A heated rivalry

 I think this is one of the most interesting novels i’ve read so far during this class. It kept the element of true crime/true events throughout the theme and most of the events (and I am a true crime junkie) and the sociologist in me was also able to make inferences about how symbolic it was of them to burn the money and how the act of robbery was an act of resistance against capitalism. 


As said in the video too, how “money is one of the most powerful fictions that structure social relations” & “the thieves show it is very easy to burn the stuff, it is just that nobody thinks to do so.” 

The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was how, connecting it back to capitalism, of how easy it is to start to oppose the system but no one chooses to do so. And the ending when they burn the money was quite symbolic because money is the very driver of society. And after risking everything they have to steal it and at the end of the day, it ends up going up in flames, it shows how money only really has meaning when you give it and how fragile the system is that something so important can be so easily taken and burned. It is also quite funny (well not funny but yk) how they literally did this mission for nothing. Like they risked their lives (and ended up losing it) for such an “important and big” mission to have it not even matter and burn the money anyways. Quite powerful in a way I would say. Although the burning apparently did not actually happen in the real heist, it was an interesting twist added by Piglia and definitely added more symbolism. By burning the money, the criminals really took control over the power dynamic because it was just them the police enforcement wanted, but the money.  And by burning the money they took away more of the “win” from the state because now all they had was a couple criminals still alive and no money. I also thought the ending was a little unsatisfactory for both ends because in the end, no one really one and a blooming love story was cut short. 


Speaking of the love story, can we talk about Dorda and “the kid’s” relationship. I may have shed a tear or two when reading the ending of their final goodbye. This relationship really shows the other side of criminals that makes them more relatable and human. The ending was quite sad and Riglia was able to make me feel bad for them even though they were the bad guys. Just a bunch of sad endings for everyone. But overall love the read and my question for this week is, 


“If Pilia changed the ending of the book to not have the burning money, would the affect of the novel still be the same?”

Comments

  1. Raven13 March 2026 at 11:04

    Melissa:

    I like your point on the burning of the money as something symbolic. I also talked about this in my blog, and agree on the concept of money in this novel as being something without inherent value, and how it is a means to an end rather than an end to itself.

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  2. Maysen Della Malva14 March 2026 at 21:39

    Hi Olivia! I also thought it was really interesting that Piglia chose to show us another side of the Twins' relationship at the end of the novel. I think that it adds a really dynamic element to the text when I went through almost the entire book with a certain perception of them, only to see a whole other side of them toward the end. I do wonder if I would have interpreted the book differently had we seen this side at the beginning.

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