In "Just Lather, That's All," how do the barber and captain contrast and who is more admirable?
The question suggests that you are preparing a written assignment that should be 3–4 paragraphs long. This answer provides information to help you with that assignment. An appropriate structure for a short essay would be one paragraph of introduction that presents your thesis, one paragraph of conclusion, and between them one or two paragraphs in which you lay out the evidence to support your thesis.
In "Just Lather, That's All," the characters are drawn as having opposite personalities. Although their meeting is brief, the author provides glimpses of their past actions and insights into their approach to life that help the reader understand their personalities. The captain is arrogant and cruel, while the barber is modest and measured. The reader is left to decide how to evaluate the barber's decision to spare the captain's life.
Because it is ultimately revealed that the captain knows of the barber's secret...
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rebel activity, the reader comes to understand that he is toying with the barber. Had he died in the chair, no doubt his men would torture and/or kill the barber and exact retribution on the townspeople. Also, the captain brags about his inhumane behavior in ordering the men to shoot the corpses.
The barber must calmly proceed with his job while listening to these horror stories. He must decide to take the moral high ground in not becoming a murderer, which would render him as barbaric as the captain. He must also think about the greater good and his loyalty to his rebel cause. If the barber avoids being tortured, he can prevent the disclosure of information, which will in turn prevent further bloodshed.
Rivals on opposing sides of the political unrest that encompases Hernando Tellez's short story, "Just Lather, That's All," the barber and the captain each have a secret that they hide from one another. The author reveals the barber's secret from the start: He is a rebel, working undercover at the job he values and at which he excels. The captain's secret is not revealed until the end of the story: He has been told of the barber's true identity and has come to see for himself.
Captain Torres is ruthless and relentless, spending days at a time hunting down the revolutionaries before torturing and executing those he captures. But he is also brave, sitting with eyes closed as the barber stands above with a razor that can just as easily cut his throat as it can remove his four-day beard. It is obvious that Torres values his position of authority and believes in his cause--a very visible and identifiable symbol in the town.
The barber, however, hides behind his cutter's guise and smock. He finds the captain's treatment of his people reprehensible, but he cannot find the courage to kill his foe when he has the chance. Instead, he justifies his barber's code--to never needlessly spill a drop of the customer's blood--as his reason to let Torres walk away from his shop. Although the captain's evil brutality is no cause for admiration, the barber's cowardly reluctance to put an end to Torres' terror is equally ignoble.