«The Ransom Of Red Chief» O.Henry. Analysis.

O.Henry was a prolific American short story writer, a master of surprise endings, who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City. William Sydney Porter was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. When he was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his paternal grandmother and aunt. At the age of fifteen he left school. In 1897 he was convicted of stealing money. In prison he started to write short stories to earn money to support his daughter Margaret. After three of the five years sentence he came out of the prison. In 1901 he changed his name to O. Henry and died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5 1910 . It is shown by the authors way of writing that the genre of the Ransom Of The Red Chief is a non-fiction because the characters, places, the events and actions in the story seem almost real. O. Henry describes the characters in a very delicate manner. He shows that Red Chief is a very active and mischievous kid . He has made the life of his kidnappers hell.

The author uses chronological order to tell the story and to state the events that took place. He starts by introducing the main characters , the setting , then makes his way through by adding some twists and turns. The story finishes with a touch of irony .

-They kidnapped Johnny.

-They sent a letter to the father with demands.

-The father replies the letter by an offer.

-They accept the offer.

-They return Johnny and pay the father the ransom.

-They escape and head to the Canadian Border.

The story is the 1st person narration. The narrator is one of the main characters.

This story takes place in a cave near Summit. This setting reflects Bill and the narrator’s personality and the cave resembles their way of life which is moving from a place to another. If the setting was in another place like a village, the father of the kidnapped boy would probably not be able to pay the ransom. And probably the kidnappers won’t get their two thousand dollars.

Exposition: Bill and Sam are in need of two thousand dollars. In this section , O. Henry introduces the characters and a part of the conflict at an early part of the story.

Rising Actions :Bill and Sam kidnap Ebenezer’s son and hide him in a cave.
- They keep his son in the cave and send the father a letter demanding to be pay ransom in order to get his son back.

- The men start to get bothered by the son. In this section, the father realizes that his son was kidnapped. The author shows how the kidnappers treat Ebenezer’s son , how the men lived in the cave , and a part of their personalities. The author also shows how they plan to collect the money

Climax: the father suggests that they return his son and pay him two hundred and fifty dollars. In return he will take his son of their hands. In this section the kidnappers are forced to accept the offer and return Johnny home and pay the ransom to the father.
Falling Actions:
-Bill and Sam take the kid back home.

-They pay the ransom.

-The father allows the kidnappers to run away.

In this part , things seem to head towards a resolution. And the men stick to the preposition. The men are forced to return the son without getting any money.

Resolution:
The kidnappers escape, and head outside Summit to the Canadian Borders without the money

Major Characters.
- Red Chief : He is troublesome, and represents a burden to Bill. He is also playful and doesn’t respect other people. Similarly, Red Chief is a protagonist character who is kidnapped by Bill and Sam but at the end returns to his family. “ I was nine last birthday. I hate to go to school. Rats ate up sixteen of Jimmy Talbots’s aunt’s speckled hen’s eggs… Do Oxen make any noise? Why are oranges round? Have you got beds to sleep on in this cave?” From the previous example we notice that Red Chief is a very talkative kid. He is a mischievous though only nine. O. Henry creates suspense and portrays how “that boy had Bill terrorized from the start.”
-Bill Driscoll and the Narrator: They are independent, and are inexperienced in kidnapping. They are the antagonist characters in the story who kidnap Red Chief . The are incapable when it comes to handling the little kid. They describe him as a little devil who terrorizes Bill and drives both characters insane.

Minor Characters
-Ebenezer Dorset: He seems to be serious, smart, and a caring father. He plays no important role in the story. He is only a father who is trying to get his son back from two kidnapers. The sarcastic thing about what he did, is that he demands his son back with 250 $. On the other hand, an ordinary father wouldn’t do that, and would pay the ransom without any hesitation. Ebenezer is a shock for the reader.

Conflict.
There is no doubt that our conflict in this story is external. Two men who are in need of money decide to kidnap a well known citizen’s son in order to get a ransom of two thousand dollars. The conflict is introduced to us from the beginning of the story. It could also be described as man versus man , since the story describes how they kidnapped the kid the conflict is considered external. O. Henry describes how Bill and Sam treat Johnny.

Theme.
The theme of this story is implied. The theme is “Criminals always get what they deserve”. Bill and Sam find themselves forced at the end of story to pay Red Chief’s father in order to get rid of the mischievous kid. This is really ironic, because we expected the father to pay the ransom like what ordinary people would do. Instead O. Henry ended the story with a twist and made the story more memorable. Thus, Bill and Sam lost their ransom and had to pay 250 $ to have things sorted out.

Stylistic devices.
The author uses such phonetical devices as assonance (town down there), alliteration (there than in the radius).
He uses such lexical devices as similie (like a good thing, as flat as a flannel-cake, such as women, like a horse), epithets (fraudulent, prominent, roway, contiguous, sylvan, tender),
O.Henry also uses syntactical devices such as polysyndeton (or howls, or shouts, or whoops, or yawps), repetitions (but wait till I tell you), ellipsis (“Aw, what for?”; “Sure”).

Atmosphere.
There is no doubt that a story’s mood differs according to its plot. The mood often affects the readers and helps them predict future events. This story’s mood was humorous and a bit serious which describes Bill, Red Chief, and Sam’s mental state “ They were simply indecent, terrifying , humiliating screams such as women emit when they see ghosts.” Some points of the story are really hilarious like when Bill and Sam were in the cave. Other scenes are serious like when Sam and Bill send a ransom note to Red Chief’s father.
The author uses an ironic yet formal tone “you’ll bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars.” The author uses also a humorous tone. “Aw, Snake-eye you said I could play the black scout while you were gone” . The tone helps create a funny mood and helps the reader ( mostly young children ) relate to the events and laugh their way through the story’s plot. I was really shocked by the ending because it is ironic that Sam and Bill had to pay Red Chief’s father in order to get rid of him instead of collecting the money like any typical kidnapping scenario.

I really enjoyed the story because it reminded me a lot of my own adventures when I was a kid. I wasn’t a saint and I can relate to Sam and Bill’s misery . It was such a fun going through the story’s twists and turns and I have to say O. Henry has captivated the reader .