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After Twenty Years

by O. Henry

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After Twenty Years Questions on Jimmy Wells

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," Bob and Jimmy are old friends with contrasting life paths. Bob is a successful, yet morally dubious figure, involved in criminal activities, while Jimmy is a...

5 educator answers

After Twenty Years

A dialogue between Jimmy Wells and the plainclothes policeman might involve Jimmy, looking distraught, asking his colleague, Tom, for a favor. Jimmy reveals that he recognized his old friend Bob as a...

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After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," Jimmy knows Bob is a notorious criminal but still feels friendship for him after twenty years. This feeling of friendship is why Jimmy couldn't arrest Bob himself.

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After Twenty Years

Jimmy likely felt conflicted upon realizing his friend Bob was a wanted criminal. He valued their friendship but also felt a duty to uphold the law. Unable to arrest Bob himself due to their bond,...

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After Twenty Years

Jimmy Wells explains his reasons for acting as he did in his final note to Bob. Whether you think he is true and staunch, as Bob says, will depend on one's personal answers to two factors. Is public...

2 educator answers

After Twenty Years

The policeman does not reveal he's Jimmy Wells because he recognizes Bob as a wanted man. Professionally, revealing his identity might allow Bob to flee or overpower him. Personally, Jimmy does not...

2 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," the man in the doorway speaks to the policeman to avoid raising suspicion. Bob, a criminal, is waiting for his friend Jimmy at a spot they agreed upon twenty years earlier....

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After Twenty Years

Jimmy Wells is portrayed as a loyal and duty-bound police officer. Despite his long-standing friendship with Bob, he prioritizes his responsibilities as a law enforcer. His internal conflict is...

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After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," Silky Bob is characterized as a confident and somewhat boastful man who has turned to a life of crime, while Jimmy Wells is depicted as a loyal and dutiful police officer who...

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After Twenty Years

Jimmy sends a note to Bob because, despite being a police officer and Bob being a thief, they were close friends. Jimmy fulfills his duty by arranging Bob's arrest but cannot face arresting him...

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After Twenty Years

O. Henry's short story "After Twenty Years" explores themes of friendship, change, and duty. The plot unfolds as a policeman encounters a man, Bob, waiting to meet his old friend Jimmy after two...

4 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In a diary entry, Jimmy might express deep conflict and sadness upon realizing his old friend Bob is a criminal. Initially excited to reunite, Jimmy's "watchful eye" detects something amiss. As Bob...

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After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," Bob's reaction after reading the note is one of shock and disappointment. The note reveals that the police officer he had been talking to was actually his old friend Jimmy...

6 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," the theme that "twenty years can change a good man into a bad one" is illustrated through the contrasting paths of Bob and Jimmy. Initially close friends, Bob becomes a...

2 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," the two main characters, Bob and Jimmy, are contrasted through their life choices and moral paths. Bob becomes a successful but morally dubious figure, while Jimmy remains an...

2 educator answers

After Twenty Years

To be able to answer this question, it is important to know the details of the story and the background of the characters. The short story "After Twenty Years" by O. Henry concerns a pact that two...

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After Twenty Years

O. Henry does a masterful job of introducing one of the principal characters, Jimmy Wells, and concealing that character's identity at the same time. The author explains how the policeman's...

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After Twenty Years

This is a tricky question for the reader to answer, for it can go either way. The reader could argue that it is wrong for Jimmy to betray his old pal in this manner, especially since they were the...

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After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years" by O. Henry, the "guardian of the peace" refers to the police officer who ensures public safety. The officer in the story is revealed to be Jimmy Wells, who recognizes his old...

2 educator answers

After Twenty Years

O. Henry is well-known for his surprise endings. In "After Twenty Years," Jimmy makes a decision to conceal his identity as Bob's long-lost friend and as a police officer. He keeps the appointment...

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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...

1 educator answer

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," two friends, Bob and Jimmy, made a unique appointment to meet at 'Big Joe' Brady's restaurant exactly twenty years after parting ways. Bob left for the West to...

