In Ring Lardner's short story “Haircut”, the narrator is a simple barber, who is called Whitey. The story is about Whitey telling a customer about the local barbershop's well-liked patron, Jim Kendell. At first the barber makes it seem like Jim is a good old boy, but depending on some people's point of view and Jim's actions towards people, they will soon find out that Jim is a selfish idiot. With this in mind, there are two important questions that are raised throughout the story, namely whether Jim's life was truly important to the town and whether Jim was an evil person; personally, I believe that Jim was not a completely evil person and that the town did not appreciate his life. Jim was known as the town joker, even though his jokes were cruel and disrespectful. In one of Whitey's stories about Jim, he mentions how Jim once said "that many people had tried to make a monkey out of him, but he always managed to get even." which explains some of Jim's reactions to some things. For example, when his wife goes to one of Jim's jobs and asks for his salary, Jim finds out later ...