Flashcards
Lather and Nothing Else
Cards in this deck (4)
- 1First person narrative perspective. “And when I recognized him, I started to shake...To cover my nervousness, I went on stropping my razor.” Simple sentences: “He came in without a word. I was stropping my razor.”The writer chooses to use simple sentences to make the reader feel uncomfortable, but at the same time, curious as to why the barber is so nervous, and why he, “started to shake”. Because of the first person narration, readers identify with the barber’s feelings and begin to believe that the barber is a good person because despite him being affected by the presence of the visitor, he tries to remain calm and “cover [my] nervousness”
- 2Rhetorical Question: “How many of ours had he sent to their death? How many had they killed?” Repetition: “Each one to his job. That’s it. Each one to his job.”Tellez’s choice to use the rhetorical questions shapes our response of anxiety because we realise that the barber needs to make a serious decision. In asking the questions about how many of his people Torres had killed, we begin to understand that the barber is trying to justify the action he needs to take. This is something many of us can relate to because when we feel the need to take revenge against someone who has hurt our friends or family, we reflect on questions that we feel will justify our actions. When the barber begins to question his actions, he realises that, “Each one to his job...”, meaning that he thinks about how Torres is doing his job, just as the barber does his job.
- 3Metaphor: “My fate hangs on the edge of this razor blade.” Internal dialogue: “He deserves it. Or does he? NO! No one deserves the sacrifice others make in becoming assassins.”To demonstrate the weight of the barbers decision, the writer chooses to use an effective metaphor: “My fate hangs on the edge of this razor blade.” We know that the razor blade is very sharp, so the writer creates a comparison between the ease with which the blade would cut a hair, and the ease with which the barber’s life would be destroyed if he went ahead and slit Torres’s throat. To add to the weight of the barber's decision, the writer skillfully uses internal dialogue so that readers can relate to the barber’s anxiety. As he weighs up his decision, the barber concludes that, “No one deserves the sacrifice others make in becoming assassins.” By this we can infer that the barber doesn’t want any of his friends or family to suffer the consequences of his actions.
- 4Similes: “The skin will yield like silk, like rubber, like the strop.” “But the blood would be flowing until it reached the street like a small scarlet river.”As the barber imagine how easily the sharp razor will cut through Torres’s skin, “like silk, like rubber, like the strop”, he realises how easy it would be to kill Torres. However, in the use of the conjunction “But” the writer indicates that the barber has a change of mind when he imagines the that Torres’s blood will “run like a small scarlet river.” The barber realises that one the cut is made, there is no going back on his decision, and that the blood, the life of a man will forever stain his hands.
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- Description
- This set of flashcards has the techniques and quotes, as well as the expalations for a 'language/reaction' essay
- Created by
- erika jenkins · Sep 2017
- Updated
- Sep 28, 2017
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