When he returns, he tells his Mama that he must go to the mountains. He had been at Mrs. Rodriguez's home and a quarrel turned into a fight. He ended up killing a man with his (father's) knife. So, he's running to the mountains to escape. He claims that the man he killed called him "names he could not allow." Pepe justifies his actions, saying it is what a man must do.
Mama agrees that he must flee to the mountains. She and her other two children make preparations and the watch as Pepe leaves on horseback. Pepe leaves, claiming that he is now "a man." After he's gone, his mother wails because she does not think he will be able to survive. Note that Pepe did not like to work. He had been accustomed to sitting around and/or playing. So, Mama does not think he will make it on his own. She agrees with him, that he is a man, only to give him some confidence as he leaves for the mountains.
After a gun battle, he begins losing his father's things. This symbolically shows how he loses the things that make him feel like a man. As his mother feared, he eventually dies when the posse catches up to him.
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