the use or abuse of power, and the adherence to professionalism by the dentist. If revenge were the main theme, it would have been more fitting if the dentist had shot the mayor with the revolver he had in his drawer. Instead, he closes the drawer and agrees to perform the procedure.

One of the main themes in the story is the way that power is used by the two main characters. Overall, the corrupt mayor obviously has far greater power in his ability to use his office to justify the threat of violence. In this situation, though, he is helpless before the dentist. There are limits to the mayor's power. He cannot pull his own tooth. Despite all the power he wields in his office, he must sit in the chair and make himself vulnerable to the dentist. He must also accept the conditions under which the dentist performs the procedure. He has no way of knowing if the dentist's explanation of the abscess is accurate or not. For this reason, he allows the dentist's moment of revenge without retaliation, but as soon as the tooth is pulled, the mayor is back in control.

The dentist's adherence to professionalism is another important theme. Marquez touches on this early as he describes the dentist working on false teeth, gold teeth, and bridges. The dentist has an opportunity to shoot the hated mayor, but he does not take it when he sees the man's condition. His professional ethics cannot allow him to turn away a patient in need. However, he uses the brief period in which the mayor is under his control to inflict at least some pain in return for the atrocities the mayor has committed. In the overall exchange, the dentist comes out as the far better man.

Often we can find several different themes in a story, and it's possible to find evidence for each. "One of These Days" is a powerful story with many themes, but I think that power is one of the strongest themes.

The story is very much a play of power, and as we read, we see power exchanged between the dentist and the mayor. There is a bit of a back-and-forth on who holds the most power and who is most in control of the situation.

In the beginning of the story, the dentist is in control. We see him working slowly, taking his time and not paying attention to much. When the mayor arrives and asks for help, the dentist denies him. However, power changes hands when the mayor threatens to shoot the dentist.

Of course, it quickly switches back when we find out that the dentist also has a gun, and is ready to shoot the mayor as soon as he walks in. He doesn't, but he maintains control of the situation because the mayor's tooth has incapacitated him. The dentist uses his power to deny the mayor anesthesia and to make the extraction especially painful.

But, by the end of the story, power returns again to the mayor, and we know that even while the dentist held control over this situation, the mayor always had more power and always will. This is solidified with the comment that charging him and charging the town is the same, because in the end, bad tooth or not, the mayor has always been in control.

"One Of These Days" is a short story about power and revenge. The two principal characters are the dentist Aurelio Escovar and the Mayor. The Mayor insists on seeing the dentist because he needs a tooth pulled. He says that he will shoot the dentist if the dentist refuses to see him. Later in the story, the dentist pulls the Mayor's tooth, without anesthesia, and tells him, "now you will pay for our twenty dead men."

The Mayor seems to be the one who has the most power in this story. He has the power, it seems, to kill twenty men. He has the power also to shoot the dentist, should the dentist refuse to see him. However, for a brief moment, the dentist has power over the Mayor, and he uses that power to get revenge for the twenty dead men. His revenge is momentarily satisfying but, ultimately, fleeting. The title of the story, "One Of These Days," implies a threat or a desire on behalf of the dentist that one day he shall have enduring revenge.

The story of the dentist and the Mayor can also of course be read as a microcosm representing the conflict, on a broader scale, between ordinary people and the political class. The former is represented by the dentist, and the latter by the Mayor. The former, like the dentist, never really have more than a momentary power, whereas the latter, like the Mayor, are invested with a power that endures and which can take or save lives.