What is the plot diagram of "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

Exposition provides us with important background information about the characters that will become significant later on. In "The Ransom of Red Chief" we're introduced to the hapless kidnappers, Bill and Sam, as well as their intended victim, Red Chief, or Johnny. The very first line tells us that all did not go according to plan concerning the kidnap plot:

"It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you . . . "

Rising action relates to what happens in a story after the exposition and before the climax. Here the main problem is established and how the relevant characters attempt to solve it. In "The Ransom of Red Chief" the problem is that little Johnny's driving his captors mad with his brattish behavior. It's not a problem that Bill and Sam could reasonably have predicted and so they don't know how to deal with it. At this point in the story, we're starting to wonder how this problem might eventually be resolved.

The solution to the problem comes in the climax. In also provides the turning point of the story, that moment when the characters experience a significant change. In this particular case, the incompetent captors receive a letter from Johnny's father telling them that they need to pay up to return the boy. They are mightily relieved to think that they may have finally found a solution to their problem.

The falling action occurs after the climax. Bill and Sam return Johnny to his father. They're glad to see the back of him, but Johnny's rather sad; he was so much happier with Bill and Sam than with his father. To him, his kidnapping was all just a big adventure.

The resolution is that part of the story where everything comes together and all the various problems and conflicts are finally resolved. A wailing Johnny doesn't want to let go of Bill's leg, but his father just about manages to pry him off, allowing Bill and Sam to make good their escape.

The exposition is the background on Johnny Dorset and the kidnappers, the rising action includes, in my view, the kidnapping of the boy and the two men locating to the remote cave. 

The actual climax of the story occurs when the kidnappers are forced into submission by Johnny and a reversal of power takes place. 

"During Sam's absence, the captor and the captive change roles, seemingly only in play but actually in real control of the situation. When Sam returns to the cave, he finds Bill, badly battered, playing the captured trapper to Johnny's heroic Indian, who calls himself “Red Chief.” Appropriating Sam for his game, Johnny announces that Bill is to be scalped and Sam burned at the stake." 

During the confinement, Johnny abuses his kidnappers thoroughly, having a good time with his new playmates.  The falling action occurs when the kidnappers make contact with Red Chief's father, looking for a ransom.

The resolution of the story is a reversal or a twist, very common in O Henry's work.  The kidnappers, Bill and Sam must pay Johnny's father a sum of money so that he will take the boy off their hands. 

"Johnny, however, does not wish to leave his captors. They must scheme to get him back to his father as once they had schemed to get him away from home, and finally, they must run at top speed to escape the boy who does not wish to lose his new playmates, the would-be kidnappers who have become his victims."

Who is the protagonist in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

Sam is supposed to be the protagonist in that he's the character who initiates the important action of the story. It's Sam who's mainly behind what he thinks is an ingenious plot to kidnap and ransom a wealthy prominent citizen's young son. However, as the story progresses, and little Johnny starts turning the tables on his hapless kidnappers, one could argue that he reverses the roles, becoming the protagonist as he inadvertently wrecks the two small-time crooks' best-laid plans. At the same time, he's also Sam and Bill's antagonist for precisely the same reason.

In a further bizarre role reversal, Johnny's father demands that Sam and Bill pay him for the privilege of returning Johnny. In completely upending our expectations, O. Henry playfully blurs the line between conventional roles, including those of protagonist and antagonist.

By definition, the protagonist is the main character. They are the one attempting to affect a change in themselves or the present situation. Then the deuteragonist comes into play. This is the sidekick to the main character. This character supports the protagonist's attempt to bring about the desired results. Next there is the antagonist or tritagonist. This character's main objective is to thwart the progress of the protagonist.   

In The Ransom of Red Chief, the story is told from Sam's perspective. He is the one who initiates the action.  That would make him the protagonist.

The sidekick to Sam is Bill Driscoll, or Hank as he is called by Red Chief. 

Johnny Dorset, or Red Chief, is the antagonist. All his actions result in the downfall of his captor's successful collection of the ransom money that they seek.

