- The central conflict in "Pedro Paramo" is between life and death. When Preciado arrives in Comala in search of his father, Paramo, he discovers that Comala is literally a ghost town -- everyone, including his father, is long dead. However, the experimental structure of the novel leaves many of the events ambiguous because no clear distinction is drawn between current events and the memories of the ghosts that haunt the town. It is not even clear whether Preciado himself is really alive, and other characters such as Abundio Martínez and Eduviges Dyada are not clearly defined as being dead or alive. This creates a sense of tension between life and death throughout the entire novel.
- Magical realism, as a literary movement, made a point of blurring the boundaries between reality and fantasy. This dichotomy is created in "Pedro Paramo" not only through the lack of distinction between life and death, but also by telling the story itself out of logical order. The timeline of events in "Pedro Paramo" is unclear, and in some cases what is supposed to have happened is also unclear. Unlike genre fantasy literature, which is explicitly fantastic, or realism, which contains no fantastic elements, magical realist novels such as "Pedro Paramo" establish a conflict between reality and fantasy.
- As Preciado learns the story of his father, he discovers that his father was a hostile and combative person. In his lifetime, Paramo was in conflict with practically everyone around him. He owned much of Comala, and he used his power to oppress, exploit and bully others. Paramo was also a chronic womanizer, and Preciado is only one of his many children. When anyone tried to stand up to him, Paramo would find a way to turn the law against that person. Paramo was essentially in conflict with the entire world, including even the town priest. This conflict between local landowner and Catholic priest parallels another conflict mentioned in the novel - the Cristeros War.
- In "Pedro Paramo," the direct cause of Comala's final abandonment is the Cristeros War. This was a civil war that took approximately 250,000 lives in Mexico between 1926 and 1929. The war was fought between supporters of the Catholic Church and the Mexican government, which was trying to break the power of the church over Mexican secular life. This extremely bloody conflict is described as having emptied the town of Comala, leaving it a ghost town.
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