Dasein y desengaño en El Zarco, Los de abajo y Pedro Páramo

Abstract

Without losing sight of the socio-historic backdrop, this article examines the disillusion suffered by the main characters in El Zarco by Manuel Altamirano, Los de abajo by Mariano Azuela, and Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. Their arduous awakening to reality drives the narrative, and the way by which they face their true situations reveals the spiritual bearing that enlivens them and which could very well be an echo of the disillusion the authors felt in view of the realities that inspired their works. The ontology proposed by Martin Heidegger in Being and Time serves to consider the characterization of the three novels’ protagonists. Besides revealing these works’ existential vein, this approach invites a consideration of their authors’ philosophical stance.