One Of These Days

“He was erect and skinny, with a look that rarely corresponded to the situation, the way deaf people have of looking.”

The characterization of Aurelio here is of an impoverished man who seems somewhat out of step with society. His open defiance of the Mayor suggests he does not conform to the social order.

“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.