Lather And Nothing Else By Hernando Tellez: The Beauty Of Conflict

Yuka Ose

Ms. Altamirano

Honors English 9

3 March 2023

The Beauty of Conflict Have you ever felt like you are dragging yourself down? Sometimes, it may feel like you do not want to get out of bed, or feel as if you can not pull yourself through the day. But, what us humans need to understand is that our biggest competition is within ourselves. Although our minds can confuse us with our emotions and cause us to make irrational decisions, that is the beauty of conflict. Conflict helps us see who we are because of the problems we face. We can see this in stories. Conflict is the best way that characters learn lessons, and figure themselves out. Person vs. self conflict is when characters face problems against themselves. This is seen in internal

self conflict to show the theme that although a great opportunity is presented to you, it will not always be the right one. In the short story, the barber, who is secretly a rebel, is hit with a troublesome decision when Captain Torrez walks into his shop. Captain Torrez is a military general who has terminated many rebels. Having Captain Torrez in a vulnerable place where the barber can kill him puts him in an upsetting situation where the barber must decide if he kills the captain or not. The barber thinks to himself, “Does he? No; what the h—! No one is worth the sacrifice of becoming a murderer. What could be gained from it? Nothing” (Tellez 4). In other words, the quote is saying how under no circumstance should anyone consider murder because no one deserves it. The barber explains how no one would benefit from the killing of anyone and how it is not morally right.This conflict demonstrates the theme by showing how the barber decided to not kill the captain. He understood that his job is not to be a murderer, but a barber and that the best choice is to not kill the captain. The barber could have easily taken an opportunity, but doing the morally right thing and not thinking about what society will say about you is the best decision. Therefore, the barber did the brave and right thing. His actions of justifying how he should not kill the captain shows how although there is a tempting

society conflict to show the theme that looks can be deceiving. In the short story, Lamb to the Slaughter, Mary Maloney is introduced. She is a typical 50s housewife who is married to a detective named Patrick. When Patrick comes home from work, he tells Mary that he has been cheating on her and is leaving her for another woman. Mary, while 6 months pregnant, becomes furious and kills her husband with a frozen lamb. She comes up with a plan that would let her get away with the crime she had just committed. When the detective questions Mary, he concludes that she,“...acted quite normal... very cheerful... wanted to give him a good supper... peas... cheesecake... impossible that she...” (Dahl 7). In other words, after the detective questioned Mary for what happened during the time of the murder. Her perfectly thought plan made it believable that she could not have been a suspect for the murder. She gave the detective believable acting because of her sobbing, as because of her acting at the grocery store. The man who helped Mary had told the detective that Mary was beautiful as always, and cheerful. That type of behavior would be impossible for a pregnant 50s housewife who had just killed her husband. This demonstrates person vs. society conflict because the detectives were deceived by Mary’s innocent look and story. During these times, a murder by a woman who had a perfect life with her