Chapter 1 close read: the irony of Juan's journey to Comala

The tone of this passage is reminiscent and nostalgic as Juan Preciado reflects on the events leading up to his journey to Comala.  The literary technique of irony is initiated here. There is a repetition of Juan describing his primary objective in coming to Comala: as meeting Pedro Paramo, as something he dreamt of, and as the final request from his dying mother.  Yet, despite all that happens to him in Comala, Juan never achieves this primary objective. By the time he reaches Comala Pedro Paramo has been dead for quite some time. Although his spirit, repeating the past indefinitely, is still heard, he is removed. He is lost completely in himself, in death, as he was in life. Thus there is a motif of irony, initiated in chapter one by Juan's promise to his mother to find Pedro Paramo, carried on throughout the novel by Pedro elusive spirit in the ghost town of Comala.