What are the internal and external conflicts in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

O. Henry's hilarious story of the misadventures of two con men whose supposed fail-proof plan to kidnap the child of the richest man in the small town of Summit, Alabama, backfires upon them when the boy proves more than a match for them. The conflicts that develop contribute to the advancement of the plot and provide the humor of the narrative.

External conflicts: 

• "That boy put up a fight like a welterweight cinnamon bear," but the men finally succeed in pushing him to the bottom of the buggy and take him up to the "Cave" where they are hiding.
• While they transport the boy, he kicks Bill severely and scratches him.
• "That boy had Bill terrorized from the start" the narrator named Sam observes.
• Red Chief, as the boy calls himself, keeps the men awake with his Indian cries and shrieks.
• Defeated in their purpose, Sam asks the boy if he wants to go home, but Red Chief is having too much fun terrorizing Bill.
• When they try to sleep with the boy between them, he keeps them awake for three hours "jumping up and reaching for his rifle and screeching."
• The next day Sam wakes to the screaming of Bill whom Red Chief is attempting to scalp with the jackknife that the men use for slicing bacon.
• The boy continues to threaten Bill with a rock and other forms of torture.
• When Sam returns from delivering the ransom note, he sees Bill, weary and disheveled. Bill says that he was ridden like a horse until he just had to be rid of the boy. But, Sam tells him to turn around because Red Chief is behind Bill.
• Sam thinks his ransom money has arrived as he sits on a limb of a tree, hiding; he jumps down and carries the note back to the camp. However, the letter has no money; instead, Mr. Dorset proposes that he take back his son for the price of $250.00. 
• Bill and Sam discuss paying Mr. Dorset the $250 that he demands for taking the boy back, and they decide it is the only solution to their problems. 
• When the kid learns that Sam and Bill intend to leave him at home, he howls "like a calliope and fastened himself as tight as a leech to Bill’s leg." His father eventually gets the boy away.
• Bill runs so fast after the boy is returned that Sam cannot catch him.

Internal conflicts

• When Sam finally falls into a troubled sleep, he dreams about having "been kidnapped and chained to a tree by a ferocious pirate with red hair."
• "Bill’s spirit was broken" after Red Chief nearly scalps him. He cannot sleep as long as the boy is near him.
• Sam, too, is worried about what Red Chief will do to him as he has mentioned burning him at the stake.
• Bill worries that the parents will not pay a ransom.
• The next morning Sam sees no evidence of anyone looking for the boy; he tells Bill that they need to devise a plan about the ransom and get a message to the father.
• When Sam gets ready to depart for the town, Bill begs him not to leave him alone with the boy.
• Bill worries that Mr. Dorset will not pay two thousand dollars, so he suggests that Sam only request fifteen hundred.

Where does "The Ransom of Red Chief" take place?

The story takes place in Alabama, as Sam tells us in the second sentence of "The Ransom of Red Chief."

We were down South, in Alabama--Bill Driscoll and myself--when this kidnapping idea struck us. 

The fact that Sam and Bill plan "to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois" shows that these two men must have to do a lot of traveling by horse and buggy in their profession as confidence tricksters. They are apparently always on the lam. Alabama is in the Deep South, while Illinois is up north. Although they sound like middle-aged men, Sam and Bill have only managed to accumulate six hundred dollars with all their schemes. Thus, from the very beginning, the story illustrates the moral "Crime does not pay."

Sam and Bill intend to kidnap a boy in the town of Summit, which appears to be a typical farm town. Sam tells us that the country all around Summit is perfectly flat, so it is an irony that the people have named the town Summit. The two men have a spot picked for hiding with their victim after they get one:

About two miles from Summit was a little mountain, covered with a dense cedar brake. On the rear elevation of this mountain was a cave. There we stored provisions.

