This wonderfully humorous image of defeated revolutionaries scrounging in their pockets conceals a double meaning, hinging on the word "change" and the larger symbolism of "the country" (Costaguana) in Nostromo. "The country," particularly in regard to Charles Gould and Martin Decoud, stands for a fatal, inescapable addiction to high passions and causes. The double meaning of this sentence is that the revolutionaries cannot "change" their nature enough to escape the endless round of revolutions.

Note that even when the defeated party does leave Costaguana, they return again with renewed weaponry, a very subtle foreshadowing of the Gould family.