Contrast with Montero's pronouncement in the scene below, "The honour of
the country is in the hands of the army." Nostromo presents nations
as being torn by an irresovable tension, between their ideals of peaceful human
betterment (represented by Ribiera) and their reality as a conquering organism
(represented by Montero). In Don Jose, the allegory of nationalism, we will see
both forces at work.