A word, sentence, or image that returns several times throughout the work, linked to a character or an idea, and gains meaning with each return.
In Quincas Borba
To the vanquished, hatred or compassion; to the victor, the potatoes
The formula does not stay in the fable: Rubião takes it up again as a motto on inheriting it and shouts it once more in Barbacena, so that "the potatoes" gain new meaning with each return.
Chapters I to XII: Humanitas and the Philosopher's Death, Quincas Borba (philosopher)
To the victor, the potatoes!
Chapters CLXXXII to CCI: Madness, Abandonment, and Rubião's Death, Rubião
Keep my crown
Chapters CLXXXII to CCI: Madness, Abandonment, and Rubião's Death, Rubião
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