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In Part II, Demetrio exacts his revenge against Don Monico in Chapter V by burning Monico's house to the ground (presumably with Monico still in it). The symbolic act of burning, as a kind of cleansing or purge, is given a perverted double meaning, since such an act in fact extends Demetrio's destruction of villages, this time one near his own farm. Once again in the novel's pessimistic vein, even in Demetrio's seemingly righteous revenge against the man who wronged him, there are no winners but in fact simply more destruction, especially in the tragic case of Monico's wife and children.

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The Underdogs