The short story, Just Lather is shaped by the presence of both internal and external conflicts. Most conspicuous is the struggle taking place inside the barber who grapples with the relative importance of morality, professionalism and loyalty. A somewhat latent conflict goes on inside Captain Torres whose final remark reveals the human that lives inside him. Also, the existence of external factors like political and social unrest, help us in understanding the setting of the story.
Just lather is a story that presents to us in the most lucid way all the hesitation that results from us exercising our morality. The grand setting concocts an image that leaves the barber in a quandary. The symbolism employed through the use of the razor and the ever so vulnerable neck of Captain Torres provides a strong sense of suspense. This makes it rather simple to fathom the golden opportunity knocking at the barber’s door, an opportunity that could transmute his lowly existence into a hero worthy of veneration. It is against this backdrop that we see the barber making his choice, rendering the ending all the more dramatic. That he did not succumb to his belligerent inclinations leaves us gaping at the ingenuity of the author and the principles of a man who finds redemption through his work.
Conflict is a theme that resonates throughout the story. Needless to say, it is imperative to our understanding of the barber. The barber’s profound sense of morality and commitment to his profession is first revealed through the bitter conflict that leaves him undecided and bamboozled. This internal conflict is further exacerbated by Captain Torres who deliberately adds salt to his wounds. Consider the callous remarks made by Captain Torres, comments that help the reader to form an early impression of him. The manner in which Captain Torres is able to relegate the killing of the rebels to the status of a ‘Fine show’ and as something that lends itself worthy of amusement serves to provide us with one such example. The author provides us with further evidence in relation to Captain Torres’s search of the rebels: ‘Not one of them comes out of this alive, not one’ (Tellez, p.16). The image of the barber armed with his razor, all the while being incensed by the piercing commentary sets the stage for the climax of this gripping story.
It is worthwhile to explore the reasons that led the barber to go against his natural inclination, an instinct that would surely have led him to avenge the heartless killings of his countrymen. To rebel against one’s nature is beyond doubt an act that defies logic and which, therefore merits scrutiny. The barber finds himself in a moral quandary as outlined by the author: ‘Curse him for coming, because I am a revolutionary and not a murderer. And how easy it would be to kill him. And he deserves it. Does he? No. No one deserves to have someone else make the sacrifice of becoming a murderer. What do you gain by it? Nothing’ (Tellez, p. 18-19). The beauty of the compelling narrative lies in the inexorable struggle taking place inside the barber who is torn between his urge to kill and his overriding belief in the nobility of a profession that he has helped to elevate to the sacrosanct status of an art. That said, the barber does, for some time, entertain the thought of killing Captain Torres. But this time, the conflict inside him takes into account the possibility of the effects of his act: ‘He slit his throat while he was shaving him- a coward. And then on the other side. ‘The avenger of us all. A name to remember’ (Tellez, p.19). The barber prides himself in relation to his occupation and this hinders him from killing Captain Torres. The battle raging inside the barber lays bare his dedication and more over, his undying respect for an occupation whose worth many would question. As underscored by the author: ‘Yes, I was secretly a rebel, but I was also a conscientious barber, and proud of the preciousness of my profession’ (Tellez, p.17).As it turns out, the barber is swayed to a greater extent by this line of reasoning. The conflict inside the barber is resolved as a consequence of his ingrained respect for a profession that he cannot dare defile.
The author’s depiction of Captian Torres as a man who has no qualms in killing serves a useful pupose as it sets the stage for his dramatic confession later in the story. In order to shed more light on the conflict present inside Captain Torres, it is worthwhile to explore the rationale for his last comment. The author, in a single sentence, is able to change the makeup of the story: ‘’they told me that you’d kill me. I came to find out. But killing isn’t easy. You can take my word for that’ (Tellez, p.21). By accepting that killing is not easy, Captain Torres goes on to show that he is not the savage that we consider him to be. Captain Torres likens himself to any normal being in his appreciation of the difficulty that comes about as a direct result of engaging in such egregious behavior. The ending of the story serves to humanize Captain Torres, a man otherwise depicted as the embodiment of all that is evil. The author paints a picture which exposes the animal that resides in him: ‘A man of imagination but who else would have thought of hanging the naked rebels and then holding target practice on certain parts of their bodies’( Tellez, p.16)?
He could very well be a man trapped in the captivity of negativity, a condition that impedes morality from overshadowing one’s innate belligerence. If nothing else, Captain Torres’s confession mitigates his own sense of guilt and to some extent justifies his flagrant behavior. A prisoner of his social role, Captain Torres does lay bare the inexorable conflict that resides in him. In a kind of role reversal, Captain Torres begins to see himself through the barber, which is possibly an attempt to uncover and unravel the moral quandary that envelops him.
The internal conflicts that go on unabated inside the two principal characters cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the external factors that helped shaped the plot. The backdrop of the narrative is provided by the civil war that is wreaking havoc in the country. These external factors have an important bearing on how the two principal characters conduct themselves. For example, it is inconceivable to fully understand the moral quagmire the barber found himself without knowledge of the atrocious killing of the rebels. Such acts of unspeakable horror instilled in the barber a desire for revenge. All in all, conflict (internal or external) is a pervasive feature of the story line and one that is central to our understanding of the characters.
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