Pedro Paramo

How are different voices used to advance the plot in Pedro Paramo?

What effect does the inclusion of different narrators and perspectives have on the story's unfolding?
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Pedro Páramo already employs three different perspectives in its first section, without any clear demarcation of the separation between them. What begins as a recognizable narrative – a young first-person narrator wishes to reunite with the father he never knew – is quickly confused by the shift to a third-person omniscient narrator who allows Pedro to narrate his longing for Susana in the first-person. Similarly, the voice of Juan's mother interrupts his own narration on several occasions. These shifts are initially difficult to note, since Rulfo does not provide any headings to direct his reader. Further, even within Juan's narration, time is not continuous. For example, he begins his journey when he has almost reached Comala, and then jumps back to when he met his guide Abundio. These sorts of temporal shift will only grow more profuse as the novel progresses. There are also the voices of the dead, which tell their stories throughout the novel.