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  • Essay / Magic Realism in Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

    Magic Realism this style of artistic creation produced during the great explosion of literature in Latin America in the 19th century, due to the economic oppression of the new imperialism. It is a style of fiction that shows a realistic view of the real world but adds unreal and magical elements. Most authors use magical realism to reveal the social issue in the real world. One of Juan Rulfo's classic works, "Pedro Paramo" is a very successful magical realism book. The story mainly talks about one of the main characters who appointed Juan Preciado to go to Comala to find his father - Pedro Paramo, and through the gossip of the other ghosts, Juan discovers that his father is a cruel and mean landlord. In this book, Ruflo organizes World Construction through magical realism; the whole novel presents a world that has no boundary between life and death, and time no longer matters. Through this kind of context, Ruflo highlights some social issues in the book, such as landownership and abuse of power. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get an original essayThe major trait of magical realism in this book is timelessness, the sequence of the plot does not follow the orders of time and Paramo's images are not directly using the word to express. In the book, the narration moves from one character to another and changes from location to location, there is no time flow in this book. It seems that the plots lose connection with each other, but the image of the main character, Pedro Paramo, gradually becomes clearer through a "tangled" structure and a fragmented narrative. With this way of writing, readers discover that Pedro is a cruel, petty and selfish owner. In the story, Paramo tricks Juan's mother into marrying him to become the richest man in Comala, and he also gains power. Pedro can do whatever he wants. He steals other people's goods and shouts: "What law, Fulgor?" Now we are the law.” From here the reader can see that Paramo is ignorant of the law and he even thinks that he is the person who can make the law. And from the author's description, Paramo is a very selfish guy, he only cares about his own benefit and doesn't think about others. In Paramo's mind, he thinks he is gaining power so he can grasp everything the way he wants. Additionally, midway through the story, Paramo's father was inexplicably shot during his wedding to Susana. Paramo has no idea who the murderer is and from which direction the gunshot is coming, so he decides to kill everyone attending the wedding. . From there, Ruflo points out the Paramo's brutal personality, he would rather kill everyone than let himself get hurt. Paramo always puts his own interests and safety first, and the lives of others are worth nothing to him. Ruflo has great skill in establishing a character intended to show the cruelty and wickedness of the owner at that time. Paramo is a ghost in the novel but a real person in real life in Latin America, countless greedy, cruel and vicious feudal landlords like Paramo are the main cause of poverty and backwardness in the vast rural areas of Mexico. Additionally, the story structure is a mess that reflects the fact that in the real world, people's lives were confused under the oppression of powerful figures. Therefore, Ruflo uses magical realism to create a character just like Paramo to highlight the social problem of the landowner. Additionally, Ruflo also uses magical realism to highlight theproblem of abuse of power in society. Based on traditional culture originating from Latin America, people believe in spirits and the supernatural, so Ruflo creates a world where the living can communicate freely with the dead. In this context, death is not the end, if the dead are not forgiven by God, they will never receive relief and then become ghosts wandering the earth. At this point, the Father plays an important role here, he has the right to decide who can go to heaven. In the story, Father Renteria is the only person who can forgive the souls of others for God, but he is a greedy and unjust Father. For example, on pages 18 and 19, that of Pedro's son Miguel died following an accident, Father Renteria refuses to forgive Miguel's soul for the first time. Because Miguel killed Father Renteria's brother and even raped Renteria's niece Ana before. But after Pedro Paramo meets Father Renteria and gives him a “gift” for the Church, everything changes. “He can afford to buy salvation… Lord, I throw myself at your feet to ask for the justice or injustice that each of us can ask for… For my part, I hope that he will be damned to hell ". From this quote, the reader can know that Father Renteria thinks Miguel is ready to go to hell, but the father forgives him anyway for the money. At this point, Ruflo successfully creates a character who abuses his power just for his own gain. As we know, Father Renteria is respected by others and has a reputation simply because he leads a church. And money is needed to maintain the religious service, if it loses the support of the rich, it will lose its reputation and social status. This is why Father Renteria grants Miguel forgiveness in exchange for money. In his mind, the Church is more important than his family members. Therefore, in this way we can say that Father Renteria is a selfish and unjust father, who cares more about himself than others. The reason why Ruflo creates this kind of character is to highlight the injustice and corruption of the Church in the 20th century. As we know, throughout history the Church has always had a lot of power, and people truly believe that the Church can help them eliminate inequity. Once the Church has supreme power, there will be some injustice and corruption. Therefore, magical realism helps Ruflo to convey the social problem that exists in that era. The purpose of Ruflo uses magical realism to highlight the problem of society at that time is to attract the attention of others, to let more people know about the inhumanity of the landowner and the corruption of the Church . The article “Magical Realism and its European Essence” by Maryam Ebadi Asayesh and Mehmet Fikret Arargiic mainly talks about the characteristics of magical realism and the transformation and formation of magical realism in Europe. In this article, Asayesh and Arargiic mention that “magical realism was presented between the World Wars and during the rise of modernism. After the First World War, we had to collectively create a new myth, perhaps because it could help bring people together. From this quote, Asayesh and Arargiic state in WWI, magical realism can be another type of myth that brings people together to think about the problem that exists in the world. As we know, too many social problems occurred during World War I, such as the collapse of the economy and low living standards. It is therefore important to create a new myth to bring people together and allow more people to become aware of this type of social problem. The myth is a bit like2.847