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The Burning Plain
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The Burning Plain is the longest story that bears its name. This is a story that gives insight into what the moment of the Mexican Revolution was like. Narrated in first person, it makes the Revolution seem like little more than a celebration of a patriot brotherhood. Here, Rulfo adds little to the classification of the nature of a male revolutionary; men like Pedro are violent and ignorant of the effects generated by their actions. Presumed to be a liberation movement, the Mexican Revolution is characterized by violence and betrayal so great that, when the fighting is done, it is hard to predict a way forward.
One should ask if the Revolution ever really accomplished anything, or if it has even ended; this doubt is clear in the final encounter of Pichón with the woman he raped and who bore his son. While he seems to recognize his own mean look in the boy’s face, the boy’s mother insists that he is no thief or murderer but rather a good person. Much like the promises of the post-revolutionary politicians, despite the mother’s certainty it is difficult to say what the boy’s future holds. Even the epigraph that starts the story, taken from a well-known ballad, is unsure: “They’ve gone and killed the bitch but the puppies still remain…” One might be drawn to interpret this as an idealistic confirmation of revolutionary enthusiasm: the Revolution is more than just one man, each country men is a seed capable of multiplying itself infinitely, and the struggle will increase unti...
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