Much of the action in this story takes place at or near that cave on the rear of the little mountain. Sam has to do a lot of running around in connection with trying to collect the ransom money. Meanwhile, Bill is stuck with the little demon they have kidnapped, a ten-year-old boy who calls himself Red Chief. The two kidnappers and their victim sleep on blankets on the ground and cook over an open campfire. Red Chief finds the experience exciting, but Sam and Bill find it just the opposite. 

Summit itself appears to be a sleepy little town where the local men spend a great deal of their time sitting around the post office while they are waiting for their crops to grow. Sam and Bill have picked this town for their kidnapping venture because it seems like such a quiet, backward place:

We knew that Summit couldn't get after us with anything stronger than constables and, maybe, some lackadaisical bloodhounds and a diatribe or two in the Weekly Farmers' Budget.

The entire setting--town and country alike--is peaceful and quiet. This setting serves to make their captive seem more wild by contrast. Red Chief craves excitement. And if he can't find it, he will create it. In the end, the two kidnappers are happy to pay $250 to Ebenezer Dorset, Red Chief's father, just to get rid of the boy and to get as far away as possible from Summit.

What is the main conflict in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

The main conflict in O. Henry's humorous tall tale entitled "The Ransom of Red Chief" involves the two con men, Bill and Sam, and the boy they kidnap.

Sam narrates the tale of his and Bill's kidnapping of the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. Dorset is a "mortgage fancier," and Sam calculates that he will "melt down" for two thousand dollars. Dorset lives in the town of Summit, Alabama, a town with a small population and little more than a few constables to enforce the law.

When Sam and Bill pull their buggy alongside the red-haired, freckled boy, they have no idea what conflicts they will encounter. First of all, Johnny Dorset hits Bill in the eye with a piece of brick and refuses to come along with them. After they finally get this boy on the floor of the buggy, they ride to the cave where they plan to hide. Sam takes the buggy back to town. When he returns, he finds Bill tending to several injuries suffered at the hands of the boy. Johnny has stuck two "buzzard feathers" in his hair and insists on being called Red Chief. After this incident, others occur as the boy talks nonstop and terrorizes Bill. In a few days, Bill tells Sam,

I’ve stood by you without batting an eye in earthquakes, fire and flood—in poker games, dynamite outrages, police raids, train robberies and cyclones. I never lost my nerve yet till we kidnapped that two-legged skyrocket of a kid.

Worst of all, Johnny's father seems unconcerned that his son is missing. Sam and Bill's hopes for money fail as they must pay Mr. Dorset to take his son back instead of receiving a large ransom.

In "The Ransom of Red Chief," who are the main characters?

Sam, the narrator and Bill Driscoll are the two kidnappers and the boy, Johnny, with "bas-relief" freckles and hair "the color of the cover of a magazines you buy...when you want to catch a train" are the main characters. Johnny, who renames himself Red Chief, controls situations so much that the kidnappers eventually "surrender" the boy to the father; in fact he becomes the principal character. For, all of the comic reversals in the plot center around him.

What is humorous and interesting in this story is that the original protagonist becomes the antagonist since it is Red Chief's behavior that defeats the sophisticated con men.  Twin's story has the "underdog" win in classical comedy form.

What are the conflict, resolution, and falling action in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

The exposition is the introduction, where the author gives the reader background information about the characters and the plot.  This story is told as a flashback.  Bill tells the reader about the idea they had to kidnap a child to get some money.

The conflict is created not by the kidnapping, but by the kid they took.  

"From this time on, Johnny is in power, annoying his captors with chatter and questions, keeping them from sleeping, terrifying Bill with an attempted scalping at daybreak—followed by an attack with a hot potato and later with a rock—and generally enjoying himself so much that he seems disinclined to return home."  

Internal conflict comes in the form of doubts that the kidnappers have over the choice they made.  The external conflicts are many between the boy, and his captors as listed above. And between the two captors, who will look after Johnny.

The climax, the ransom note. Falling action, Johnny's Dad refuses to pay to get his son back, but instead tells them: 

"You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands." (O'Henry)

The resolution is not easy for the captors, Johnny does not want to go home.  They have to trick him into going home.

