Lather and Nothing Else

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.