Short Summary - One of these days - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  One of These Days - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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Introduction :

    Gabriel García Márquez's short tale "One Of These Days" was initially published in Spanish in 1962 and later in English in 1968. Gabriel García Márquez, a journalist and author of novels and short tales, gained international recognition. In the short novella “One Of These Days,” García Márquez addresses topics such as power and vulnerability, political corruption, and the balance between retribution and compassion in a tiny community. The plot is straightforward and realistic. His most famous novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, used magical realism to recount Macondo's history and won the 1982 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Short Summary :

    On one of these days, unlicensed dentist Aurelio Escovar starts his practice at 6 a.m. In suspenders and a collarless striped shirt, he looks simple. He grabs a set of false teeth from a case, arranges his dental instruments by size, and polishes them for two hours, pumping the dental drill mindlessly. 

    At eight in the morning, he takes a break and stares out the office window, seeing two buzzards on his neighbor's roof and predicting rain before lunch. His young boy cries from the waiting room that the mayor needs a tooth pulled. Aurelio orders his son to expel the mayor and explain that he is out. He ignores the problem and polishes a gold tooth. After finishing the tooth, Aurelio exclaims, “so much the better” when his kid says the mayor can hear him. 

    Finally, the mayor tells Aurelio's kid that he will shoot him if he doesn't help with the tooth. Aurelio stops working and picks up a gun from a desk drawer. With a hand on the drawer and a carefree tone, he sends his son to challenge the mayor to shoot him.  

    Aurelio observes that the mayor has been in a lot of agony; he has several days of stubble on his swollen side of his face, and “the dentist saw many nights of desperation in his dull eyes.” Aurelio tells the mayor to sit and closes the desk drawer. The mayor says good morning, and Aurelio says “Morning.”         The mayor sees the office's poverty as he sits. He tenses but speaks as Aurelio approaches. Aurelio notices an abscessed wisdom tooth in the mayor's mouth and says the extraction must be done without anesthetic. The mayor agrees, looking at Aurelio.

     Before the extraction, Aurelio boils his dental instruments and places a spittoon near the mayor. He washes his hands without glancing at the mayor, but the mayor watches him carefully as he prepares for the surgery.  Aurelio returns to extract. He holds the mayor's tooth with dental forceps. As the mayor braces, Aurelio continues, “Now you will pay for our twenty dead men.” Mayor tears up as his tooth is pulled and his jaw bones crunch, but he doesn't scream. He holds his breath until the tooth is out, and when the dentist shows him his tooth, the mayor can't understand how it hurt so much the night before. 

    The mayor bends over a spittoon, unbuttons his tunic, and grabs his handkerchief, but Aurelio hands him a clean cloth to soothe his tears. Aurelio washes his hands again, and the mayor notices the office's decaying ceiling and spiderweb. The mayor leaves without buttoning his tunic after Aurelio urges him to go to bed and gargle with saltwater after washing up. When Aurelio asks if he should send the bill to the town or the mayor, the mayor says, “It’s the same damn thing.” via the closed screen door.

Themes : 

Story focuses on political power and corruption. Revenge is another focus. The mayor, who is eager to show his dominance from the start, has nothing to say when the middle-class dentist, who has no influence, makes him suffer to avenge local corruption. 

    In the story, Marquez is impartial to both individuals. He has no greater impact on either character. He shows reality via both characters in this novel. Characters follow the plot and situation. The dentist's explanation for the abscessed tooth's lack of anesthetic is ironic. The mayor was punished for enabling twenty men to be slaughtered. 

    According to the story, the dentist's acts won't transform society. He's not thrilled when he hurts the mayor with his job. He eventually recognizes that he has become more like the mayor by using his authority to hurt people, albeit temporarily. The dentist learns that only he can alter the mayor, and causing him pain makes him worse. 

    The mayor uses his power in the story. He doesn't realize from his anguish that he's wrong and getting what he deserves, both characters exploit their influence, but the mayor gets what he wanted and the dentist wins for a bit.

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