Although this narrator is one of the few named ones in the story, his status as a revolutionary raises the question of whether he is concealing any part of his identity. The lack of army ranks and the references to strikes earlier would seem to identify Alex Zinnober as a communist, although Calvino deliberately avoids most traditional political labels, perhaps in part to reflect the fact that characters in these stories often have uncertain allegiances. This passage hints that the narrator may be a hypocrite, since despite believing in an army without ranks, he also knows exactly what rank he would be in a traditional army