27 pages • 54 minutes read
Gabriel García MárquezOne Of These Days
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Aurelio Escovar
Aurelio Escovar is the protagonist of the story and the only named character. He is a dentist with no formal degree or certification. Gabriel García Márquez’s own father, Gabriel Elijio García, was a self-trained homeopathic pharmacist for a time. The fact that Aurelio lacks a degree underscores that he is a working-class, uneducated man who hasn’t had the privilege or opportunity for further study. His poverty is also apparent in his plain clothing—“a collarless striped shirt, closed at the neck with a golden stud, and pants held up by suspenders” (73)—and the fact that he is “skinny” and perhaps malnourished. Aurelio is a man of controlled habit: He wakes early each morning, opens his business early, keeps his instruments in a particular order, meticulously completes his tasks, and maintains a cool and composed demeanor when confronted with conflict.
In some ways, Aurelio is out of step with his society’s social order. He is described in the opening paragraph as having “a look that rarely corresponded to the situation” (73). His lack of an emotional response to the conflict with the Mayor also seems unusual, a mystery deepened by his later pronouncement, “Now you’ll pay for our twenty dead men” (75), which reveals that Aurelio has good reasons to feel viscerally angry with the Mayor. Aurelio is glad that the Mayor knows he’s there, and when the Mayor threatens to shoot him, he is glad to have the opportunity for a violent confrontation, but his emotions are always under the surface, invisible. This extreme calm and self-control are hallmarks of his character even at the climax of the story when he pulls the Mayor’s tooth, causing him intense pain, “without rancor” (75). He enacts his revenge in the same manner in which he polishes the false teeth in his office—calmly, methodically, because it must be done.
The Mayor
The Mayor is the antagonist of the story and is only known by his title. He is a symbolic character representing the theme of Political Corruption. However, he also demonstrates a level of human vulnerability, reflecting the theme of Power and Vulnerability, that prompts Aurelio to help him by extracting his infected tooth.
The initial interactions between the Mayor and Aurelio are mediated by Aurelio’s son. The Mayor is persistent in demanding care. He refuses to take no for an answer and ultimately threatens to shoot the dentist if he doesn’t comply with his demand—an intensity soon explained by the immense pain of his infected tooth. It’s unclear what the Mayor’s intentions are when he appears at the door, since he has just threatened the dentist with physical violence, but his appearance—tired eyes and a stubbly, swollen cheek—highlights the vulnerability of his position, thus making clear the artificial and conditional nature of social hierarchies. The fact that the Mayor has waited so long to visit the dentist is further proof of their mutual loathing. At the same time, the fact that he’s there at all suggests that Aurelio is the only dentist in town—evidence of the smallness and poverty of the town over which the Mayor exerts his authoritarian control.
Once Aurelio beckons him to sit, the Mayor attempts to establish some level of social goodwill between the two since the power dynamics are reversed, as he is the dentist’s patient. He attempts to lessen the tension between them by telling the dentist “Good morning,” being a compliant patient, and accepting the news that the procedure must be done without anesthesia without argument.
The Mayor’s body language implies that he is acutely aware of his vulnerability in the situation. He is at the mercy of the dentist, and doesn’t take his eyes off the dentist as he prepares for the procedure. When he is confronted with the pain of the procedure, he demonstrates a strong degree of self-control, never making a sound and holding his breath until the tooth is removed. When Aurelio causes the Mayor pain and declares that it is retribution for the pain caused by the Mayor, the Mayor does not respond. There is no sign of remorse or even acknowledgment of what Aurelio has said, but his quiet acceptance of the pain suggests an acceptance of the punishment Aurelio is administering. The power dynamic between the dentist and the Mayor—temporarily reversed during the encounter—is restored at the end of the story when the Mayor reasserts his complete authority over the town.
Aurelio’s Son
Aurelio’s son is unnamed in the story, which suggests that his function is more important than his actual character. He is left undeveloped but plays an important role as a naive mediator between his father and the Mayor. He is 11 years old and has a “shrill voice,” (73) which highlights his youthfulness and his tendency to interrupt the calm and order that Aurelio has cultivated in his workspace.
There is a clear lack of intimacy between the father and son, suggesting the degree to which the town’s atmosphere of political repression and severe economic inequality has made ordinary family relations difficult or impossible. The son never enters his father’s workspace; instead, he yells at his father from the waiting room, sharing the same space with the Mayor but not with his father. Unlike the Mayor, he never has a face-to-face conversation with his father during the short story. His conversation with his father is always at a distance, each yelling at the other from separate rooms without making eye contact. Their interactions are also formulaic in nature, beginning with the son yelling, “Papá” and the father repeatedly responding “What?”
The son does not appear to understand the history between the Mayor and his father, and he announces the Mayor’s threat in a matter-of-fact tone, as if unsurprised by it. He is used to living with the threat of authoritarian violence, even if he doesn’t understand it or see how his father and other members of the community organize against it. The son is an innocent bystander who is unwittingly caught up in the personal and political confrontation taking place between the dentist and the Mayor, and his naive perspective makes the injustice of the Mayor’s rule all the more evident.
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