The Ransom of Red Chief (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: O. Henry
- First Published: 1907
- Type of Plot: Wit and humor
- Time of Work: The early twentieth century
- Setting: Summit, Alabama
- Principal Characters: Sam, Bill Driscoll, Johnny Dorset “Red Chief, Ebenezer Dorset
- Genres: Short fiction
- Subjects: Children, Kidnapping, Comedy
- Locales: Summit, AL
The Story
The pattern of “The Ransom of Red Chief” is suggested by the first sentence of the story: “It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.” The story is essentially ironic; in a series of comic reversals, the expected event is replaced by its opposite. From the name of the town where the story takes place, Summit, which is perfectly flat, to the end of the story, where a fat man outruns the thin narrator, that which the narrator anticipates never does occur.
The “good thing” that Sam and Bill have planned is a kidnapping. Early in the story,...
[The entire page is 1254 words long]
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