One Of These Days

“The dentist kept examining the tooth. Only when he had put it on the table with the finished work did he say: ‘So much the better.’”

The dentist realizes he has been caught in his lie, but he does not respond until he has finished the task he is working on—showing his disdain for the Mayor’s attempt to intimidate him. His dialogue defies the power of the Mayor and adds to the rising tension in the scene.

“‘He says if you don’t take his tooth out, he’ll shoot you.’ Without hurrying, with an extremely tranquil movement, he stopped pedaling the drill, pushed it away from the chair, and pulled the lower drawer of the table all the way out. There was a revolver.”

García Márquez uses a protracted sentence with multiple descriptive clauses, beginning with “[w]ithout hurrying,” to slow down the pace of the narrative in contrast to the rising violent tension. This emphasizes Aurelio’s unusual calmness and builds toward a sentence devoid of adjectives: “There was a revolver.” The starkness of this sentence after a slow build suggests Aurelio’s preparedness for violence, underscoring the realities of living under Political Corruption.

“The Mayor appeared at the door. He had shaved the left side of his face, but the other side, swollen and in pain, had a five-day-old beard.”

The Mayor appears as a vulnerable human being rather than a symbol of political power and corruption. The juxtaposition in his face—one side smooth and one painful and unkempt—represents the socio-economic disparity between those in power in the town and those living under their regime.

“The dentist saw many nights of desperation in his dull eyes.”

This scene marks a pivotal moment in the story, as Aurelio chooses not to directly confront the Mayor with physical violence and instead to treat him as a patient.

“‘It has to be without anesthesia,’ he said. ‘Why?’ ‘Because you have an abscess.’ The Mayor looked him in the eye. ‘All right,’ he said, and tried to smile. The dentist did not return the smile.”

The reversal in the power dynamic between the Mayor and the dentist is evident in the Mayor’s tonal change toward the dentist.

“The dentist did not return his smile.”

Unlike the Mayor’s body language, which becomes more amicable and welcoming as he loses power, the dentist’s body language continues to demonstrate the animosity he feels toward the Mayor.

“He did all this without looking at the Mayor. But the Mayor didn’t take his eyes off him.”

The description of the men’s body language highlights the reversal of their power relationship. The dentist wields complete control and the Mayor is at his mercy.

“The dentist seized the arms of the chair, braced his feet with all his strength, and felt an icy void on his kidneys, but didn’t make a sound.”

Even in this moment of intense pain and vulnerability, the Mayor still asserts control over his body and attempts to show no weakness.

“Without rancor, rather with a bitter tenderness, he said: ‘Now you’ll pay for our twenty dead men.’”

Aurelio’s character consistently demonstrates a calm and methodical loathing of the Mayor. The reference to the 20 dead men is subtext for the conflict between the characters.

“The Mayor felt the crunch of bones in his jaw, and his eyes filled with tears. But he didn’t breathe until he felt the tooth come out.”

The Mayor mostly retains his self-composure, but there is no sign of remorse and no acknowledgment of Aurelio’s accusation. His is focused solely on his tooth.

“It seemed so foreign to his pain that he failed to understand his torture of the five previous nights.”

The fact that the Mayor delayed so long is likely due to his animosity toward the dentist. Now that the tooth is removed, the power relationship between the dentist and the Mayor will begin to shift again.

“Bent over the spittoon, sweating, panting, he unbuttoned his tunic and reached for the handkerchief in his pants pocket. The dentist gave him a clean cloth. ‘Dry your tears,’ he said.”

During the procedure, the Mayor took great care to not show weakness, but now his body is reacting to the experience and he can’t stop it. Aurelio’s action shows compassion but also draws attention to the Mayor’s weakness in the moment.

“While the dentist washed his hands, he saw the crumbling ceiling and a dusty spider web with spider’s eggs and dead insects.”

The original power structure between the Mayor and the dentist is reestablished. The Mayor sees Aurelio as his social inferior. These details also convey that the Mayor’s corrupt regime hurts him, too, since he must undergo a tooth extraction in an unsanitary place.