Honor and dishonor
This novel shows an important side of Mexican culture, the high priority of honor. There are four minor characters, and they are a matrix of two variables: gender and honor: Cervantes is an honorable man, La Pintada is an honorable woman, Margarito is a dishonest man who is still powerful, and Camila is a dishonest woman who is still powerful. Therefore, the book is in large part, an expose on how various people treat obstacles. Honor is depicted as the willingness to be honest about one's intentions.
Power and social corruption
Power is at the center of the novel, too, especially the way power operates at the government level. Because of the power of the status quo, the rebels realize that they are not powerful enough to overcome the entire government, and besides, they could never fix the real problem, which is that wealthy people in Mexico have tolerated crime at almost every level, so the corruption of their state will remain no matter who is put in charge. The only purpose that personal, autonomous power really serves in the novel is to succeed life's challenges emotionally. That is how powerful the novel allows the characters to be, no more.
Futility and death
Therefore, there is this key theme of the novel: The futility of life and the assurance of death. We end the novel on a scene where Macías has not died, but he knows with certainty that he will not escape this skirmish, and because he is killing so many Mexican soldiers, he knows to expect the full weight of the law, which was already corrupted against his interests to begin with. Does this mean his journey was futile? That is the question of human meaning, and the novelist leaves it to the reader to consider—what was the meaning of the story, if not personal success and justice?
