Haircut by Ring Lardner
"Haircut" is a short story by Ring Lardner that presents a narrative framed around a barber's conversation with a stranger while giving him a haircut. The barber serves as a naïve narrator, recounting the life of Jim Kendall, a local practical joker who recently died, allegedly in an accident. Through the barber's eyes, readers learn about Jim's history of mischievous antics, including cruel pranks that often targeted vulnerable individuals, such as Paul Dickson, a man with a mental handicap.
The story unfolds Jim's declining fortunes, detailing how he lost his job, sank into alcoholism, and engaged in reckless behavior that strained his family relationships. The barber recalls significant events, including an instance where Jim attempted to humiliate a woman named Julie Gregg, leading to a series of events that culminate in his untimely death at the hands of Paul during a duck hunting trip. The narrative highlights the complexities of small-town life and the often-unrecognized consequences of seemingly innocent actions. Ultimately, the barber's obliviousness to the darker implications of his tale adds a layer of irony, prompting readers to reflect on the nature of humor, cruelty, and community dynamics.
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Haircut by Ring Lardner
First published: 1925
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of work: The 1920's
Locale: A small, unnamed town in Michigan
Principal Characters:
Dick , the barber and narratorDoc Ralph Stair , a doctor and coronerJim Kendall , the town practical jokerPaul Dickson , a mentally retarded boyJulie Gregg , a young, sophisticated woman in love with Doc Stair
The Story
"Haircut" takes its title from the frame story, in which a barber is talking to a stranger in town as he cuts his hair. The barber is a naïve narrator who does not grasp the full impact of the story that he is telling. His narration concerns the town practical joker, Jim Kendall, who was recently killed in what everyone supposes was an accident.
The barber is a typical resident of a small, unnamed Michigan town near Carterville, who is telling the newcomer how, in his opinion, the liveliness of the town has diminished since the demise of Jim Kendall, whose shaving mug the barber still keeps on the shelf. He begins to illustrate Jim's sense of humor by relating some of the practical jokes that Jim played, such as sending letters to men whose names he would see on signs of establishments in the towns that he passed through on the train. In the letters, he hinted that their wives were being unfaithful. The barber then fills in Jim's background, describing how Jim lost his sales job and was reduced to taking odd jobs around town, spending most of what he earned on drink. Then, when his wife began trying to collect his salary before he got to it, he began borrowing against his wages in order to foil her plan, and, the barber adds, Jim punished her by inviting her and their two children to the circus, where he left them waiting at the tent entrance and never appeared with the tickets.
At this point in the narrative, the barber tells of how Doc Stair, a new doctor in the town, saw them and paid their way into the circus, thus incurring the enmity of Jim. The barber then describes how Doc Stair came to town and gradually built up a good practice, and how he was very lenient with those who could not pay their bills. He relates how the doctor became coroner when the old coroner died because he was the type of person who could not refuse when asked to do a favor.
He then relates the background of another town resident, Paul Dickson, who received a head injury when he was ten years old and is slightly retarded, and who was a frequent butt of Jim Kendall's practical jokes. Because of these jokes, the barber says, Paul has nothing to do with most people except Doc Stair and Julie Gregg, the only two residents of the town who show him kindness. This thought leads him to relate how Julie Gregg fell in love with Doc Stair when she took her invalid mother in to see him.
The plot of the central incident begins as the barber tells of Jim Kendall's attempt to rape Julie. After she called the marshal, Jim decided to revenge himself on her by playing one of his tricks. At a time when he knew that Doc Stair was out of town, he phoned her, disguising his voice as the doctor's, and asked her to come and see him. When she arrived at the doctor's office and called for him, Jim and all of his friends, who were hiding under the stairs, came out, shouting and ridiculing her.
The barber says that later, when Jim came looking for someone with whom to go duck shooting, Paul Dickson volunteered to join him. According to the barber, Paul accidentally shot Jim in the boat while handling a gun for the first time in his life. He ends his tale by saying that it was probably Jim's fault for letting a "half-wit" use a gun with which he was not familiar, but he adds that the town certainly misses Jim Kendall. The barber has ignored the fact that Paul acted deliberately after Doc Stair had told Paul that a person who would play such a trick on a person such as Julie "ought not to be let live."
Bibliography
Cervo, Nathan. "Lardner's 'Haircut.'" Explicator 47, no. 2 (Winter, 1989): 47-48.
Cowlinshaw, Brian T. "The Reader's Role in Ring Lardner's Rhetoric." Studies in Short Fiction 31, no. 2 (Spring, 1994): 207-216.
Evans, Elizabeth. Ring Lardner. New York: Ungar, 1979.
Jones, David A., and Leverett T. Smith, Jr. "Jack Keefe and Roy Hobbs: Two All-American Boys." Aethlon 6, no. 2 (Spring, 1989): 119-137.
Lardner, Ring, Jr. The Lardners: My Family Remembered. New York: Harper & Row, 1976.
Robinson, Douglas. Ring Lardner and the Other. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Yardley, Jonathon. Ring: A Biography of Ring Lardner. New York: Random House, 1977.