The Bicycle Poem Analysis

Making difficult decisions show up in life more often than realized. These choices can alter a person’s life in good and bad ways. “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton is a story that focuses on a young talented pianist named Hannah. Throughout the story Hannah deals with the strict teachings of her Tante Rose, which leads her to make ironic decisions. Similarly, in the story “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the barber undergoes a dilemma in which he must consider his moral values before making his final decision. Both stories have a protagonist that face conflicts which lead to difficult decision making, and in the end leads the characters to discover themselves. In both stories the authors use the literary devices theme, irony and symbolism to compare and contrast the main ideas.

In “The Bicycle” Horton illustrates the theme of making difficult choices. The choices Hannah makes alters her life in positive and negative ways. Being completely devoted to the life of a pianist seemed to be the ideal choice at first, but in the end she realized how much of her childhood she had lost and how lonely she became. This led her to make the choice of riding the bicycle. She explains, “I felt lonely and isolated, increasingly aware of the differences between myself and girls like Ilana and Leah” (Horton 35). Hannah felt that the only way she could be free and feel a sense of belonging is if she rode a bicycle. Conversely, In “Lather and Nothing Else” the barber’s first choice to resolve his conflict is to kill Captain Torres. Although the barber is a revolutionary and it would be in his nature for him to do that, he considers how it would affect him in the long run. He either decides to kill the captain and immediately flee the town ...

... middle of paper ...

...it was true. But it’s not easy to kill. I know what I’m talking about” (Tellez 346). This is ironic because Torres let the barber put the razor blade to his face, even though he knew the barber could have killed him. Both authors used irony in their story to show the difficulties of making choices.

The stories “The Bicycle” and “Lather and Nothing Else” can relate directly to society, because decision making happens in everyday lives, and each decision shapes one’s life and who they will become. In each story there is a roadblock and the protagonist needs to weigh out their options to make a wise choice. All the difficult choices each protagonist made lead them to self-discovery, and made them realize to follow what they thought was right. The literary devices such as theme, symbolism and irony all come to play in both stories to compare and contrast the main ideas.