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Character Analysis: Just Lather, That's All

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“Just Lather, That’s All”
One choice can mean the difference between life and death for another. To kill or to not kill seems like a simple decision at first. There is more that goes on in the mind of a potential murderer than just that. In Hernando Téllez’s short story “Just Lather, That’s All,” a barber struggles with the thought of murder when a man that killed the barber’s fellow revolutionaries enters his barber shop. The barber is continuously in major conflict between his responsibility as a barber and his duty to the revolution.
Captain Torres terrifies the barber, making the barber struggle to hide the reaction he gets from simply seeing the Captain. On a previously mundane day, Captain Torres abruptly enters the barber’s shop. The barber remembers Captain Torres from “the day he [Captain Torres] ordered the whole town to file into the patio of …show more content…

The barber emphasizes, “Damn him for coming, because i’m a revolutionary and not a murderer. And how easy would it be to kill him. And he deserves it. Does he? No!” The barber knows that nobody deserves to die. The barber notes, “I could cut this thorat just so, zip! zip! I wouldn’t give him time to complain … But I’m trembling just like a real murderer.” The barber isn’t a murderer, he is a barber. However, he could easily become a murderer based on his next decisions and he knows that. If the barber killed Captain Torres, he would be seen in two dramatically different ways. The barber would be known as “‘Captain Torres’ murderer. He slit his throat while he was shaving him- a coward.’ And then on the other side. ‘The avenger of us all. A name to remember.” The barber would be seen as both a hero and a murderer, but not the great barber that he is. If he committed murder, he would forever be changed. The barber knows that his “destiny depends on the edge of this blade.” Two choices, to become a murderer for the revolution, or a barber for

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