How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I wondered if she were crazy. But by now I wasn't thinking at all. (5.22)
When Juan Preciado first encounters Eduviges, his explanation for her strange behavior is that she is crazy, not dead. That seems like a pretty reasonable explanation: You don't often encounter someone acting strange and think "Oh jeez, I bet this person is stark, raving deceased."
Quote #2
"If I told anyone else in Comala they'd say I'm crazy—the way they always have."
"No. Not crazy, Miguel. You must be dead. Remember, everyone told you that horse would be the death of you one day. Remember that, Miguel Páramo. Maybe you did do something crazy, but that's another matter now." (11.17-18)
Miguel dies and he can't see anything, so his first reaction is that he must have gone to the funny farm. Just like Juan Preciado, he confuses death and insanity. The concept of death is pretty nuts.
Quote #3
"My illusions made me live longer than I should have. And that was the price I paid to find my son, who in a manner of speaking was just one more illusion. Because I never had a son." (36.12)
Dorotea is able to admit, now that she is dead, that she never had a son but only imagined that she had. In a way, death has cured her madness. Um, we'd rather be crazy, thanks very much.
Quote #4
"She's the one who rolls up a bundle in her rebozo and sings to it, and calls it her baby. It must be that something terrible happened to her a long while ago, but since she never talks, no one knows what it was. She lives on handouts." (37.26)
This description of Dorotea as a living person shows how the town perceived her, and just how nutso she seemed at the time. Poor Doratea. We feel bad for her.
Quote #5
"Will she have to stay in purgatory if they don't say those masses? Who are they to mete out justice, Justina? You think I'm crazy? That's fine." (41.13)
Because Susana refuses to go along with convention and believe that her mother has been condemned because they cannot afford to pay for the proper church ceremonies, Justina calls her crazy.
Quote #6
"Pedro Páramo's last wife. Some say she was crazy. Some say not. The truth is that she talked to herself even when she was alive." (42.6)
Susana is a controversial figure because it's unclear whether she's insane or willfully living outside of society's expectations of her and just appearing to be crazy.
Quote #7
"By the time they brought her to him, she was already suffering—maybe crazy." (42.30)
Susana was considered to be crazy even before she came to live with Pedro, but it's important to notice the connection between suffering and madness in this phrase. People often talk about the "madness of grief," and Pedro Páramo totally supports this hypothesis. As does this woman.
Quote #8
"Why do you deny me as your father? Are you mad?"
"Didn't you know?"
"Are you mad?"
"Of course I am, Bartolomé. Didn't you know?" (45.20-23)
Here, Susana admits that she is insane, but once again it seems like a challenge to society. By denying her father she is once again rejecting societal relationships and seems to be crazy because of this rebellious attitude. People probably thought James Dean was crazy, too.
Quote #9
"You're seeing things, Susana. When Pedro Páramo comes, I'm going to tell him that I can't put up with you any longer. I'll tell him I'm leaving. There are plenty of nice people who will give me work. Not all of them are crazy like you, or enjoy humiliating a person the way you do. Tomorrow morning I'm leaving; I'll take my cat and leave you in peace." (47.23)
When Susana sees and feels the ghost in her room, Justina's response is that she's crazy, even though Justina herself has heard and felt the ghost. This is her way of denying the existence of what she is afraid of: by calling it insanity.
Quote #10
"Although the psychics always say that crazy people don't need to confess, that even if they have sin on their soul, they're innocents." (61.14)
The ghosts are stuck in Comala because they weren't forgiven by the priest, and they believe that crazy people have a "get out of Comala free" card— just for being a little nutso. This doesn't seem to apply for Susana, though, who can be heard talking with all the rest of them.