Christopher Sanchez INTL 3111 Mr.

Robert Arnold 07 February 2012 Microtheme 3 Gabriel Marquez One of These Days was a narrative I greatly enjoyed. After reading it I felt that Marquez did a fantastic job creating personalities for the two main characters, which helped carry the narrative through an interesting plot. The two men in the story, the dentist and the mayor, were very different and carried on a thought-provoking relationship. For the most part throughout the story you could sense tension between the two but it wasnt known for why until you reached the end. The Dentist and the Mayor are similar by holding specific titles and duties, but whether they lived up to those titles is where they contrasted in the end. What I mean by this is that towards the beginning of the narrative we see the dentist preparing early for his day by fulfilling everything that he needs to do by having everything clean and in order before clients start to show up. The mayor then arrives and requests for assistance from the dentist, which was consistently refused by the dentist. This was unknown why at first but eventually once the dentist noticed the condition of the mayors face, he felt as if he had to do something about it. Eventually we find out that the mayor lead the town into what we think was a war or something of that sort because as the dentist pulls the mayors tooth he shouts Now youll pay for our twenty dead men. Its funny to think as well that the dentist did all he could to make sure the mayor did get what he had coming by not giving him anesthesia and also taking his time as he prepared for the procedure. The mayor the entire time had a look of desperation but once they

agonizing pain was over so was the desperation. He then turned into an ungrateful, snotty person completely forgetting how much pain he endured and the fact that the dentist helped him. All in all we see that as a dentist, he still fulfilled his duty even though it was against his values, in contrast with the mayor doing his job properly by getting the town into a dilemma which cost them twenty men in the end, which he seems to have no sympathy towards. Also towards the beginning it is said that the dentist is absent of a degree but yet the mayor still attends his office. This must mean that the dentist is known to be very good. We all know that degrees are recognition for ones skills, but it doesnt mean you dont have the skills if you dont obtain one. This might mean the dentist isnt qualified for his position, but I feel that the reason this was stated was to have a parallel with the mayor. The Dentist seemed qualified enough to be a dentist even though he was absent of a degree, in contrast to the mayor, who we eventually learn isnt qualified to be a mayor because of his incompetence to doing the right thing for the people of his town. In the end, its as if the dentist represented as a voice for the people in the town and that this was a great opportunity to use it.