Structural Analysis of Gabriel García Márquez’s "One of These Days"

In this paper I analyze the structure of the short story based on the elements of fiction. In this case prose (short story). The elements of fiction are character, setting, theme, plot and point of view. For the short story can be downloaded here.

1.       Characters and Characterization

Here I found three characters in this short story. I will mention the characters first, and then the characterization of each characters as follows:

a.       Aurelio Escovar

·         He is a dentist without degree.

·         He is very early riser.

·         He was erect and skinny.

·         He is a careful person.

·         He wore a collarless striped shirt.

·         He is an emotional person.

b.      Aurelio Escovar’s Son

·         He is eleven years old.

·         He is a helpful son.

c.       The Mayor

·         He shaved the left side of his face.

·         He had toothache.

·         He had a swollen and in pain cheek.

·         He had a five-day-old beard.

·         He had icy breath.

·         He had an abscess.

·         He had responsibility to the twenty dead men.

·         He failed to understand his torture.

·         He was unfair mayor.

2.       Setting

Setting is where and when the story takes place and happens. Here I will explain two kinds of setting; they are setting of place and setting of time.

a.       Setting of Place

Generally this short story took place in a dentist office. The dentist office was poor and simple.

b.      Setting of Time

The short story happened on Monday.

3.       Theme

The theme of One of These Days is every deed will have its consequences.

4.       Plot

The plot of this short story is arranged as follows: incentive moment, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

a.       Incentive Moment: The story starts with Aurelio Escovar is preparing to open his office on Monday.

b.      Rising Action: The rising action starts when his son called him and asked whether or not he could pull the mayor’s tooth. Aurelio didn’t take attention to what his son said. So, his son said that the mayor will shoot him if he won’t.

c.       Climax: He said that he had a revolver and asked his son to tell the mayor that he will shoot him. The mayor appeared at the door and Aurelio asked him to sit down and checked him. He pulled the mayor’s tooth without anesthesia and said that it was for the twenty dead men.

d.      Falling Action: After the tooth was pulled, the mayor felt so horrible and in vain.

e.      Resolution: The mayor told Aurelio to send the bill. Aurelio asked the bill was to the mayor or to the town. The mayor answered that it was the same thing.

5.       Point of View

In this short story the writer used third person point of view.

That’s all of the discussion of the structural analysis of the short story written by Gabriel García Márquez entitled One of These Days. I hope this paper will be useful for the readers and see you on the next discussion.