Character Analysis: Just Lather That's All

Throughout history have people been slain by their own brethren for reasons of jealousy, anger and distrust, and even for self-satisfaction. Time and time again has the act of murder been identified either as a justified reason, or classified as senseless, cold, and unreasonable killing by the masses. The act of killing is not justified. In the story of “Just Lather, That’s all”, the protagonist of the story, the barber is faced with a, rather menacing decision that will affect his life forever. As a rebel, the barber is given the mission of assassinating the enemy of their cause: Captain Torres. The barber, having the latter within his barber shop is given a golden opportunity to kill an unarmed and unsuspecting Captain Torres. These concepts …show more content…
A barber’s pride shows the fact that a good barber will never let the customer bleed, this is shown when the barber thought of his objective. “One of the tiny pores could open up and issue forth its pearl of blood, but a good barber prides himself on never allowing this happen to a customer.” (Page 50). Under such a dilemma, it is absolutely challenging to make a final judgement due to the existence of negative consequences on both sides, nevertheless even if there were positive effects as well. The barber finally decided to just lather and shave Torres because he didn 't want to be a murder and didn 't want to soil his reputation. In the barbershop, Captain Torres is a customer who comes to ask for a shave. In contrast of this, Captain Torres is an enemy of the rebels, who the barber is a member of. However, there is no justified outcome even with the murder of Captain Torres. Therefore, the barber only needs to do his duty as a barber, and do things in a creditably fashion, that’s all. The barber believes that "Each person has his own place in the scheme of things” as Captain Torres is an executioner, and the barber himself is obviously a …show more content…
Killing for a purpose is not justified for the barber as he is slaughtering a defenseless man, it will bring insult to his occupation. Knowing this, the barber could not muster any willpower to even do a tiny cut on the Captain’s neck. Running away will mean that he will take on a new life and leaving all he has known behind while the government are on the hunt for him. In addition, the barber will not take responsibility for his actions. He is after all, running away from liability. Because there will be no verdict between both sides, that means that the chain-reaction of death will continue between each side. Under those circumstances, anarchy will start taking effect and there will be more force over the town where the barber lives, so that the commotion over the situation of the rebel’s influence over the town will be settled at ease. War is a perfect example of how this story can be portrayed as a real-life example. The American Civil War divided the two sides in belief or disbelief of slavery. The Columbian Civil War was influenced by cocaine, heroin and marijuana. And World War One was a