The Burning Plain, and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo
"The Burning Plain, and Other Stories" by Juan Rulfo is a poignant collection of short stories that explores themes of death, poverty, and the harsh realities of life in rural Mexico. The stories range from brief character sketches, such as "Macario," portraying a mentally challenged boy, to complex narratives like the title story, "El llano en llamas," which chronicles a band of revolutionaries. Rulfo's work often highlights the struggles of his characters against an unforgiving landscape filled with drought, violence, and social turmoil.
Death is a recurring motif throughout the collection, manifesting in various forms, whether through the existential musings of characters or the stark realities of their circumstances, as seen in "Talpa," a tale of a dying man and the family dynamics surrounding him. Women in Rulfo's stories often face dire fates, as illustrated by the twelve-year-old girl in "Es que somos muy pobres," whose future is imperiled by unexpected loss. The collection captures a sense of fatalism, reflecting the characters' acceptance of their grim surroundings while they navigate their lives amidst societal decay and personal tragedy. Overall, Rulfo's narratives invite readers to engage with the profound struggles of life in a culturally rich but challenging environment.
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The Burning Plain, and Other Stories by Juan Rulfo
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of World Literature, Revised Edition
First published:El llano en llamas, y otros cuentros, 1953, revised 1970 and 1980 (English translation, 1967)
Type of work: Short stories
The Work
Juan Rulfo’s collection The Burning Plain, and Other Stories contains a variety of short stories ranging from brief character sketches such as “Macario,” an interior monologue by a mentally deficient boy; to longer, more complex tales such as the title story, “El llano en llamas” (“The Burning Plain”), which follows the skirmishes of a band of revolutionaries led by Pedro Zamora; or the haunting but humorous “Anacleto Morones,” in which a flock of women dressed in black descend upon the porch of the narrator to interrogate him about the death of Anacleto Morones. In one story, “Luvina,” the narrator describes moving to the village of San Juan Luvina with his family to become the schoolteacher. He finds a dried-up town, where the old women flock like bats and nothing grows. This story in particular recalls the deserted town of Comala in Rulfo’s novel Pedro Páramo.
Although the stories in the collection are varied in terms of length, point of view, and narrative method, certain common features emerge. Death is a constant in all of the stories. In “Talpa,” a dying husband, his wife, and the husband’s brother make a pilgrimage to a sacred site in hopes of a miraculous cure for the husband. The wife and the brother-in-law are in love, and they know full well that the husband will probably not survive the trip. In stories like “La cuesta de las camarades” (“The Hill of the Comadres”), “Díles que no me maten!” (“Tell Them Not to Kill Me!”), and “Anacleto Morones,” men confess to murders and fully expect to be punished for their crimes. Death is commonplace in stories like “The Burning Plain” and “La noche que lo dejaron solo” (“The Night They Left Him Alone”), which are both set against a background of guerrilla skirmishes in revolutionary-era Mexico.
Women fare poorly in these stories. In “Es que somos muy pobres” (“We’re Very Poor”), a twelve-year-old girl risks becoming as sexually promiscuous as her older sisters because the cow upon which her entire financial future rests has drowned in the river. Groups of old women dressed in black in “Luvina” and “Anacleto Morones” are described as sterile, harsh crones who avenge past sins.
Illness and poverty are common in many of the stories. Characters scratch out a meager living and carry their burdens against unforgiving landscapes. Heat, dust, floods, and infertile soil keep people from escaping their harsh lives. Characters struggle to survive while at the same time succumbing to a kind of fatalism in which they fully expect that poverty, violence, and death are the usual state of affairs.
Bibliography
Baker, Armand F. “Water-Imagery and the Theme of Disillusion in Pedro Páramo.” Hispanic Journal 14, no. 2 (Fall, 1993): 49-60.
Beardsell, Peter. “Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramo.” In Landmarks in Modern Latin American Fiction, edited by Philip Swanson. New York: Routledge, 1990.
Detjens, Wilma Else. Home as Creation: The Influence of Early Childhood Experience in the Literary Creation of Gabriel García Márquez, Agustín Yáñez, and Juan Rulfo. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.
Dixon, Paul B. Reversible Readings: Ambiguity in Four Modern Latin American Novels. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1985.
Leal, Luis. Juan Rulfo. Boston: Twayne, 1983.
Leal, Luis. “Juan Rulfo (16 May 1918-7 January 1986).” In Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers: First Series, edited by William Luis. Vol. 113 in Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1992.
Ortega, Julio. “Pedro Páramo: A Metaphor for the End of the World.” Studies in Twentieth Century Literature 14, no. 1 (Winter, 1990): 21-26.
Perricone, Catherine R. “Pedro Páramo: An Odyssey in Quest of a Hero.” The Language Quarterly 22, nos. 3/4 (Spring/Summer, 1984): 5-6, 13.
Reinhardt-Childers, Ilva. “Sensuality, Brutality, and Violence in Rulfo’s Stories: An Analytical Study.” Hispanic Journal 12, no. 1 (Spring, 1991): 69-73.
Wilson, Jason. “Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo.” In The Cambridge Companion to the Latin American Novel, edited by Efraín Kristal. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.