“The Ransom of Red chief” O’Henry (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910)
The text under analysis is ‘The ransom of red chief’ written by O’Henry, one of the most famous American short story writers of 19th century. O. Henry’s real name was William Sydney Porter and he was born in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Let me start from the summary. The story runs about two crooks - Bill Driscoll and Sam. They decided to pull off a "fraudulent town-lot scheme” but for this scheme they needed money. So, they decided to kidnap a little boy of the wealthy man of town of Summit. But they couldn’t imagine what was waiting for them.
This story opens with PROLOGUE where the author introduces to us the beginning of the story. And in the prologue two characters are presented to us: the narrator Sam and his friend Bill Driscoll.
This text is written in 1st person narration. O’Henry uses it to create the atmosphere of the situation itself and to give us the opportunity to be involved and to feel ourselves as participants. In the very beginning the author keeps us in suspense with the words: but wait till I tell you.
The setting of the story is town of Summit in West Illinois. Further go RISING ACTIONS which include selection of the victim, hiding in the cave, games with the boy and writing a letter to the father of the boy Johnny. Here we meet other characters: a little boy of 10 years, who is described directly and his father, Ebenezer Dorset. But Ebenezer is opposed to Bill, Sam and Johnny as a minor character. While reading the story we can easily notice that 2 men who kidnapped the boy mainly introduced indirectly, through their dialogs, behavior and so on. And this point makes us use our imagination to create full picture of the characters. Another thing that helps us is usage of colloquial language. These two men are not extremely educated from my point of view, their speech is illiterate (says I).
Next, I want to mention the usage of verbs. They are mainly verbs of motion, and this fact is not accidental. Such quantity of them creates the liveliness of what is going on. Image of a boy is extremely exaggerated, by the way, exaggeration is one of the favorite methods of O’Henry. Another use of exaggeration is a phrase ‘desperate men’. Epithet ‘desperate’ is used here to create ironical effect.
Further, as actions develop, we come into setting of the town after kidnapping – it is peaceful and still, that makes contrast with the atmosphere in the cave, where actions take turns and life is boiling. And where the boy continues to torture old Bill.
Approaching the CLIMAX, 2 desperate men are about to response from Ebenezer. And this exact response is a CLIMAX, where Ebenezer Dorset makes a counter-proposition to kidnappers , demanding money for taking his son back. His letter is full of wit and irony. And that makes us smile while reading it.
Bill and Sam without thinking twice agree and give the boy back that is described in FALLING ACTIONS. And the DENOUEMENT presents the scene of two men ‘s escaping from that family.
Title of this story has double meaning: the ransom should have been paid to kidnappers, but as it becomes clear at the end – kidnappers had to pay the ransom to get rid of the boy. Another thing that should be said about title is that we don’t understand from it what this text is about. Because only after reading the story we understand that Red chief is the boy. Because all that situation was like a game for him, where he named Bill and Sam like paleface and Snake-eye.
The theme of the story is next: people were very creative to earn money and the main idea says that you shouldn’t underestimate your enemy.
I enjoyed reading the story, I was smiling from the beginning to the end. And I will recommend it to my friends to read.