'Short stories can be remarkably effective' this statement is proved very successful by the short story 'One of These Days' by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

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‘Short stories can be remarkably effective’ this statement is proved very successful by the short story ‘One of These Days’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Marquez uses descriptive language, metaphors and various other techniques, which give ‘One of These Days’ its unique effect.

‘One of These Days’ has a gripping and effective opening making the reader want to read on.  Immediately in a very short space of time Marquez introduces the main character and describes the ‘warm and rainless day’, which comes across as unusual and also ties in with the title!  When Marquez describes the dentist, ‘Aurelio Escovar’ you get a very vivid image of his ‘erect and skinny’ appearance, without giving too much away leaving the reader asking questions.

There are many themes suggested by Marquez in ‘One of These Days’.  A theme of importance, success and wealth is introduced when the fact that the dentist is wearing a ‘gold stud’ is mentioned.  There is also a very opposite theme of poverty.  This theme is questioned when you find out that the dentist is working ‘without a degree’.  This brings the reader to wonder what kind of community the dentist is living in if he is working as an unqualified dentist.

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Mystery and tension is added to the story when the dentist ‘arranges his instruments in size order as if they were on display’ giving the impression that he is a neat, particular and anxious person waiting for something bad to happen.  The dentist comes across as a very negative and grumpy person; this is shown when he has ‘the idea that, before lunch it would rain again’.  The fact that the dentist is using a manual drill brings up the theme of poverty or maybe the story is set in a different country or maybe early in the nineteenth ...

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