. She had given me her eyes to see. Just as you pass the gate of Los Colimotes there’s a beautiful view of a green plain tinged with the yellow of ripe corn. From there you can see Comala, turning the earth white, and lighting it at night. Her voice was secret, muffled, as if she were talking to herself… Mother.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dolores Preciado (Juan’s Mother)
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

“It’s hot here,” I said.
“You might say. But this is nothing,” my companion replied. “Try to take it easy. You’ll feel it even more when we get to Comala. That town sits on the coals of the earth, at the very mouth of hell. They say that when people from there die and go to hell, they come back for a blanket.”
“Do you know Pedro Páramo?” I asked.
I felt I could ask because I had seen a glimmer of goodwill in his eyes.
“Who is he?” I pressed him.
“Living bile,” was his reply.
And he lowered his stick against the burros for no reason at all, because they had been far ahead of us, guided by the descending trail.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver) (speaker), Pedro Páramo
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:

As I passed a street corner, I saw a woman wrapped in her rebozo; she disappeared as if she had never existed. I started forward again, peering into the doorless houses. Again the woman in the rebozo crossed in front of me.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker)
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Fragments 24-36, Pages 41-61 Quotes

This town is filled with echoes. It’s like they were trapped behind the walls, or beneath the cobblestones. When you walk you feel like someone’s behind you, stepping in your footsteps. You hear rustlings. And people laughing. Laughter that sounds used up. And voices worn away by the years. Sounds like that. But I think the day will come when those sounds fade away.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:

“Look at my face!”
It was an ordinary face.
“What is it you want me to see?”
“Don’t you see my sin? Don’t you see those purplish spots? Like impetigo? I’m covered with them. And that’s only on the outside; inside, I’m a sea of mud.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Donis’s Sister/Wife (speaker), Donis
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes, Dorotea. The murmuring killed me. I was trying to hold back my fear. But it kept building until I couldn’t contain it any longer. And when I was face to face with the murmuring, the dam burst.
“I went to the plaza. You’re right about that. I was drawn there by the sound of people; I thought there really were people. I wasn’t in my right mind by then. I remember I got there by feeling my way along the walls as if I were walking with my hands. And the walls seemed to distill the voices, they seemed to be filtering through the cracks and crumbling mortar. I heard them. Human voices: not clear, but secretive voices that seemed to be whispering something to me as I passed, like a buzzing in my ears.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dorotea
Page Number: 58-59
Explanation and Analysis:

“Why did you come here?”
“I told you that at the very beginning. I came to find Pedro Páramo, who they say was my father. Hope brought me here.”
“Hope? You pay dear for that. My illusions made me live longer than I should have. And that was the price I paid to find my son, who in a manner of speaking was just one more illusion. Because I never had a son.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dorotea (speaker), Pedro Páramo
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Fragments 37-46, Pages 61-85 Quotes

I waited thirty years for you to return, Susana. I wanted to have it all. Not just part of it, but everything there was to have, to the point that there would be nothing left for us to want, no desire but your wishes. How many times did I ask your father to come back here to live, telling him I needed him. I even tried deceit.

Related Characters: Pedro Páramo (speaker), Juan Preciado, Susana San Juan, Bartolomé San Juan, Dorotea
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
Fragments 60-68, Pages 109-124 Quotes

“I… I saw doña Susanita die.”
“What are you saying, Dorotea?”
“What I just told you.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dorotea (speaker), Susana San Juan
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis:
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Juan Preciado Quotes in Pedro Páramo

The Pedro Páramo quotes below are all either spoken by Juan Preciado or refer to Juan Preciado. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Death, Hope, and Despair Theme Icon
).
Fragments 1-12, Pages 3-24 Quotes

I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived there. It was my mother who told me. And I had promised her that after she died I would go see him. I squeezed her hands as a sign I would do it. She was near death, and I would have promised her anything. “Don’t fail to go see him,” she had insisted. “Some call him one thing, some another. I’m sure he will want to know you.” At the time all I could do was tell her I would do what she asked, and from promising so often I kept repeating the promise even after I had pulled my hands free of her death grip.
Still earlier she had told me: “Don’t ask him for anything. Just what’s ours. What he should have given me but never did… Make him pay, son, for all those years he put us out of his mind.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dolores Preciado (Juan’s Mother) (speaker), Pedro Páramo
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:

