Making difficult decisions shows up in life more often than you realize. These choices can alter a person's life in positive and negative ways. “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton is a story centered around a talented young pianist named Hannah. Throughout the story Hannah comes to terms with the harsh teachings of her Tante Rose, which lead her to make ironic decisions. Similarly, in the short story “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the barber is faced with a dilemma in which he must consider his moral values ​​before making the final decision. Both stories have a protagonist who faces conflicts that lead to difficult decisions and which ultimately lead the characters to self-discovery. In both stories the authors use the theme of literary devices, irony, and symbolism to compare and contrast the main ideas. In "The Bicycle" Horton illustrates the theme of difficult choices. The choices Hannah makes alter her life in positive and negative ways. Dedicating herself completely to the life of a pianist seemed to be the ideal choice at first, but eventually she realized how much of her childhood she had lost and how lonely she had become. This led her to make the choice to ride a bicycle. She explains, “I felt alone and isolated, increasingly aware of the differences between me and girls like Ilana and Leah” (Horton 35). Hannah felt that the only way to be free and feel a sense of belonging was to ride a bike. In contrast, in “Lather and Nothing Else” the barber's first choice to resolve his conflict is to kill Captain Torres. Even if the barber is a revolutionary and it would be in his nature to do so, consider how this would affect him in the long run. Or decides to kill the captain and immediately flee the city... half of the card... 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 on his face, even though he knew the barber could kill 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 directly concern society, because decision making happens in everyday life, and each decision shapes one's life and who they will become. In every story there is an obstacle and the protagonist must weigh their options to make a wise choice. All the difficult choices made by each protagonist led them to self-discovery and made them realize to follow what they thought was right. Literary devices such as theme, symbolism, and irony come into play in both stories to compare and contrast main ideas.