Just Lather, That's All

Just Lather, That’s All

Suspense Paragraph

Just Lather, That’s All is a short story written be Hernando Téllez that takes place during a war time period. This short story is able to generatesuspanse in a variety of   ways. Some of the ways this story generates susupense include: using a character’s thoughts/inner-monologue, withholding information, and having a delayed outcome with respect to the plot. Acharacter’s inner-monologue is one way to increase the reader’s attantion to the story. In Just Lather, That’s All, there are many examples in which a character’s inner-monologue is used to create susupense. For example, when Captain Torres first enters the barber shop, the narrator says he “started to tremble”(pg.48) whenhe first recognized him. At the time, we know nothing about Captain Torres other than that he is a man. This is why the reader becomes curious about the ‘mystery’ man and why he has evoked such fear in the barber.Later, the narrator talks about “the day he [Captain Torres] ordered the whole town into the patio of the school to see the four rebels hanging there”(pg.49). This passage makes one curious about the barber, as he mentioned earlier that the sight of CaptainTorres left him trembling. Why would the barber tremble unless he had something to hide? This point is further solidified by the fact that the barber refers to the fourteen people captured in the woods as part of “our troops” (pg.48). It is the enjoyable anxiety that one gets that makes you want to find out what is going to happen between these two characters. Witholdin information is another way to increase the enjoyable anxiety found within a story. The narrator is upset when Captain Torres says that fourteen people were caught and that “not one of them comes out of this alive, not one”(pg.48). This inner-monologue makes one wonder what this man (Captain Torres) is talking about; who are these people and what terrible thing have they done that it is punishable by death? Also, why...