How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"Don't ask him for anything. Just what's ours. What he should have given me but never did… Make him pay, son, for all those years he put us out of his mind." (1.3)
Dolores makes Juan Preciado promise that he'll go to Comala to get revenge on Pedro for having abandoned them, and thus the novel gets kick-started.
Quote #2
"No," he said, shaking his head emphatically. "I won't give my blessing. He was an evil man, and he shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God will not smile on me if I intercede for him." (13.5)
Father Rentería is too weak to actively take revenge on Miguel for the crimes he committed against his family, so his vengeance is in not pardoning Miguel's soul after he dies.
Quote #3
The death of his father dragged other deaths with it, and in each of them was always the image of that shattered face: one eye mangled, the other staring vengefully.
Pedro remembers his father's cadaver as vengeful—perhaps this image is what spurs him to take revenge on his father's killer. Or maybe he's just sort of a bloodthirsty jerk of all trades.
Quote #4
"What did they do to him?" he shouted.
He was expecting to hear "They killed him." And he felt the stirrings of rage forming hard lumps of rancor; instead he heard Fulgor Sedano's soft voice saying:
"No one did anything to him. He met his death alone." (39.14-16)
When Pedro finds out that Miguel is dead, the only emotional response he can muster is anger. After hearing that there is no one to take revenge against, he seems not to be able to feel anything else.
Quote #5
He walked to the Media Luna and offered his condolences to Pedro Páramo. Again he listened to his excuses for the charges made against his son. He let Pedro Páramo talk. None of it mattered, after all. On the other hand, he did decline his invitation to eat. (40.67)
Father Rentería's puny attempt to get revenge on Miguel is totally ruined, as he accepts money in exchange for pardoning his soul. He seems more pathetic as he tells himself that refusing to eat at Pedro's house is a tiny form of revenge.
Quote #6
"Pedro Páramo slaughtered so many folks after his father was murdered that he killed nearly everybody who attended that wedding. Don Lucas Páramo was supposed to give the bride away. And it was really by accident that he died, because it was the bridegroom someone had a grudge against. And since they never found out who fired the bullet that struck him down, Pedro Páramo wiped out the lot." (42.24)
This massacre is Pedro's attempt to avenge his father's death, and most people seem to excuse him for it, since he was justified in his revenge. So going Rambo on a wedding is acceptable in the world of Pedro Páramo, as long as your father was recently murdered.
Quote #7
"He loved her so much that after she died he spent the rest of his days slumped in a chair, staring down the road where they'd carried her to holy ground. He lost interest in everything. He let his lands lie fallow, and gave orders for the tools that worked it to be destroyed. Some say it was because he was worn out; others said it was despair. The one sure thing is that he threw everyone off his land and sat himself down in his chair to stare down that road." (42.30)
Losing Susana is the hardest thing for Pedro. Even though no one murdered her, as in his father's case, the only way he knows how to deal with death is through revenge.
Quote #8
"And all of it was Don Pedro's doing, because of the turmoil of his soul. Just because his wife, that Susanita, had died. So you tell me whether he loved her." (42.33)
Dorotea seems to excuse Pedro's revenge on the town, because it is rooted in love for his lost wife. Apparently being really sad is a good enough reason to starve everyone you know to death? Jeepers.
Quote #9
That was why she was laughing now.
"I knew it was you, Bartolomé."
And poor Justina, weeping on Susana's bosom, sat up to see what she was laughing about, and why her laughter had turned to wild guffaws.
Susana hated her father for sending her down into the mines as a child, and when she finds out he has died her revenge seems to be laughing instead of crying. That's a way nicer revenge than, say, shooting up a wedding.
Quote #10
He swore to wreak vengeance on Comala:
"I will cross my arms and Comala will die of hunger."
And that was what happened.
Pedro's revenge on the town of Comala, for having a festival while he mourns his wife, is to starve it to death. Since he controls all the land he is able to do so. Dang are we glad that Pedro isn't the mayor of our town.