“Lather And Nothing Else” by Hernando Téllez begins in a Latin American country at a small barber shop with the barber sharpening his straight razor when a man comes in. This man, Captain Torres, executed the rebels, which caused the barber to begin to shake. Once the barber finished sharpening his razor, he began to lather Captain Torres’s beard and shaving him. When he began shaving him, the barber began to internally debate whether or not to slit his throat with the razor. He thought about if his customers would trust him again, whether he would be able to live with himself, and whether or not it was worth the revenge he knew would come. The thoughts that made his choice were clear, “And so, which will it be? Murderer or hero? My fate hangs on the edge of this razor blade.”(259) In the end, he chose to keep his good reputation and not kill the executioner. When the man was leaving, he said “‘They told me that you would kill me. I came to find out if it was true. But it’s not easy to kill. I know what I’m talking about.’”(259) …show more content…
When the barber says that he got nervous around the man who came in, it made me curious about what the man did. ‘Why did this man have a gun?’ I was wondering while wrapping my head around the fear this man made the barber feel. That man ended up being Captain Torres, a man who executed rebels, and the barber was one of those rebels that he might have to execute. At the beginning, it seemed that the barber was just agreeing with whatever Captain Torres said, but suddenly he began asking questions of his own. His thoughts were all the same, yet so different as he tries to figure out what to do. One of his main arguments against himself is “I am a revolutionary but not a murderer.”(259) Part of his personality is found when he spares the man’s life, which has killed so many
He has one task to perform - to kill the soldiers of the Free States. However, the most important line is that catches the attention of the reader is “.the eyes of a man who is used to look at death.” This is very ironic as he was earlier compared. to a student who is like a symbol of innocence where now he is spoken of a murderer as a child. He is engrossed in fulfilling his duty and is now a student of the violence of the.... ...
This man was afraid. He saw my revolver. He stood back against the sink where he was working. He said, what do you want? Johannes said, we want money and clothes. This man said, you cannot do such a thing. Johannes said, do you want to die? This man was afraid and did not speak. Johannes said when I speak, people must tremble;… (Paton 193)
So when he came into town, people who lived near by told Captain Torres that there was a revolutionary working the barbershop and that he would kill Torres if he wet inside to get a shave. Of course he had the ambition to walk in, so once Torres appeared inside the shop, the barber automatically knew who he was and thoughts like "Murderer or hero? My fate hangs on the edge of this razor blade. I can turn my wrist slightly, put a bit more pressure on the blade, let it sink in" (Tellez) started to pop into his head. But the barber remained calm, and said he was only a barber and that's all he will ever be. In light of that, the quote "character is what you are in the dark," follows through with his two sides because in reality, he's just a plain barber, but deep inside, he's rebel and just not letting it show through.
Through all of his courage, he found what he was looking for. He dug deep and went to the extremes that were not normal to himself. All of his work leads to his dynamic characteristics.
Adam voices that, “ Solomon Chandler was one of them, but I no longer felt any warmth toward the old man. I would kill and he would kill, but he took pleasure in the killing.” (Fast 150). Why the man took so much desire for killing people will forever be unknown, but he made it very clear that your state of mind makes killing people possible not your courage. Solomon declares, “It takes no courage to fire a gun and to kill, merely a state of mind that makes the killing possible…”
"It was as though in those last minutes he was summing up the lesson that this long course in human wickedness had taught us--the lesson of the fearsome, the word-and-thought-defying banality of evil" (252).
When Captain Torres first walks into the salon, the barber seems to be afraid to talk. In “Just lather that's all” it says “the same thing as the other day?” I asked horrified”. The barber is horrified to talk to the Captain, this shows that the captain; is powerful enough to make people afraid to speak,
Written one year apart from the other, one cannot fail to recognize the parallels between William Shakespeare's tragedies Julius Caesar and Hamlet. To begin, they are both stories of assassinations gone horribly wrong. Although the details of the plays are different, the two assassins (Brutus and Hamlet) provide interesting comparison. Through these two killers, Shakespeare reveals the different levels of justice; one’s personal sense of justice; others’ perception of justice; the justice of the monarchy that supports Shakespeare’s craft. Through this, the audience realizes that a just person is not always a humble one, a condition that may turn out to be a fatal flaw in the end. When a man decides to play God by taking justice into his own hands, the world can unravel much more quickly than he had ever imagined.
He tried to portray the world through the terms of compassion and hope, but at the same time “he was profoundly disturbed by the brutality of totalitarianism and the savagery of war,”
It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognize the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both [. . .] If each, I told myself, could be but housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path, doing the good things in which he found his pleasure, and no longer exposed to disgrace and penitence by the hands of this extraneous evil.
He has used his Geass power to kill countless people during the entire series. He understood that death and violence is necessary in rebellion and that only through destruction, he will be able to create a gentler world. He once said, "I must spill yet more blood, so the blood already spilt will not be in vain.” Lelouch offers the viewer insight into the methodology of revolutionary leaders depicting what occurs when the interest of the leader does not always align with that of the
“Freedom lies in being bold” (Robert Frost). In the text, Lather and Nothing Else by Hernando Téllez, a barber is troubled by his dark thoughts as he has an encounter with the enemy, as a patient. The enemy, Captain Torres, a murderous man to the rebels, walks into the shop , and requests the barber, a secret revolutionist, for a shave; like any other day. The result of the interaction reveals that the Captain knew all along the barber was against him, but he put himself out there anyways. In the face of fear the barber only shows cowardice, where the captain proves his bravery.
By not partaking in social customs or following cultural norms, he expresses revolt.... ... middle of paper ... ... And if we could exemplify the absurd characteristics: revolt, freedom, and pleasure in our lives, we could live life more fully: By revolting against tomorrow, we can come to terms with the present moment.
Amongst other things, “The Dead Man” is a story of political ambition, and personal pride which ends up being the downfall of our protagonist. Benjamin Otalora, the Argentinean Buenos Aires hoodlum turned Uruguayan gaucho, is ambitious and most of all brave. However, he is also reckless and lacks any kind of discretion whatsoever. His physical daring is un-complimented by any higher meaning or purpose. He doesn’t save Azevedo Bandeira, the mobster boss, in the knife fight because of any morals or virtues he believes in, but simply because he was drawn “to the sheer taste of danger.” Otalora’s braveness is also completely selfish. It is a raw, violent, braveness that ultimately blinds him to the reality to which he becomes self-aware in the last moments of his life; he is a man who is completely oblivious to forces outside himself. Otalora’s uncontrolled ambition and unchecked bravery disallows him the ability to calmly make calculations, to make the most intelligent choices, to think things through; all essentials in leadership and especially in ultimately coordinating a power grab from someone the likes of Azevedo.
...ven a choice few have: to save himself from certain death or to continue on to gain immortal glory.