Fragmented Structure in Pedro Paramo Samuel Gregory Rummell 12th Grade

Juan Rulfo employs a fragmented structure in Pedro Páramo to provide information about the plot and characters from the point of view of different characters at different times. This allows stories to be echoed and reechoed throughout the novel. Often times, this structure creates a sense of ambiguity and confusion because Rulfo leaves interpretation up to the reader and because of the story’s nonlinear aspect. In this fragmented storyline, Rulfo uses sound and silence to add suspense and to contribute to the setting and plot.

Juan Rulfo wrote Pedro Páramo with tense shifts and shifts in perspectives of different characters that add tension and reveal more and more about the plot. With seventy fragments differing in time and perspectives, the reader has to put the pieces of the puzzle together based on how they interpret it. For example, when the narrative switches from Juan to Pedro at fragment six, it confuses the reader because it does not initially indicate that the fragment is about Pedro. The reader only learns that fragments six through eight are about Pedro because Rulfo writes “‘Pedro!’people called to him” at the end of fragment seven (Rulfo 14). These fragments, though confusing at first, are the first fragments...