 Aderca points out that the "mahala" is "a city's reproductive organ", a landscape of brutal naturalness and "virility".As Crohmălniceanu argues, Aderca rewrites "Sămănătorist" tropes into an Expressionist conflict between city and village, the "two great collective entities".Aderca opens with the urban resettlement of Păun Oproiu, a peasant turned State Railways employee.