"they must run at top speed to escape the boy who does not wish to lose his new playmates, the would-be kidnappers who have become his victims." (O. Henry)  

Where does "The Ransom of Red Chief" take place?

The story is set in a small town named Summit in the state of Alabama:

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 kidnappers have chosen this area since they believe a kidnapped child from the South willl bring in more money. (They have the idea that parernts will be more attached to their children here since family values are important.)

The would-be kidnappers are from Illinois.

What is the main conflict in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

Sam and Bill are a couple of con artists. Their problem and motivation is that they need money. They are always in need of money because they are obviously not very competent con artists.

Bill and me had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and we needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois with. 

They decide to try kidnapping a child, something with which these two crooks have never had any previous experience. The problem escalates because the child they choose to kidnap turns out to be more than they can handle. The boy thinks of himself as a wild Indian named Red Chief. He is violent and dangerous. They are afraid to go to sleep at night. They try to solve this unexpected problem without letting go of the entire ransom they expected to receive.

Bill begged me tearfully to make the ransom fifteen hundred dollars instead of two thousand. 

The boy's father Ebenezer Dorset is not the least bit anxious to get his son back. He knows the boy too well, and he evidently feels sure the kidnappers will be willing to get Red Chief off their hands on any terms. He finally replies to the ransom letter as follows:

Gentlemen: I received your letter to-day by post, in regard to the ransom you ask for the return of my son. I think you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined to believe you will accept. You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. 

The kidnappers' problems are finally resolved when they end up paying the boy's father the two hundred and fifty dollars to get rid of their hostage. Although kidnapping a child is a serious crime, O. Henry makes the whole episode funny and at the same time illustrates the moral that "Crime does not pay." O. Henry served several years in prison for embezzlement and met many men like Bill and Sam who thought they were clever tricksters but ended up behind bars. O. Henry wrote under a pen name because he was hiding from his past. He sincerely believed that honesty was really the best policy. In another story, "A Retrieved Reformation," he has his protagonist Jimmy Valentine, a one-time legendary safecracker, write to a friend as follows:

Say, Billy, I've quit the old business—a year ago. I've got a nice store. I'm making an honest living, and I'm going to marry the finest girl on earth two weeks from now. It's the only life, Billy—the straight one. I wouldn't touch a dollar of another man's money now for a million. 

Describe the main characters and setting of "The Ransom of Red Chief".

The setting of this story can be found early in the first paragraph. Sam tells his readers that he and Bill are down south in Alabama. We are not given any further details other than that, but it does become clear that Bill and Sam are working their kidnapping scheme in a small, rural town.

The basic outline of events is fairly simple. Bill and Sam consider themselves savvy criminals, but in reality, they are bumbling idiots. They hatch a kidnapping plan that will fund their next nefarious plot. The target is little Johnny Dorset. However, he winds up being way more trouble than he is worth. Bill especially is run ragged by Johnny's "games" and imagination. Bill and Sam attempt to get the ransom, but Ebenezer Dorset demands that the kidnappers pay him to take his own son back. The kidnappers agree, and they run out of town as fast as they can.

Most of the conflicts in this story are man versus man conflicts. Bill and Sam are in conflict with Johnny's antics. Additionally, Bill and Sam are in a small conflict with each other. Bill desperately wants to get rid of Johnny at any cost, but Sam wants to hold out for the potential ransom. Finally, there is a conflict that exists between the two kidnappers and Ebenezer Dorset. They want him to pay, but he wants the kidnappers to pay.

Who is the main character in the story "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

As the title suggests, the main character of O. Henry's ironic story is the only son of Ebenezer Dorset, the boy who calls himself "Red Chief, the terror of the plains."  And, he is, indeed, a terror as he hurls a brick into the face of Bill, one of the kidnappers as he is caught.

Instead of being frightened, Red Chief is delighted to have Bill Driscoll with whom he can pretend to be a wild Indian.  Sam, the narrator comments,

Yes, sir, that boy seemed to be having the time of his life.  The fun of camping out in a cave had made him forget that he was a captive himself.

