Conflict In Lather And Nothing Else

Everyone at some point of time in their lives is faced with conflicts whether internal or external. Conflicts occur willingly or unwillingly affecting a person’s mind and actions. The most important thing that a person should remember which dealing with one is their morals. Conflicts can often times lead a person to do something that they don’t want to and in that dilemma comes the question of one’s moral values. In “Gregory” by Paulos Ioannides and in “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the dilemma of choosing whether to kill or not and the circumstantial pressure induces internal conflict leading to the struggle of morality. Due to this internal conflict by the protagonists, the stories result in contrasting endings. Unfortunately, the main character of Gregory decides to press the trigger whereas the barber couldn’t bring himself to cross his moral line and commit a cold-blooded murder. This proves how confusion and pressure can cause a person to make tough decisions.
In Lather and Nothing Else, the barber is portrayed as a man with high morals and the morals are set into play as soon as Captain Torres, his enemy, walks in his shop for a shave. This puts the barber in a situation of internal conflict where he has to decide on whether he should kill Captain Torres or not. For instance, ”Damn the hour he came in, because I am a revolutionary but not a murderer. And it would have been …show more content…
Although the endings of both the stories contrast, the overall main idea is the same. In both the stories the main characters were under circumstantial pressure and had to make the decision whether to kill or not. In Lather and Nothing Else the barber choose to not kill Captain Torres and put his morals first whereas in Gregory, the protagonist choose to kill his own friend and decides that the duty comes first rather than his own