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After Twenty Years
The narrator in "After Twenty Years" does not reveal the inner thoughts of any of the characters. What is remarkable about this story is its strict objectivity. The reader is only told what the...
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After Twenty Years
This story seems to begin with a third-person limited omniscient point of view. This means that the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. We do not get much of the cop's...
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After Twenty Years
The most important details for the setting of "After Twenty Years" are the street, the doorway, the darkness, and the weather. O. Henry creates a picture of a New York street at night when almost...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry's "After Twenty Years" falls under the genre of Realism. Set in New York City at the turn of the twentieth century, this tale of the fated reunion of two old friends after twenty years,...
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After Twenty Years
Bob realizes that the man with whom he talks is not Jimmy Wells after they walk under the brilliant electric lights of a drug store. He is startled that this man is a stranger, and he exclaims,...
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After Twenty Years
In "After Twenty Years," O. Henry molds his main characters with a certain anonymity that provides some foreshadowing while at the same time providing for the surprise ending. Foreshadowing In the...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry must have understood the way he told his story could cause some confusion. We do not know the names of either the beat cop or Bob during the time they are talking. One thing O. Henry uses...
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After Twenty Years
When the policeman, who checks doorways on his beat finds a stranger standing in a store's door that used to belong to "Big Joe' Brady's restaurant, the man claims he is standing there as he waits...
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After Twenty Years
No, there is no certainty that if Bob had not gone to the West he would not have turned out to be a criminal. The West didn't make him a criminal. He went there because it seemed to offer...
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After Twenty Years
Bob speaks to the policeman because he doesn’t want his behavior to raise suspicion. Jimmy and Bob have been friends for a long time. They made a date twenty years before to meet on a certain...
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After Twenty Years
Jimmy sends the note to 'Silky Bob' for the same reason that he cannot bring himself to arrest Bob when he recognizes him in the doorway of what used to be 'Big Joe' Brady's restaurant--they once...
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After Twenty Years
The narrator's description of the as-yet-unidentified cop makes him look like a man who has been on the police force for many years—perhaps as long as twenty years. Bob's description of Jimmy to...
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After Twenty Years
I understood the term "guardian of the peace" to be synonymous with the term "police officer." "Guardian of the peace" or "guardians of the peace" may have been used frequently in newspapers and...
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After Twenty Years
Even Bob's first name is not mentioned until near the end of the story, and the nickname "Silky" Bob is mentioned only once. This is when the plainclothes detective tells him, You've been under...
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After Twenty Years
The appointment between Bob and Jimmy to meet again in twenty years was just for the sake of reunion. It was similar to the thousands of class reunions, family reunions, and all the other reunions...
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After Twenty Years
As soon as Jimmy sees Bob, he recognizes him as the wanted man, rather than his old friend. In this story, two old friends make an arrangement to meet each other at a restaurant in twenty years....
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After Twenty Years
The last paragraph of "After Twenty Years" is a letter from one old friend to another. In this letter from Jimmy Wells to Bob, alias "Silky" Bob, the old friend who was supposed to have met Bob in...
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After Twenty Years
Jimmy and Bob have known each other all their lives. They grew up in the same neighborhood in Manhattan. That means they probably played together in the streets like all the other kids. They went...
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After Twenty Years
Through their movements and speech, people often convey their sense of self-confidence and accomplishment. This concept is true of both Jimmy Wells and 'Silky' Bob. In the exposition of O. Henry's...
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After Twenty Years
Bob's descriptions of Jimmy turn out to be ironic because, although he doesn't know it, he is describing Jimmy to Jimmy's face. Speaking to the patrolman, whom he doesn't know is Jimmy Wells, Bob...
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After Twenty Years
In order to extrapolate the feelings of Jimmy Wells, the reader can review what 'Silky' Bob has said of Jimmy, as well as what Jimmy himself has written to 'Silky' Bob; then, the student can...
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After Twenty Years
Patrolman Jimmy Wells is described from two perspectives: that of the anonymous third-person narrator and that of "Silky" Bob as he remembers Jimmy from twenty years earlier when they were close...
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After Twenty Years
The reader should sense that there was something strange about the man standing in the doorway because that was the effect O. Henry intended to produce. Here are the pertinent sentences: Now and...
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After Twenty Years
Jimmy is the more admirable character of the two men in "After Twenty Years." Jimmy displays many admirable qualities, including intelligence, integrity, authority, and compassion. He makes Bob...
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After Twenty Years
The fact that Silky Bob finds it necessary to explain to the policeman walking the beat why he is waiting in the doorway shows that Bob is nervous around policemen—and as we find out later, with...
