Literary critic Tom McCarthy thought that Balthazar was an example of the interesting minor characters that imbue the "Adventures", commenting that his "down-at-heel garret speaks volumes of loneliness and semi-realised artistry". He also opined that the diamond within the fetish was the clitoris of the Arumbaya, describing it as "their pleasure, wrapped up in a fetish". He also thought that there was a homosexual subtext between Ramón and Alonso, believing that the scene in which a bullet was fired into Ramón's buttocks was symbolic of anal sex.