Conflicts And Similarities Between 'Lather And The Sniper'

There are many similarities between the conflicts in “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Téllez and “The Sniper” by Liam O’Flaherty. In “Lather”, a barber in the South America revolution, secretly working as an informer for the revolutionaries is presented with the opportunity to kill his worst enemy, Captain Torres one of the leaders of the revolution. Although he is only an informer and a barber, he has Captain Torres’ life in his hands and ponders whether to kill or not kill him but in the ends lets him go unharmed. In “The Sniper”, a Republican sniper is presented with the task to kill a Free Staters sniper in a civil war. When he gets shot, he has to escape by killing the enemy sniper and manages it, but when he looks at the enemy sniper

close up , he notices that the Free Staters sniper was actually his brother. There are many similarities conflict-wise in both stories, the first man versus man as the Republican Sniper has the kill the Free Staters sniper. The second similar conflict is man versus society as both of the short stories have two sides in one war or revolution. The third similar conflict is man versus self as both the characters in both stories have debates within themselves whether to do or not to do something. These are the conflict similarities between “Lather” and “The Sniper”.
In “The Sniper” and “Lather”, there are many similarities in the conflict, man versus man.

Both stories have a protagonist and an antagonist, both who want to murder each other as shown in “Lather” when the barber is faced with the decision of whether or not to kill Captain Torres, his worst enemy, although he ends up not having the guts to do so. It is shown in “The Sniper” when the Republican sniper kills the Free Staters sniper without hesitation in order to help the Republicans win the civil war as he has also done with the Free Staters informer. Also, both the Antagonist of “Lather” and the protagonist of “The Sniper” use deception to gain an advantage over their enemy. In “Lather”, Captain Torres, one of the leaders of the revolution walks into the barber shop to see whether the barber would kill him or not by placing his own life in the barber's hands with the barber’s razor right next to his neck. In “The Sniper”, when the Republican sniper gets shot and gets into a tough situation, he tests the enemy sniper by placing his cap over his sniper and raising it so that the enemy sniper could see it so that the Republican Sniper could see if the enemy sniper would notice if it was a

decoy.
Both the Antagonist of “Lather” and the protagonist of “The Sniper” use deception to gain an advantage over their enemy. Captain Torres places himself in an immense danger of being killed by the barber’s razor while also making the barber angry. He does this by talking about how he would kill the rebels and making it more brutal and bloodier than the last time when he says, “it may be even better” (p. 15), when the barber asks if it would be as horrifying as last time and then telling the barber “They told me you would kill me…….(p.17) while the barber’s razor is right beside his neck, but when Captain Torres is about to exit the barber shop, he tells the barber that he knew that the barber a rebel all along when the barber had thought that none of the captains of the revolution knew that he was a rebel. In “The Sniper”, the Free Staters sniper stays very still making other people in the area think that no one is where he is unlike the Republican sniper who risks taking a smoke and gets all the people in the area’s attention. Another one of the other similarities between the two stories is man versus society.
Man versus society plays a big part in both “The Sniper” and “Lather”. One of theses similarities between both stories is that both stories have two sides in some type of conflict. In “The Sniper”, there are two sides of the Irish civil war which are the Republicans and The Free Staters fighting over the Anglo-American Treaty. In “Lather”, the two sides are the revolutionaries and the rebels in the South America Revolution fighting over the independence of the people in South America. Another similarity in the conflict man versus society in both short stories is how the antagonists of both “Lather” and “The Sniper” are pressured by their side of the society to kill another member on the opposing side. In “The Sniper”, you could easily tell that the sniper has been pressured by his side of the society to kill multiple times as the sniper's are deep and thoughtful like the ones used to looking at death. In “Lather”, the barber knows that he must kill Captain Torres as he states, “so it was going to be very difficult to explain how it was that I had him in my hands and let him go in peace, alive, clean-shaven” (P. 16). This implies that the barber knows that he has to kill or hurt Captain Torres or else he would be suspected of not being a spy for the Captains of the Revolution. The next of the three types of conflict is man versus self.
In Both the short stories “Lather” and “The Sniper”, there are also many similarities through man versus self. Although both Protagonists and Antagonists of both stories have a lot of differences they are also similar because they are both pressured into doing something that they would rather not do. In the short story “The Sniper”, you could easily tell that the Republican sniper was pressured to participate in the war because as the book states, “his face was the face of a student's thin and ascetic, but his eyes had a cold gleam of fantic. They were deep and thoughtful, the eyes of a man who is used to looking a death” (p. 8) which implies that at his age, he should be going to school, not participating in a civil war as one side of him knows it's his duty to participate in the Civil war while the other side knows that he should continue his education at his age. In “Lather” although the barber is only an informer in the civil war, he is still pressured to kill Captain Torres as he states, “so it was going to be very difficult for me to explain how it was that I had him in my hands and them let him go in peace, alive, clean-shaven (p. 16) which implies that although the barber does not have the courage to commit murder, the rebels still pressure him into killing Captain Torres as the quote implies that the barber still has a responsibility with Captain Torres life in his hands even though he is an informer.
Another similarity between the two stories man versus self-wise is that although the barber is insecure and the Republican sniper is a fanatic, they both consider doing something that they don’t have to do that has a high-risk.

In “The Sniper”, the Republican sniper considers taking a smoke although if the spark is seen, his location would be given out which would put him in more danger. In “Lather”, the barber considers killing Captain Torres but if he were to, the barber states” But the blood would be flowing along the floor, warm, indelible, not to be stanched, until it reached the street like a scarlet river” (p. 16) which implies that if he were to kill Captain Torres, the blood would be noticed by the Revolutionaries which would result in the barber being hunted down and murdered if he were

found.
The last one of the man versus self conflict similarities in both stories is how both Protagonists of the two stories fight to keep their composure or else their location or true identity would be given out as in “The Sniper”, when the Republican sniper gets shot down by the Free Staters sniper, he fights the urge to scream in agony or else his location would be given out to everyone else in the area after he puts iodine on his wound. In “Lather”, the barber tries not to shake as Captain Torres talks about how he would kill the captured rebels because if Captain Torres notices the shaking, he would suspect that the barber is a rebel. These examples show how similar the two stories are conflict wise.
In conclusion, There are many similarities conflict-wise between “The Sniper and “Lather and Nothing Else”. One of the three conflicts being man versus man both stories has an antagonist and protagonist. Another one of the three conflicts being man versus society. Although both conflicts are different, they are also similar since they both have two sides both fighting to achieve something. The last of the three conflicts is man versus self. Man versus self is probably the biggest of the three conflicts since it is focused directly on the Protagonist as they take many risks especially in “Lather and Nothing Else. In conclusion, “The Sniper” and “Lather and Nothing Else” are so similar conflict-wise, it is almost like the two stories are written by the same author.