Would you put yourself in a life threatening situation just to taunt someone? You probably wouldn’t, but Captain Torres would. This is what happened in “Just Lather, That’s all,” and the Captain got to do exactly what he aimed for. This story uses many different methods to give subliminal messages about the setting to the reader, keeping the reader interested and alert. By analyzing this piece and the techniques that the writer uses, we can tell that when Captain Torres walked into the barber shop and sat in the chair, he knew the barber would want to kill him.
Good vs. Evil Are humans evil and do good to make up for their evilness or are they good and just make bad judgment calls? It is obvious through reading “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, and “The Black Cat’’ by Edgar Allen Poe that people are really good but make bad judgment calls. The first example of this is in “Lather and Nothing Else”.
The Barber’s Brave and Heroic Act In the short story, “Just Lather, That’s All” by Hernando Tellez, the barber makes the right decision by not killing Caption Torres. He makes the right choice because he wants to be known for his job as a barber, he does not want to be a murderer, and because he does not want to deal with the aftermath; if he killed him. To start off, the barber has a passion for his job and enjoys it. He wants to be the best barber in town.
Just Lather, That’s all by Hernando Tellez is written from the first person point of view of Hernando. Hernando Tellez of Columbia is a detailed storyteller remembering a surprise visit from an enemy. One advantages that Hernando story brings to the reader is honestly and a loyalty to the situation that he was put in when the enemy came through the door. Has he mentions, “Yes, I was secretly a rebel, but I was a conscientious barber…” with this reader understands the “that’s all” part of the title (430).
Captain Torres places himself in an immense danger of being killed by the barber’s razor while also making the barber angry. He does this by talking about how he would kill the rebels and making it more brutal and bloodier than the last time when he says, “it may be even better” (p. 15), when the barber asks if it would be as horrifying as last time and then telling the barber “They told me you would kill me…” (p.17) while the barber’s razor is right beside his neck, but when Captain Torres is about to exit the barber shop, he tells the barber that he knew that the barber a rebel all along when the barber had thought that none of the captains of the revolution knew that he was a rebel. In “The Sniper”, the Free Staters sniper stays very still, making other people in the area think that no one is where he is unlike the Republican sniper who risks taking a smoke and gets all the people in the area’s attention. Although this type of conflict is very important, this also leads to another one of the conflicts that are similar in the two stories, man versus
The men curse and fling the pants overboard. The blows land harder, ‘Don’t kill me,’ Enrique pleads. ‘Shut up!’ someone says” (54). Enrique is getting robbed, by gang members.
“On my asking the soldiers why they had fired without order, they said they heard the word fire and suppose it came from Me.” said Captain Thomas Preston. The confusion of the soldiers and the unclear directions from the captain led to the merciless shooting. Had the orders been clearer, eleven men would not have
To just ignore that my officer was attacked and that the same person arranged the attackers to be killed. To just let it be and wait for the next try?” “Exactly. We understand your anger but you charging in will just play in the hands of the opposition.
They would also strip their clothes off as an act of humiliating the Mexican teenager. Although such behavior would not have been allowed, in this case they were given the support from the police, who disliked the Mexican youths. These acts of the sailors terrorized the Mexican
That is another stereotype of the Mexican locksmith. The next morning the Shopkeeper arrives at his shop to see that it was robbed. The believed that this was the Mexicans fault for not fixing the door. The Iranian goes to the Mexican’s house and shoots him. The bullets ended up to be blanks, and no one got hurt.
They both wanted to whip Richard for something that wasn’t his fault, or didn’t even do. Richard also explains, “I’ve got a razor in each hand! If you touch me, I’ll cut you! Maybe I’ll get cut too, but I’ll cut you…” (Wright 159).
The description of the small office with five men standing toe to toe as the protagonist holds a gun, engulfs the reader in to wanting to know what will happen next. Hammett details the standoff between the men prior to the altercation, noting everyone was waiting for that one person to make the first move. Hammett notes in the story, “I didn’t like my position at all. The office was entirely too small for me.
Power. A topic that is neither black nor white, but rather grey. It can control somebody mentally, culturally, or from elements that surround them. Literature can represent these imbalances throughout the theme.
Completion to Admission The barber and Captain Torres have an intense relationship as Torres knows that the barber could kill him at an instant, and the barber knows that he has an opportunity to either be an avenger for his people or a coward murderer. Hernando Tellez keeps the reader interested from the start of the story until the end of the story by developing the characters well and by keeping the plot exciting. Lather and Nothing Else adds a taste of excitement that makes the reader imagine what could happen and how it could turn out to be. Tellez also makes some references to other media and literature like the barber could be related to a novice killer that is nervous and afraid.
Foremost, the barber made the right choice in not murdering Torres because he is only supposed to “inform the revolutionaries of what Torres was doing in the town and of what he was planning” (50). His obligations as an informant do not include any killing or violence. If he were to kill someone he would be taking someone else’s job, which is not a safe thing to do in the underground business of crime. It is best for him to stay in his lane and not disturb other revolutionaries. The barber should simply inform the rebels of Torres’ visit to avoid stepping on a superior rebel’s toes because “each person has his own place in the scheme of things” (51).
