The word "us" in Decoud's last sentence has several layers. Decoud means the Occidental province, but the logic of his Separatist ideal, continuing out of his control, will eventually separate him from Antonia, giving the "us" an ominous double meaning. One can also read the "us" as applying to mankind universally, in that it is our "Nature" to exist as separate, isolated entities. Note that what isolates "us" is the mountains -- symbolically, Ideals -- in all their inaccessibility. It is as if Decoud is saying, "Look at the Ideal! No one can get up there; we are all alone."

Beneath Antonia's "energetic" rejection of the politics -- she does not want to split Costaguana -- one can read a rejection of this deeper attack: to her idealism is a force that can successfully conjoin people in common projects.