Of course, the irony is that Bill in effect becomes the captive and Red Chief the captor as he has Bill hit with rocks, tied, whipped, ridden like a horse, and on the ground with his hair pulled and a knife poised at his scalp.  So terrorized by Red Chief is Bill that he tells his partner that one more night of this boy's presence will send him to Bedlam [hospital for the insane in New York].

Knowing that his son is an "enfant terrible," Mr. Dorset offers to not pay the ransom, but take the boys off the men's hands if they pay him $250.  So, desperate to be rid of the boy who has physically abused them and made them fearful, the men agree.  Red Chief, "the terror of the plains," triumphs in his unruly behavior and fantastic imagination.

How does the setting of "The Ransom of Red Chief" affect its plot?

The setting is a rural area of northern Alabama, an area which would have been very rustic at the time of the story, the turn of the twentieth century.

Summit, Alabama, is a town located in the northern part of the state, where the southernmost tip of the Appalachian Mountains are located. Sam, the narrator, says that the town is "flat as flannel cake," although in reality the elevation of Summit is 915 feet. Perhaps Sam's is not really an error of perception, but rests in the fact that there is a flat plateau in this part of Alabama which is known as Sand Mountain. Several small towns lie on this plateau, and Summit may be one of them--elevated, but flat. Interestingly, this may be an early clue that things will not be as they seem for the two con-men, Sam and Bill.

There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course. It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious [sic] and self-satisfied a class of peasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole.

In this small town of apparent rubes, there is a wealthy banker named Ebenezer Dorset, who has a son. Sam and Bill decide that they will kidnap this boy and hold him for ransom. In such a rustic community, they speculate that there is probably only one or two constables and some phlegmatic bloodhounds to give chase to them. There are also any number of caves in which the men can store things and hide. It seems a perfect place for their crime.

While their plan seems foolproof, they have not planned for a boy that is exceptional in many ways. On the evening that Sam and Bill rent a horse and buggy in order to effect the kidnapping, Johnny Dorset is in the street playing. As they pull up, Johnny hits Bill on his head with a brick; then, he puts up a terrible fight as the kidnappers struggle to get him in the buggy. Nevertheless, the men head to their camp. Once there, Bill and Johnny remain, but Sam must return the horse and buggy to town and walk miles back to camp.
While Sam is gone for a some time because of the rugged terrain, Johnny dominates the situation on the mountain: He pretends he is Red Chief and inflicts untold pain on Bill by kicking him and hitting him with sticks. Of course, in this isolated location, no one can hear Bill's screams of terror.
Further, the camp becomes the scene of more ironic reversals: Red Chief talks incessantly, preventing the men from sleeping; he attempts to scalp Bill at daybreak, and he continues his physical abuse of the men. "Yes, sir, that boy seemed to be having the time of his life," remarks Sam. He and Bill are afraid to sleep lest they be kicked or hit over the head, and there would be no one to rescue them.

After a few torturous days, Sam says he will venture out of the cave and go to the peak of the mountain where he can look down on the town.

Over toward Summit I expected to see the sturdy yeomanry of the village armed with scythes and pitchforks beating the countryside for the dastardly kidnappers. But what I saw was a peaceful landscape dotted with one man ploughing with a dun mule. Nobody was dragging the creek; no couriers dashed hither and yon, bringing tidings of no news to the distracted parents.

This peaceful, bucolic setting baffles Sam as he realizes that Johnny's absence seems to make no apparent difference. This condition is, indeed, disturbing to the two kidnappers, who wish to be rid of the red-haired terror. Finally, Sam decides that they should mail a ransom note to Mr. Dorset. Later, after waiting for the reply, Sam ventures down the mountain and retrieves the response from Dorset. In it the banker offers to claim his son, provided that they pay him $250 and bring the boy back under cover of night. Otherwise, he writes, he may not be able to protect the men from the townspeople who believe the boy is lost. Fortunately for the men, Dorset implies, it is a sleepy town that he lives in, so no one will detect the men's clandestine late night deal.

