Making difficult decisions appears more often in life than you might think. These choices can change a person's life, in both good and bad ways. “The Bicycle” by Jillian Horton is a story that focuses on a talented young pianist named Hannah. Throughout the story, Hannah faces the strict teachings of her Aunt Rose, which leads her to make ironic decisions. Similarly, in the story “Moss and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez, the barber is faced with a dilemma in which he must consider his moral values ​​before making his final decision. Both stories have a protagonist who faces conflicts that lead to difficult decisions and ultimately lead to the characters discovering themselves. 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 both positive and negative ways. At first, devoting herself entirely to the life of a pianist seemed like the ideal choice, but eventually she realized how much of her childhood she had lost and how alone she felt. This led her to choose to cycle. She explains, “I felt alone and isolated, increasingly aware of the differences between me and girls like Ilana and Leah” (Horton 35). Hannah believed that the only way to be free and feel a sense of belonging was to ride a bicycle. Conversely, in "Lather and Nothing Else", the barber's first choice to resolve his conflict is to kill Captain Torres. Although the barber is a revolutionary and it is in his nature to do this, he considers the impact it might have on him in the long run. Either he decides to kill the captain and immediately flee the city... middle of paper... 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 to his face, even though he knew the barber could have killed him. Both authors used irony in their story to show the difficulties of making choices. The stories “The Bicycle” and “Moss and Nothing Else” can be directly related to society because decision making happens in everyday life and every decision shapes everyone'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 that they should follow what they thought was right. Literary devices such as theme, symbolism, and irony all come into play in both stories to compare and contrast the main ideas..