This article describes Hijo de ladron as an improvement novel in which an isolated individual, Aniceto Hevia, can bond with a community of peers. This bond is characterized as essentially masculine, created and not natural, based on work and resistance to adversity. From its context of production and reading, we also propose that the novel can be interpreted as a national allegory of the middle Chilean 20th Century. Then we describe the gaze as a founding affective experience in that community. It is a fundamental instance of recognition among the members of the imagined community, which would be prior to its political articulation. Finally, both aspects are briefly discussed in the light of Rojas's other works and other allegorical formations of Chilean literature.