A Hero or a Dreamer

Pereda doesn't seem to live up to any of the characteristics he is constantly thinking about. He's really annoying- how he leaves behind his life in the city and formal dress/ways but still scolds those he finds ignorant to it all. Though he thinks he has escaped the machine-like life he once has for an exciting life, which he compares to foreign movies and books, he is just another old man who is kidding himself. Nothing has changed, his wife is still irreplaceable, his kids have moved on, and he relies on money from his past to help him at Alamo Negro. The unexpected conflict at the end of the story didn't serve to show me Pereda's power, it just further alerted me to the fact that Pereda decides to run away once again.