The Use of Symbolism in one of These Days by Gabriel Garcia Mendez

The story “One of these Days” by Gabriel Garcia Mendez reveals the selfishness as well as the indifference attitude of the ruling class toward the lives of the lower class people. The narrator used the gun as a symbol of violence and power, and bill as a symbol for corruption. The two symbols further demonstrated the brutality of the ruling class in Columbia, and how they abused their power to squeeze the poor to pay for their good lives.

The gun symbolizes the indifference attitude of the mayor toward the lives of people in the lower class. In the story, the gun was used as a weapon by the mayor for treating the dentist to take out the mayor's teeth . It demonstrated the mayor's selfishness and cruelty when the mayor told the dentist son that:"if you[he] don't[doesn't] take out his tooth, he will shoot you. It showed that the mayor valued his own welfare the most, people who refused to help him would have to obey him under his authority given by the gun. However, it seemed like the dentist was used to such threat, he did not panic and responded “Without hurrying, with an extremely tranquil movement”. It suggested that it was very common in Colombia for the politicians to own a gun, and it was often seemed as a symbol of abused authority that putting the people into dread. It also gave a hint to the death of "twenty dead men", they were likely to be killed by the mayor's gun, and victims under the violent ruling class. The dentist wanted to take revenge upon the mayor for the twenty dead men, yet the the pain of death was permanent, which contrasted to the temporary pain brought by the rotten teeth.

The mayor was the only one who gained benefits from the surgeon, the bill was supposed to paid by the mayor himself. Yet he abused his power as a politician and tried to squeeze money from people in the town, which demonstrated his selfishness and uselessness.The most ironic and dramatic part of the story was when the mayor asked the dentist to "send the bill" to him, and the dentist asked "to you or the town?", then the mayor replied "it's the same damn thing". Obviously, this conversation revealed the corruption of the mayor, while the bill symbolized a burden of the people in the town. The mayor took advantage of his position and made the people in the town to pay for his good lives. The dentist intended to punish the mayor for his selfishness and uselessness. Yet ironically, the dentist found out by the end of the story that the pain he gave to mayor and his little revenge would not change the mayor, but it would turned him more and more similar to the mayor, since he also took advantage of his position as a doctor and punished a patient in need.

In conclusion, the "gun" and the "bill" are the two important object in the story "One of these Days", which symbolized the corruption, violence