Juan, The Son Ran by A Promise

Within chapter one of Pedro Paramo, Pedro's son Juan speaks to the reader to explain why he went to Comala and his promise to his mother.  An interesting thing about the chapter is he put a huge emphasis on why he went to Comala, at the beginning: "I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Paramo, lived there,"(pg.3) and at the end: "Little by little I began to build a world around a hope centered on the man called Pedro Paramo, the man who had been my mother's husband.  That was why I had come to Comala."(pg.3)  In the second quote he says the Pedro was his mother's husband, not his father though, showing that there is a disconnection between the two and he does care for the man, he is only doing this because he promised his mother.  Now, the significance of the emphasis on why he went to Comala is that the promise consumed him, had become his 'mission' in life to find his father and fulfill that promise that he made to his mother.  Sometimes a person makes a promise that they don't realize will become a part of them, this entity that we didn't know was there.  Sometimes this promise will take a person on a journey, a new life, a new path carved out for them to follow.