4 educator answers

After Twenty Years

The fact that both men showed up for their promised rendezvous after twenty years shows that they were once very close friends. However, it does not prove that they are still close friends. They...

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After Twenty Years

Jimmy's actions in "After Twenty Years" are justified due to the significant changes in both men over twenty years. Jimmy and Bob have grown apart, with Jimmy becoming a law-abiding officer and Bob a...

3 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," the story highlights the conflict between friendship and duty through the character of the policeman, who discovers that his old friend is a wanted criminal. Despite their...

4 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," childhood friends Jimmy and Bob grew up together in New York, like brothers. Twenty years later, they plan to reunite at their old meeting spot. Jimmy, now a...

7 educator answers

After Twenty Years

We are not aware that Jimmy Wells had any internal conflict until the story is almost over. Then we realize that it was Jimmy himself who was listening to Bob in the doorway of the hardware store....

1 educator answer

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," Jimmy Wells is portrayed as a loyal and dutiful policeman who faces a moral dilemma when he recognizes his old friend, Bob, as a wanted criminal. Although Jimmy is...

4 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," the main conflict is internal, centered on Jimmy Wells, a policeman torn between duty and friendship. He promised to meet his friend Bob after twenty years, but...

6 educator answers

After Twenty Years

O. Henry's "After Twenty Years" explores themes of change over time, morality, and the impact of actions. The story contrasts two friends, Bob and Jimmy, whose divergent paths highlight how time can...

11 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," Bob realizes the man he's talking to isn't Jimmy Wells when they pass under bright lights, revealing the stranger's face. Bob doesn't initially recognize Jimmy due...

7 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," foreshadowing is used to subtly hint at the story's twist ending. Key examples include the policeman's keen observation of Bob's distinctive facial scar and...

5 educator answers

After Twenty Years

The man standing outside "a darkened shop" explains to the cop why he is there. He says that he is waiting for a friend—the two of them agreed twenty years earlier that they would meet here on this...

1 educator answer

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

"After Twenty Years" is one of O. Henry's shortest stories. It is remarkably effective for such a compact story. It starts close to the climax. Bob tells Jimmy, whom he doesn't recognize, that it...

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After Twenty Years

O. Henry wrote with irony, and the ironic aspect of this story is that the police officer is Bob’s old friend, the very man he is anxious to meet. When Bob lit up his cigar, the police officer,...

2 educator answers

After Twenty Years

The policeman, whom we later learn is Jimmy Wells, asks Bob, the man in the doorway, a pointed question. “I'll be on my way. Hope your friend comes around all right. Going to call time on him...

2 educator answers

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...

1 educator answer

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....

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After Twenty Years

In the short story "After Twenty Years" by O. Henry, two friends have gone their separate ways but have agreed to meet back at a certain place and a certain time after 20 years have passed. Since...

1 educator answer

After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years," the major characters are 'Silky' Bob and Patrolman Jimmy Wells. Bob is a wanted criminal who returns to meet his old friend, Jimmy. Jimmy, now a dedicated police officer,...

3 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In O. Henry's "After Twenty Years," Bob describes his old friend Jimmy as loyal, reliable, and the "best fellow in the world," reflecting fondness and respect for his childhood companion. He...

4 educator answers

After Twenty Years

In "After Twenty Years" by O. Henry, the policeman, revealed to be Jimmy Wells, impressively blends his roles as both a friend and a professional. Initially introduced as a typical beat cop...

3 educator answers

After Twenty Years

The first person who comes to meet the man who is waiting in the doorway of the closed hardware store is Jimmy Wells. Neither the waiting man, "Silky" Bob, nor the reader, realizes that the police...

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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

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...

1 educator answer

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

Jimmy was a better person than Bob.

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After Twenty Years

Jimmy Wells lives in New York City. As his old pal "Silky" Bob explains to the cop—who, unbeknownst to him, is actually none other than Jimmy himself—you couldn't have dragged Jimmy out of the...

1 educator answer

After Twenty Years

The reason that the man in the doorway has come back to his old neighborhood after so many years is that he promised that he would.  He used to have a very good friend named Jimmy Wells. ...

2 educator answers