Deconstructing Death, Gender Roles, and Hope: Comparison and Contrast between Pedro Paramo and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World

While countless people seek for a happy ending when encountering a novel, a story might not always end in a happy ending. Though some stories around the world seem to convey similar morals, they still may differ in style and in the means of how they are illustrated. In fact, the elements of a story may display distinct societies depending on the time period or the author’s values and point of view. For instance, in the Korean novels of the 18th century, women are depicted as weak and careless. In contrast, women are illustrated as more scrupulous and sincere in modern stories (“A study on the types of female portraits in modern Korean novels : focusing on 18 Literature textbooks for high school,” 2010). Besides gender roles, the portrayal of death and hope may also be dissimilar between two novels. Pedro Paramo, by Juan Rulfo (1955), and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1968), are two primary examples. Both authors depict a society in accordance to their cultural traits and experiences, but apparently the two authors possess distinct reflections about death, gender roles, and hope. The following essay will compare and contrast how death is portrayed in the two works, how males and females are discriminated according to their roles, and the hope that the characters in each story share.
Unquestionably, settings in both Pedro Paramo and The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World are influenced by death. Rulfo and Marquez each explore the opposite transformative effects of one dead man on an entire village. In Pedro Paramo, Comala is a ghost town, having been deserted by the exodus of rural villagers to the cities following the revolution. For example, when Juan Preciado first arrived at Comala much