Participating in the government comes in many forms: calling elected representatives, attending city council meetings, voting, or even running for office, but when a government is tyrannical and ruthless, openly expressing views may pose ineffective. Small acts of resistance in a powerful government may be the only way to fight for the dignity of the people under rule. In the world of this short story, a dentist lives under the powerful rule of the mayor, and the mayor demands a check-up. In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One of these Days,” Marquez utilizes indirect characterization, setting, irony, and symbolism to drive the theme that any form of defiance against the government makes a difference. From the beginning of the story to the end,
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With the mayor in the dentist’s chair and ready to perform the surgery, the dentist delivers a statement that illuminates his true reasoning for resentment for the mayor, so “without rancor, rather with a bitter tenderness, [the dentist] said: ‘Now you’ll pay for our twenty dead men.’ The Mayor felt the crunch of bones in his jaw, and his eyes filled with tears” (Marquez para 33-35). The pulling out of the tooth symbolizes his big action of resistance against the mayor, and his reasoning for his grudge is explained with his climactic statement when he rips out the tooth. The twenty dead men, while never truly explained, can be inferred to be the reason why the dentist dislikes the government and their actions. The mayor, according to the dentist, killed twenty men through some related means, so the pulling of the tooth is his revenge for the immoral actions of the mayor. The dentist pulled out the tooth “without rancor” suggesting that the dentist enjoyed this small resistance against the government powerhouse represented by the mayor. The pain the mayor felt made him cry which was enough for the dentist to have some satisfaction of vengeance for the twenty dead men. The tooth itself made the mayor vulnerable and allowed the dentist to extract it and create a great deal of pain for the
With the mayor in the dentist’s chair and ready to perform the surgery, the dentist delivers a statement that illuminates his true reasoning for resentment for the mayor, so “without rancor, rather with a bitter tenderness, [the dentist] said: ‘Now you’ll pay for our twenty dead men.’ The Mayor felt the crunch of bones in his jaw, and his eyes filled with tears” (Marquez para 33-35). The pulling out of the tooth symbolizes his big action of resistance against the mayor, and his reasoning for his grudge is explained with his climactic statement when he rips out the tooth. The twenty dead men, while never truly explained, can be inferred to be the reason why the dentist dislikes the government and their actions. The mayor, according to the dentist, killed twenty men through some related means, so the pulling of the tooth is his revenge for the immoral actions of the mayor. The dentist pulled out the tooth “without rancor” suggesting that the dentist enjoyed this small resistance against the government powerhouse represented by the mayor. The pain the mayor felt made him cry which was enough for the dentist to have some satisfaction of vengeance for the twenty dead men. The tooth itself made the mayor vulnerable and allowed the dentist to extract it and create a great deal of pain for the