SOURCE: "Ontological Motifs in the Short Stories of Juan Rulfo," in Journal of Spanish Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3, Winter, 1973, pp. 161-68.

In the following essay, Lyon identifies and examines common motifs in The Burning Plain.

"Life's but a walking shadow . . ."

SHAKESPEARE, "Macbeth"

El llano en llamas dramatically affirms Zum Felde's position that "La verdadera historia—la intrahistoria—la escriben los novelistas [y cuentistas]" [índice critico de la literatura hispanoamericana, 1959] Numerous critics have already called attention to the correspondences between Rulfo's stories and the real world from which they are drawn. [In Nueva novela latinoamericana, edited by Jorge Lafforgue, 1969] Blanco Aguinaga declares that "Los cuentos . . . se dan en una tierra concreta donde la situación de los personajes adquiere un muy particular cariz porque sobre ella pesa una muy particular condición histórica." [In Nueva narrativa hispanoamericana, 1971], Graciela Coulson spends an entire article arguing for the universality and...