The Theme Of Conflict In Lather And Nothing Else

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Luke Ross Ms.Altamirano English 9 March 7, 2023 Never gone, only forgotten. When a person lives and dies they live within our society, a society dictated by arbitrary rules and boundaries, should a person abide by these rules within that society? Everyone has had an inner conflict in which you must dictate a decision or belief based on what our society says is Moral. Conflict is not an easy thing to put into words but the easiest way to is by looking into your own world and finding a time when you've had trouble of any kind whether it be mental or by another person or thing. By finding our own conflicts and seeing how they affect us we can solve them and positively impact our lives. So when we write stories or novels we give …show more content…

Person vs. self-conflict is having an internal conflict in which you have with yourself, whereas Person vs.Society is a group effort of many people or the controlling systems that be which create an issue for you. In 3 short stories, the authors use person vs self and society to show the themes that people are not always given justice and the fact that what you want is not what's always best. In the short story “Lather and Nothing Else”, Hernando Tellez uses person vs. self-conflict to show the theme that one's biggest enemy is their own mind as the barber cannot decide until it is decided for him to kill the captain. In the short story, Lather & Nothing Else, a barber must shave a Captain named Torres who has slaughtered many of the barbers people, the barber is a revolutionary and believes in socialism which is separatist to the captain, the barber has a mental situation to decide to kill him and stop more murders or let him walk free and have his own hands free of blood. The barber contemplates murder as justified or unjustified all the same “No one is worth the sacrifice of becoming a murderer. What could be gained from it? Nothing. Others come along, and then others, and …show more content…

This demonstrates person vs self as he being the barber has an internal conflict should he kill or should he not, his mind was the only thing holding him back, even as the captain talked about how he will gruesomely murder the barber's people he did not kill him. This conflict demonstrates the theme because it shows that one's morals are stronger than what might be more important? Therefore, one can assume that a personal understanding of beliefs are not always whole as in a situation of need or action morals control or change. In the short story “The Lamb to the Slaughter”, Roald Dahl uses person vs. Society conflicts to show the theme that a person does not always pay for their crimes. The story “The Lamb to the Slaughter” is about a woman named Mary Maloney who killed her husband Patric Maloney as she had been in shock after being informed of his Affair and intent to leave her while she was pregnant with his baby. After she killed him she went to the grocer, made herself an alibi and fed the lamb in which she killed her husband to the very detectives who were investigating his death. As the detectives start eating one of them says “Whoever done it, they’re not going