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After Twenty Years
This is a valid question; O. Henry must have thought about it himself. O. Henry wanted Jimmy to stop in front of Bob without Bob recognizing him, so he invented several reasons to explain why Bob...
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After Twenty Years
The main problem in the story "After Twenty Years" is Jimmy's. He keeps his appointment to meet his old friend Bob but quickly realizes Bob is a criminal wanted by the Chicago police. Jimmy has to...
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After Twenty Years
Bob has only been superficially more successful than Jimmy. Bob has some flashy clothes and accessories, but he has no home, no family, no friends (except Jimmy), no roots, and he is continually on...
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After Twenty Years
'Silky' Bob and Jimmy Wells, longtime friends who have parted ways, agreed to meet again in their favorite restaurant in New York City twenty years later. O. Henry's story begins on the appointed...
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After Twenty Years
This seems to be a neighborhood of small businesses and small offices. O. Henry offers the following description: The vicinity was one that kept early hours. Now and then you might see the lights...
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After Twenty Years
When Bob meets the man pretending to be Jimmy, he walks with him up with the street arm in arm. Bob thinks they are going to a place where they can sit and talk; Bob starts filling the man in on...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry's "After Twenty Years" may be interpreted as a tale of friendship since the two old friends both return to their favorite restaurant after twenty years as they have promised each other...
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After Twenty Years
In the exposition of "After Twenty Years," Jimmy Wells is described as a fine "guardian of the peace" because he fits the role of what is known as the "beat cop." That is, he appears strong and...
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After Twenty Years
The author does not seem either to like or dislike his character Bob. His description of Bob and quotation of his dialogue are objective and neutral, although the reader gets the distinct...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry does a remarkable job of introducing a major character without actually revealing who he is. The reader is deliberately misled into taking the cop for just one of many uniformed cops...
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After Twenty Years
Here us a suggestion for a different ending to "After Twenty Years." Bob tells the policeman a lot about himself but doesn't introduce himself by name. If he had done so, Jimmy Wells might have...
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After Twenty Years
The two friends, Jimmy Wells and Bob, have disparate lifestyles, reflecting their contrasting values. These contrasting values are represented by their chosen locales. Jimmy chose to stay in New...
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After Twenty Years
In O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years," two men are meeting because twenty years previously they set a date to meet up with each other, no matter where they were living or what they were doing....
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After Twenty Years
The "special appointment" is fully explained by Bob when the uniformed patrolman whom he doesn't recognize as his old friend Jimmy Wells stops in front of him at the doorway of the closed hardware...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years" was published in 1906. Assuming that it was probably a contemporary story at the time, that would mean that Jimmy Webb and his friend would have parted ways...
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O. Henry
The only obvious simile in the story occurs when Bob is telling the policeman, whom he doesn't recognize as his old friend Jimmy Wells, about the strong friendship that had existed between the two...
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After Twenty Years
Patrolman Wells' character is revealed through his actions and words at the beginning of the story, through Bob's statements about him, through his note at the end of the story, and by reading back...
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After Twenty Years
The narrative of O. Henry's story is related to the title because the plot revolves around what happens twenty years after the two friends have parted ways. The plot begins as the New York beat...
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After Twenty Years
In O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years," Bob has traveled to meet his old "chum" Jimmy after two decades. He waits in the dark doorway of what was once their favorite restaurant, so when a man...
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After Twenty Years
Dialogue and the sequence of events in "After Twenty Years" work to reveal the characters of Jimmy and Bob along with the story's theme through the information they provide. Dialogue to reveal...
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After Twenty Years
Irony is usually like a bad joke, a joke that would be funny if it were not sad or painful. The main irony in "After Twenty Years" is in the fact that 'Silky' Bob has traveled a thousand miles and...
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After Twenty Years
Silky Bob and Jimmy Wells are both good friends and keep promises. It is pretty remarkable that both Silky Bob and Jimmy Wells showed up to keep a date made twenty years before. They either are...
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After Twenty Years
It is nearly ten o'clock at night. The weather is rainy and blustery. A uniformed policeman is walking along the sidewalk trying the doors of all the closed shops to make sure they are locked. The...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years" is a story shrouded with mystery and portents. Here are the moods of this narrative: Mysterious Mood O. Henry describes his characters as only "the policeman"...
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After Twenty Years
O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years" is an example of situational irony. The main ironic twist occurs at the very end. 'Silky' Bob realizes that he has traveled a thousand miles to meet his old...