The moments when he loses his father’s possessions – forgetting them, as if he is himself aware that he will fail to pass the test of adulthood – are deeply symbolic, as if bits of his manhood are being shed or chipped away piece by piece. But Pepé falls at his first attempt to step up to the plate and become a man. In this connection, it is significant that all of his possessions which are designed to help him become a man – the switchblade, the hat, the coat, and the rifle – are inherited from his father, who managed to attain manhood but still died in his prime when one of the animals of this dangerous landscape, a rattlesnake, fatally bit him. Meanwhile, his injured arm has grown infected from the cut. He is almost bitten by a rattlesnake (that is what had killed his father). He is shot at and returns fire, and a lump of stone lodges in his hand when he removes it, it bleeds and he struggles to stop the bleeding. He continues to ride, but his horse is shot as he is riding and he has to crawl through the dust. He stops at a stream and a wildcat appears, but he doesn’t shoot the animal for fear of alerting any men to his location. His mother, worried about him, gives him his father’s rifle and coat, and some food and water, and Pepé bids her farewell.Īs he rides into the mountains, the terrain becomes drier and rockier, and Pepé has to avoid men he sees who may be out searching for him.
After drinking wine at Mrs Rodriguez’ house, he had got into an argument with a man and he had ended up drawing his knife and stabbing the man, supposedly because the man had thrown insults at Pepé to which he took offence. Early next morning, however, Pepé returns and tells his mother that he needs to go and hide in the mountains.