Marquex, One Of These Days

Research Paper

Marquez, "One of These Days"

Gabriel Garica Marquez wrote "One of These Days" directly about the relationship between middle class and politicians. Marquez wrote this short story to try to tell his readers the reality of power and revenge among people. "One of These Days" would inspire those who are interested to learn more about politicians and how they handle their power, whether they take advantage of their power or not. The story relates to disadvantages and advantages between middle class and politicians.

In the story "One of These Days", Marquez begins with a poor town dentist who is polishing false teeth when the mayor calls him threatening to shoot him if he does not fix his sore tooth. The mayor had been suffering from a five day severely sore tooth ache. So, the mayor finally wins by getting the dentist to fix his tooth. The Mayor arrives to the dentist's office with his left cheek clean-shaved and a five day old beard on the other cheek with a swollen tooth. The dentist examines the mayor's tooth without anesthesia and makes the mayor suffer even more. The dentist had made the mayor suffer for almost a week and suffer even more when he examines him without anesthesia. The dentist finally got his revenge by making the mayor suffer.

The dentist states his reason for making the mayor suffer by saying, "Now you will pay for our twenty dead men." The mayor got up after the dentist removed his tooth and failed to understand his torture of the five previous nights and the examination without anesthesia from the dentist. The mayor told the dentist to send the bill, and the dentist asked "to you or to the town?" The mayor told the dentist, "It's the same damn thing." In the end of the story, the mayor wins by using his political power. The mayor refers him and the town as the "same thing" that his power extends beyond himself. The mayor sees no wrong in what he has done to the past to the dentist or what the dentist is trying to tell him. The mayor only sees himself as winning as the better man in the end.

"The title "One of These Days" refers to the dentist learning something new about his own power. The dentist tells himself that hurting the mayor will affirm his own power for revenge or political resistance. His treatment is so effective that he releases the mayor both from pain and his grasp and restores the very situation that he, the dentist, abhors."(The Modern World) "Marquez captures the peculiar nature of medical power in this tale of manipulation. The mayor is the epitome of apparently corrupt, even murderous, political power."(The modern world) Marquez is trying to tell his readers those with political power will have the power to win or get their revenge in the end. People with political power see no wrong in what they are doing no matter how much others may make them suffer; Politicians will only see that others are wrong for what they do to them. Politicians will always think they are right and use their power to get their revenge.

Gabriel Garica Marquez started writing short stories like these in 1955 when he published his first novella, Leaf Storm. Marquez was born on March 6, 1928 in Aracataca, Colombia. Marquez's parents were struggling for money, so Marquez went and lived with his grandparents for his first eight years. Gabriel grew up as a quiet and shy lad, entranced by his grandfather's war stories and his grandmother's superstitions of ghost stories. (The modern world) Yet, as it seems, all the seeds of his future work were planted at his grandparent's house: stories of civil war and the banana massacre, the courtship of his parents, the sturdy practicality of the superstitious metrical, the comings and goings of his countless aunts, and his grandfather's illegitimate daughters. (Contemporary Literary Criticism) "Later in life, Marquez wrote "I feel that all my writing has been about the experiences of the time I spent with my grandparents." (the modern world)

At the age of twelve, he was awarded a scholarship to a secondary school for gifted students, run by Jesuits. The school, The Liceo Nacional, was in Zipaquira, a city 30 miles to the north of Bogota. After graduation in 1946, Marquez followed his parents' wishes and enrolled in the Universidad Nacional in Bogota