Jason Ryoo

INTL 3111

Professor Arnold

5 October 2018

Mayor or the Dentist?

There were always has been a conflict between people with power, or elite class, and lower

and middle class. Even though everyone has the same power under democratic society today,

there are still conflicts between some politicians who abuse the power given to serve people and

other people of the society. As a result, although it is the mayor who are treated badly in this

story, mayor can exercise his power over the dentist for his own benefit.

Because of the mayor who uses power in the improper way, dentist hates the mayor. The

story shows many signs of dentist’s hatred towards the mayor. At the beginning, dentist tries to

refuse service to mayor, but he was forced to provide service when the mayor threatens to shoot

him. Even though the story says that the dentist accepted the mayor after noticing mayor has

serious problem that tortured him for five days, but just by dentist opening the bin that has the

revolver in it, it is enough to say that the dentist really hates the mayor to the level that he is

willing to shoot the mayor in return. In addition, dentist tells the mayor that he cannot be under

anesthesia while in treatment because of abscess, but story does not tell us if the dentist is telling

the truth, or he is lying to make the mayor feel more pain.

There are multiple events that signals why dentist hates the mayor. Dentist is very poor – he

has an old office with old wooden chair and the pedal drill. The story does not tell us if the

mayor is rich or not; however it is possible to say that he owns some kind of wealth because he is

a mayor. Additionally, dentist does not have a degree, because he could not afford the cost. In
comparison, mayor is proud of the fact that he is a mayor and shows his thought of thinking he is

better than everyone else by telling the dentist he can “shoot” the dentist. Problem of inequality

between elites like the mayor and others existed for a long time in almost every part, including

education, housing, and political title. Therefore, it is very hard to be a mayor for a person like

the dentist who cannot afford college education. The mayor uses his advantage as a mayor

oppress people, making people to hate politicians. The story leaves details of mayor to readers;

however, it is enough to say that corruption and misuse of power contributed to people hating

politicians like the mayor.

At the end, mayor express himself that he has the power by saying the city and the mayor is

the same thing. What the mayor said same thing as saying he is king of the city – it means the

mayor thinks he owns city. Here the mayor uses his power to oppress someone else, contributing

to people hating him and making himself the “bad guy” by abusing his power given by people.

It is clear that mayor has the power over dentist and dentist cannot fight the mayor.

Politicians generally do not make death threats like in the story; however, misuse of power and

corruption is very common. By writing this story, the author wanted to give message to

politicians not to be like the mayor in the story.

1. Thesis – Mayor has the most power and dentist tries to challenge the power
2. Dentist’s sign of hatred towards the mayor
a. The story begins with dentist refusing service to mayor
b. Refusing service to mayor because he hates the mayor
c. Forced to accept the mayor as patient
d. But wants to revenge the mayor
e. No anesthesia
f. Story does not tell us if the mayor really has an abscess – we do not know the truth
g.
3. Why the dentist hates the mayor
a. Dentist is poor – his office’s condition
b. He is poor middle class – no degree
c. Story does not tell why, but maybe because mayor is one of elites
d. Elites misusing the power, corruption
4. Sign of Mayor having the power at the end of the story
a. “It is the same thing”
b. “I will shoot you” – represents the politician’s power
c. “I will shoot you” – power being used to oppress
5. Dentist’s son
a. One of the reasons why dentist accepted the mayor as a patient, literal translation
b. How will dentist’s son live without his father?
c. Dentist’s son will have a hard time
6. Conclusion
a. Mayor has the most power and dentist does not cannot resist
b. Why Marquez wrote this story - To criticize the politicians