I had expected to see the town of my mother’s memories, of her nostalgia—nostalgia laced with sighs. She had lived her lifetime sighing about Comala, about going back. But she never had. Now I had come in her place. I was seeing things through her eyes, as she had seen them. She had given me her eyes to see. Just as you pass the gate of Los Colimotes there’s a beautiful view of a green plain tinged with the yellow of ripe corn. From there you can see Comala, turning the earth white, and lighting it at night. Her voice was secret, muffled, as if she were talking to herself… Mother.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dolores Preciado (Juan’s Mother)
Page Number: 4
Explanation and Analysis:

“It’s hot here,” I said.
“You might say. But this is nothing,” my companion replied. “Try to take it easy. You’ll feel it even more when we get to Comala. That town sits on the coals of the earth, at the very mouth of hell. They say that when people from there die and go to hell, they come back for a blanket.”
“Do you know Pedro Páramo?” I asked.
I felt I could ask because I had seen a glimmer of goodwill in his eyes.
“Who is he?” I pressed him.
“Living bile,” was his reply.
And he lowered his stick against the burros for no reason at all, because they had been far ahead of us, guided by the descending trail.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Abundio Martínez (The Burro Driver) (speaker), Pedro Páramo
Page Number: 6
Explanation and Analysis:

As I passed a street corner, I saw a woman wrapped in her rebozo; she disappeared as if she had never existed. I started forward again, peering into the doorless houses. Again the woman in the rebozo crossed in front of me.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker)
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:
Fragments 24-36, Pages 41-61 Quotes

This town is filled with echoes. It’s like they were trapped behind the walls, or beneath the cobblestones. When you walk you feel like someone’s behind you, stepping in your footsteps. You hear rustlings. And people laughing. Laughter that sounds used up. And voices worn away by the years. Sounds like that. But I think the day will come when those sounds fade away.

Related Characters: Juan Preciado
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:

“Look at my face!”
It was an ordinary face.
“What is it you want me to see?”
“Don’t you see my sin? Don’t you see those purplish spots? Like impetigo? I’m covered with them. And that’s only on the outside; inside, I’m a sea of mud.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Donis’s Sister/Wife (speaker), Donis
Page Number: 51
Explanation and Analysis:

“Yes, Dorotea. The murmuring killed me. I was trying to hold back my fear. But it kept building until I couldn’t contain it any longer. And when I was face to face with the murmuring, the dam burst.
“I went to the plaza. You’re right about that. I was drawn there by the sound of people; I thought there really were people. I wasn’t in my right mind by then. I remember I got there by feeling my way along the walls as if I were walking with my hands. And the walls seemed to distill the voices, they seemed to be filtering through the cracks and crumbling mortar. I heard them. Human voices: not clear, but secretive voices that seemed to be whispering something to me as I passed, like a buzzing in my ears.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dorotea
Page Number: 58-59
Explanation and Analysis:

“Why did you come here?”
“I told you that at the very beginning. I came to find Pedro Páramo, who they say was my father. Hope brought me here.”
“Hope? You pay dear for that. My illusions made me live longer than I should have. And that was the price I paid to find my son, who in a manner of speaking was just one more illusion. Because I never had a son.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dorotea (speaker), Pedro Páramo
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Fragments 37-46, Pages 61-85 Quotes

I waited thirty years for you to return, Susana. I wanted to have it all. Not just part of it, but everything there was to have, to the point that there would be nothing left for us to want, no desire but your wishes. How many times did I ask your father to come back here to live, telling him I needed him. I even tried deceit.

Related Characters: Pedro Páramo (speaker), Juan Preciado, Susana San Juan, Bartolomé San Juan, Dorotea
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:
Fragments 60-68, Pages 109-124 Quotes

“I… I saw doña Susanita die.”
“What are you saying, Dorotea?”
“What I just told you.”

Related Characters: Juan Preciado (speaker), Dorotea (speaker), Susana San Juan
Page Number: 115
Explanation and Analysis: