“Lather and nothing else” pre-reading
BEFORE READING, CONSIDER THE QUESTION:
When, if ever, is it acceptable to kill another human being?
Rank each statement on a 10 point scale (10=strongly agree, 1=strongly disagree)
It is ok to kill someone who…
1. …tried to kill you five years ago but you safely escaped and they spend five years in jail for attempted murder.
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2. ….raped you or your mother.
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3. …is a dictator who left his country into war resulting in the death of millions of innocent civilians.
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4. …has threatened to kill you.
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5. …who is mentally functional but is living with a terminal disease that is causing him/her a lot of pain.
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6. …who is mentally and physically in a “vegetable” state.
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7. …murdered your parents.
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8. …is a serial killer who murdered several people in the city you live in but no one that you know.
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9. …is a convicted pedophile.
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10. …is pointing a gun at you at this moment and is threatening to shoot.
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“Lather and Nothing Else” During Reading Questions
background information:
Politician, journalist, and fiction writer Hernando Tellez was an elected member of Columbia’s national parliament and later
served as his country’s first ambassador to UNESCO in Paris. It was through his collection of short stories that he made his
strongest commentaries on the violent confrontations between conservative and liberal political factions that destabilized
Columbia after 1948. While it was often dangerous for writers to comment on the violence in the press, their fiction could be
published in other Latin American countries, and Tellez has been praised for his honest, if fictional, accounts of life in
Columbia during the period.
During Reading Questions
Answer the following questions in complete sentences on a separate sheet of paper.
1. What is the cause of the barber’s nervousness in relation to his special customer?
2. What inner conflict in the barber is revealed in this encounter?
3. Identify at least three reasons the barber gives for not killing the Captain.
4. Consider the point of view of the story…
a) Through whose eyes do we see events?
b) How does this affect the reader’s perceptions?
5. Consider the narrator’s decision in the end…
A) What are the advantages and disadvantages of peaceful action?
b) What are the advantages and disadvantages of violence?
6. What would you say is the theme of the story? Defend your answer.