24 pages • 48 minutes read
Hernando TéllezLather and Nothing Else
Fiction | Short Story | YA | Published in 1950A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Simile
In “Lather and Nothing Else,” Téllez uses several similes to create vivid and powerful images in the reader’s mind.
The barber describes himself as “shaking like a regular murderer” as if he had already completed the crime (Paragraph 40). This simile emphasizes the protagonist’s dilemma. His conscience pushes him in two opposite directions. He feels guilt for a crime he has not yet committed (and will not commit).
As he continues to contemplate the murder, he says to himself, “[T]he blood would go flowing, along the floor, warm, indelible, not to be stanched, until it reached the street, like a small scarlet river” (Paragraph 40). The figurative language highlights the violence of the crime he is contemplating and gives substance to the captain's comment at the end, “It’s not easy to kill” (Paragraph 47).
At the moment of decision, the barber thinks “the skin will yield like silk, like rubber, like the strop” (Paragraph 43). This simile highlights the delicacy of skin and the ease of the contemplated murder, perhaps causing the barber to feel the captain’s fragility and defenselessness.
These similes not only add to the story’s descriptive language but also enhance the reader’s emotional connection to the characters and the events of the story. They help to convey the complexity of the situation and the decisions that the barber must make.
Onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is a literary device that uses a name that sounds like the thing named, such as “plop” or “roar.” In “Lather and Nothing Else,” the function is to appeal to the reader’s senses and build suspense as the barber contemplates whether he is going to end Captain Torres’s life. For example, the barber reflects, “I could cut his throat, so, swish, swish!,” indicating the sound the razor would make if he chooses to cut the captain’s throat (Paragraph 39). Additionally, this use of onomatopoeia functions as a compliment to the conflict of man versus conflict that the barber faces during his inner monologue. The use of “swish, swish” in the context of cutting open the throat of the captain demonstrates the actual murder would be easy but could have deep consequences.
Imagery
Téllez uses vivid imagery to transport readers to the barbershop where the story takes place. The descriptions of the tools and setting help create a sense of tension and unease as the barber grapples with a moral dilemma.
The author’s use of imagery is particularly effective in his descriptions of the razor and shaving cream. The razor is portrayed as a symbol of power and danger, with its sharp edge. The barber says that if he murders Torres, the captain “would not even see the shine of the razor or the gleam in my eye” (Paragraph 39). The shaving cream, on the other hand, is described with the phrase “cool caress of the lather,” a substance that requires careful handling before it is applied to a customer’s face (Paragraph 14).
Through the use of imagery, Téllez brings the reader into the mind of the barber, allowing them to experience the conflict between his loyalty to his profession and his political beliefs. The vivid descriptions of the tools and setting also add to the story’s realism, making the final decision all the more impactful.
Twist Ending
At the beginning of “Lather and Nothing Else,” both the barber and the reader assume that Captain Torres does not know that the barber is one of the rebels that he is hunting down. Throughout the story, this assumption provides a false sense of comfort that the barber is safe. He is free to question Torres on his previous killings and prod about the ones later that very afternoon. However, the last lines reveal that Torres knew the entire time that the barber was a rebel. In fact, the shave from the barber was a test further demonstrating the moral dilemma of the story: political conflict is never black and white, and neither is right versus wrong when put into complicated situations.
