However, in a chapter in his book Dancing with the Devil, José E. Limón argues that the novel does not in fact celebrate the protagonist's rationalist individualist thinking, and in fact associates him with the devil.  Limón makes the point that in order for the boy in the novel to embrace rationality, he must put down and deem backwards his Mexican American culture's folk Catholicism. The boy therefore may be portrayed as the "real" devil in the story. In fact, Limón points out that in "Silvery Night", the boy actually puts on a devil's mask, and that in the story "...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him", the mother says she is afraid that the devil's blood runs through the boy already. Limón therefore suggests that the novel argues for the importance of a communal identity rather than an individualist one. This argument is supported by the fact that the novel brings together a myriad of voices from the Mexican American migrant worker community through the male protagonist's remembering and retelling of the stories, and by the fact that in the last short story the boy states that, "I would like to see all of the people together. And then, it I had great big arms, I could embrace them all."