“A strange breed, idealists,” comments the Baron de Canabrava to his political allies, after trying to win over Galileo Gall and Moreira César and being rejected by both men as an “enemy” (244). Despite holding conflicting political ideals—César wants to establish a dictatorial republic under control of the army, while Gall is an anarchist revolutionary who detests all forms of centralized authority—the attitude and language of each man mirrors the other. What becomes clear over the course of the novel is that all forms of political idealism, right or left-wing, religious or secular, modernizing or traditional, share the same uncompromising character. By rejecting reality, they inevitably lead to tragic results.

The book’s central conflict, between Canudos and the federal army, is, on one level, a conflict between political reality and political idealism. The Counselor is perhaps the most idealistic character in the book, in the sense that the baron defines it. Speaking of Moreira César, the Baron says, “He’s not interested in money or honors, and perhaps not even in power for himself. It’s abstract things that motivate him to act” (247). Just as Moreira César’s values “nationalism, the worship of technical progress, the belief that only the army can impose order and save this country from chaos and corruption” above any practical consideration, the Counselor’s values his abstract image of the afterlife over the reality of life itself.