One Of These Days

The third-person narrator of this story largely refrains from entering the minds of the characters, instead revealing their thoughts and feelings through action and dialogue. How does this choice serve the story’s dramatic goals? How does it serve to convey the story’s themes?

At less than 1,000 words, “One Of These Days” is sometimes considered a piece of flash fiction due to its brevity. How does Garcia Marquez make the historical and political subtext in the story clear despite not having the space to describe this history directly? Why do you think García Márquez chose to write the story this way?

Gabriel García Marquez’s neorealist novel In Evil Hour (also published in 1962) similarly contains a scene between a mayor with an infected tooth and a dentist. Read that episode in the novel and discuss the similarities and differences in the characterization of the Mayor and dentist in the novel versus the short story. In what ways does the characterization in both accounts affect how the characters’ actions are interpreted?