The colonel's rooster, which he inherited from his murdered son, holds more sentimental value than it does monetary value. Over the novella's course, the colonel begins to speak to the rooster and give it injections of medication, "as if it were a human being" (37). While the colonel's wife calls the rooster an "expensive illusion" (11), the colonel clings to the hope the rooster's potential offers. The colonel also waits for his pension as a form of hope, one that he isn't willing to give up. Damaso's similarly risky hope that stealing and selling the billiard balls echoes the colonel's faith in the rooster's potential. 

Like the rooster, the colonel's pension represents an "expensive illusion" (11) that, if it does not come, will mean starvation for the colonel and his wife. Though the colonel hasn't received communication from the government about his pension for six years, he continues to wait for it, with "the patience of an ox" (22). The pension also represents the political faithdisplayed by some of the poor, as contrasted with the lack of political loyalty among the wealthy, like Sabas and José Montiel. Rather than admit that the government does not have people's best interests in mind, the colonel continues in silent protest, reading his clandestine news and hoping things will change.