One might compare the kidnapped boy in O. Henry's "The Ransom of Red Chief" with the boys in Lord of the Flies by William Golding. The English boys marooned on the island find themselves liberated from adult control and turn into savages. Something similar happens to Red Chief. The experience of being kidnapped by criminals is exhilarating. They can't discipline him. They can't serve as role models. How could they? They are kidnappers. He likes them. He identifies with them. They are outside the law themselves. They are worse than wild Indians.

Red Chief is described as follows:

The kid was a boy of ten, with bas-relief freckles, and hair the colour of the cover of the magazine you buy at the news-stand when you want to catch a train. 

He is really just an ordinary American boy but given all the attributes that make boys sometimes seem like wild Indians. Boys will be boys. Red Chief is enough of a problem for his parents to handle, but once he is freed from their control he turns into a hellcat. Sam and Bill, of course, know nothing about supervising ten-year-old boys. Red Chief senses their inadequacy and takes advantage of it. He is a little bit like some boys who torment a substitute teacher if she looks the least bit apprehensive and vulnerable. 

Sam and Bill do not realize they are giving their young victim the opportunity of a lifetime. They have released the tiger from its cage. Instead of being subdued and frightened, this boy sees his experience as the ultimate adventure. His imagination runs wild. It is amusing that Sam and Bill have to play his games. They don't want to hurt him because, for one thing, that would make their already serious crime all the more serious. They know they can't return him to his father with bruises. They can't lecture him on his behavior because they themselves are kidnappers. If they had any morality they wouldn't have kidnapped him in the first place--and he knows it. They have lost the authority and the gravitas of being adults. They are all outlaws together.  

What does the kidnapped boy look like in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

Johnny, or Red Chief as he calls himself, is described more by his actions that how he looks. The humor in O. Henry's short story, "The Ransom of Red Chief" comes through as O. Henry describes the young boy and his actions. The story should be terrifying: a kid has been stolen from his home. However, Johnny's interactions with his captors prove to be different than expected leaving the reader with a twist characteristic of O. Henry stories.

In the story, Bill and Sam have kidnapped young Johnny Dorset for fifteen hundred dollars. As the only child of Ebenezer Dorset, the kidnappers believe they have a perfect plan to collect quick money. However, Johnny is a little boy with a lot of energy. A sign that the kidnapping won't go as planned happens when they first find Johnny "in the street, throwing rocks at a kitten on the opposite fence". As the men try and lure him away with candy, Johnny hits Bill in the eye with a piece of brick. His nature continues to be described in their first together when he demands Bill plays Indians with him: "Ha! Cursed paleface, do you dare to enter the camp of Red Chief, the terror of the plains?” His game and energy result in bruises for Bill and just a hint of what's to come.

That night Johnny delivers a litany of questions displaying an inquisitive and restless nature. These questions also illustrate to the reader how excited he is to be on this adventure and how he doesn't really see his situation as being kidnapped.

“I like this fine. I never camped out before; but I had a pet ’possum once, and I was nine last birthday. I hate to go to school. Rats ate up sixteen of Jimmy Talbot’s aunt’s speckled hen’s eggs. Are there any real Indians in these woods? I want some more gravy. Does the trees moving make the wind blow? We had five puppies. What makes your nose so red, Hank? My father has lots of money. Are the stars hot? I whipped Ed Walker twice, Saturday. I don’t like girls. You dassent catch toads unless with a string. Do oxen make any noise? Why are oranges round? Have you got beds to sleep on in this cave? Amos Murray has got six toes. A parrot can talk, but a monkey or a fish can’t. How many does it take to make twelve?”

Mr. Dorest knows that his son will eventually tire out his kidnappers, so instead of paying his son's ransom, he offers them a counter offer.

You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. You had better come at night, for the neighbours believe he is lost, and I couldn’t be responsible for what they would do to anybody they saw bringing him back.

At first glance, this might seem cold—what parent wouldn't pay their child's ransom, but Ebenezer is most likely aware of his son's energy (and from his note, it appears the neighbors are as well). This completes our description of young Johnny: an energetic boy, with a wild imagination and a penchant for getting into trouble.