Discussion Topic
Sam's troubled sleep and early awakening in "The Ransom of Red Chief."
Summary:
In "The Ransom of Red Chief," Sam's troubled sleep and early awakening illustrate his anxiety and the disruptive influence of Red Chief. The boy's mischievous behavior and loud antics keep Sam on edge, resulting in restless nights and premature awakenings.
In "The Ransom of Red Chief," how does Sam wake up and what is Red Chief doing?
They all go to bed about eleven o'clock on the first night they are supposedly holding the boy captive. Sam says that they spread some blankets and quilts on the ground and that he and Bill sleep with the boy between them. Around daybreak Sam is awakened by terrible screams from Bill. He sees that Red Chief is sitting on Bill's chest and literally trying to scalp him with a big case knife. Sam gets the knife away from the boy, but neither of the men dares to go back to sleep again. Earlier that evening Bill had told his partner that he and Red Chief were getting along just fine.
"I'm Old Hank, the Trapper, Red Chief's captive, and I'm to be scalped at daybreak."
Naturally Bill had thought it was all just pretense, but the unique situation of actually being kidnapped seems to have carried Red Chief far...
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beyond his normal fantasizing. Bill is becoming terrified of this boy, and as Red Chief realizes that he has the upper hand, he becomes more and more aggressive. Sam tries to keep some control over the situation, but Bill is totally demoralized and only wants to get rid of the kid as soon as possible.
Does Sam wake up for fear of being burnt at sundown in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?
False. Sam first wakes up before day break because Bill is screaming like a woman at the top of his lungs. To his surprise, Sam finds Johnny sitting on Bill's chest with a very sharp knife in one hand and a chunk of poor Bill's hair in the other--ready to scalp him! Sam takes the knife away from the boy and makes him lie down again, but Bill never sleeps another wink until after that boy leaves for good. Sam wakes up next right before the sun rises because, "I remember that Red Chief had said I was to be burned at the stake at the rising of the sun."
He doesn't want to admit that he is scared of being burned at sunrise, so he gets up so he won't be startled awake like Bill was. Bill catches Sam getting up and asks him why he is getting up so soon. Sam says it is because he had a pain in his shoulder. Bill then calls him a liar and afraid because Sam knows he is scheduled to be burned at sunrise, not sunset. Bill claims that Red Chief really would burn Sam if he had a match, too.
Why did Sam in "The Ransom of Red Chief" have a troubled sleep?
Sam has trouble sleeping soundly the night after kidnapping the oldest son of Mr. Ebenezer Dorset of Summit. After the little boy, who has demanded to be called Red Chief, actually tries to scalp Bill as he said he would, Sam finds his sleep to be disturbed because Red Chief has also condemned Sam to be "broiled" at the stake at sunrise.
In the middle of the night, Sam is awakened by the sound of Bill screaming like a terrified woman, Red Chief sitting astride him and attempting to use a sharp knife to "industriously and realistically" slice off Bill's scalp. Sam wrests the knife away and then dozes for a bit, but once he realizes that Red Chief is actually serious about enacting the punishments he's threatened, Sam determines to sit up and smoke his pipe. He later tells Bill that he wasn't anxious or afraid—instead he says his shoulder hurt and he thought sitting up would help it. Bill doesn't buy it.
Why does Sam wake up before sunrise in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?
It’s an awful thing to hear a strong, desperate, fat man scream uncontrollably in a cave at daybreak. I jumped up to see what the matter was.
Sam is awakened by cries that he describes as ones that women terrified by ghosts make. When he jumps up, he sees Red Chief straddled over Bill, pulling the hair from his crown in one hand while he readies his other for "realistically trying to take Bill's scalp." Evidently, the red-haired boy has taken his role as Red Chief seriously and is fulfilling the pronouncement from the previous day that Bill is Old Hank from Buffalo Bill's show and is the prisoner of Red Chief; he has been sentenced to be "scalped at daybreak."
This episode is part of the ironic humor of the story of two con men who kidnap a wealthy banker's son in the anticipation of a fat ransom; however, the little redhead is an enfant terrible, excited to be able to terrorize Bill and completely uninterested in going home and back to school.