Hope is a mad person's fantasy; reality is an inevitable cycle of disturbance and disappointment. Without salvation, love, and even hope, past and present lose their greater meaning. Reality exists only in the absolute power of the local boss and the Church. It is these realities which send the inhabitants of Comala into a never-ending spiral of pitiful restlessness. Pedro Páramo is about the inescapable flaws of religious devotion combined with this tyrannical local political system, seen by Juan Rulfo, in rural Mexico.

The Church's true role in Pedro Páramo is to confirm the suffering of the people of Comala by giving the false impression that salvation through the Church was possible. This illusion of salvation is represented by the tainted Father Rentería, who falls to the will of Páramo. The Father absolves the soul of Miguel for Páramo's money, but later refuses...