Just Lather That's All - Hernando Tellez

The story explores the conflict between general ideology and professional ethics. The problem of choosing between the two is beautifully handled. The barber’s dilemma pervades through the story and eventually he succeeds in making the right choice. The story focuses on the ethics of the barber and the ideology of a true rebel. The barber is proud of the precision and perfection he maintains while dealing with his customers. He is a skilled barber who does his job perfectly without allowing even a tiny pore to open and issue forth its pearl of blood.
The captain comes to test the barber for he knows he is a conscientious barber and that he would find it hard to kill. The captain is true to his profession. He enters the shop as a customer and not as an authoritative officer. He presents himself as a defenseless customer. The barber debates with his conscience. His conscience gives him both versions of the result of the killing of the captain. Some may hail him as the true rebel and some may call him a coward for having killed an unarmed captain. He ultimately overcomes the temptation to kill the captain. The barber thinks in terms of violence and bloodshed but decides not to sacrifice his principles and ideals to fulfill the cause of the rebels.
The true ideology of a rebel is to fight for a cause. He would kill an enemy in the battlefield and not in his shop. The barber ultimately understands that his job is to prepare the lather and nothing more than that. The barber at the end has just lather in his hand and not blood or stain.
The title “Just Lather That’s All” refers to his profession that it is just lather nothing more matters to him.