A desperate Bill begs Sam to accept these conditions. They comply the next evening and count out the money to Mr. Dorset. He tells the two men that he can only hold Johnny for about ten minutes, and, hearing this, Bill runs as though a wild animal chases him. At the end, Sam remarks that he had to go a mile and a half outside Summit before Bill slowed enough for him to catch his partner.

Who is the victim's father in "The Ransom Of Red Chief"?

The kidnappers in "The Ransom of Red Chief" select a man whom they believe will be able to pay a high ransom.  The man they select is Ebenezer Dorset. He is described as a "prominent citizen" (para. 4), a respectable man in the town, said to be "a mortgage fancier" (para. 4), which suggests that he is someone who holds many mortgages, possibly a banker. And we know that he forecloses on mortgages, too.  Sam and Bill believe that he is a suitable candidate to pay the $2,000 they intend to demand as a ransom.  Little do they know that Ebenezer will not only refuse to pay this ransom, but also will demand money from them to take back his son.  The consequences of their kidnapping probably cure them for life of trying this again!

The kidnappers needed two thousand dollars to pull off a dishonest scheme they had planned in the Western Illinois.  They figured an easy way to get the money was to kidnap the child of a prominent citizen of Summit.  They would demand a two thousand dollar ransom, and get the money easily.  They chose the only child of a mortgage and foreclosure financier named Ebenezer Dorset.  The man was older, the child was his only child, and the child was ten years old, so he would be easy to handle. Because he was an only child, the kidnappers felt that Ebenezer would

“…… melt down for a ransom of two thousand dollars to the cent” (pg 1)

However, Ebenezer was not that easy.  He knew his child was a living terror.  He negotiated a settlement with the kidnappers in which he would take the child back if the kidnappers paid him two hundred and fifty dollars.  They capitulated eagerly. 

Who is the protagonist in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

In this story, there is a case to be made for either the kidnappers being the protagonists or Red Chief being the protagonist.  The same might be said for the antagonist(s) in the story, either the kidnappers or Red Chief.  Sometimes we think of the protagonist as the "good guy" in the story, with a counteracting "bad guy" who creates the tension in the story. On the other hand, sometimes we define the protagonist simply as the main character in the story. So, the question becomes which definition you buy into and whom you see as the good guy(s) or the bad guy(s). 

Generally speaking, we do not think of kidnappers as being the good guys, nor victims of kidnapping as the bad guys.  So, it is possible to think of the protagonist in the story as Red Chief and the kidnappers as the antagonists.  Clearly, it is Red Chief who triumphs over the kidnappers in the end.  On the other hand, particularly since this is an O. Henry story and O. Henry was a master of irony, surprising us with the unexpected in his stories, there is something to be said for thinking of the kidnappers as the good guys in the story and Red Chief as the bad guy.  After all, while, as the story begins, the kidnappers are taking advantage of Red Chief, by the end of the story, it is Red Chief who has taken advantage of them and in fact, has cost them time and money to no avail.  Poor kidnappers! 

If you define the protagonist as the main character in the story, then Red Chief is the protagonist, certainly.  It is his behavior and character that are the primary focus of the story, with the kidnappers being foils to his mischief.  And of course, the title of the story places the focus squarely on him.

So, all in all, how one defines the protagonist and the antagonist is going to elicit different answers to this question  My own vote is for Red Chief as the protagonist, since he is the main character and he does triumph over the kidnappers.  Sometimes we watch a movie in which we are rooting for the bad guy.  :)

What is the conflict, climax, and resolution in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

In "The Ransom of Red Chief," the humor arises out of the conflict: instead of the kidnapped child being afraid, he terrorizes Sam and, especially Bill, who is threatened with scalping and ridden like a horse all one morning.  Compromising on the ranson money so that they can assuredly be rid of the red-haired freckled terror that they have taken, the men write a ransom note which Sam surreptitiously mails in town.

The turning point/climax of the action occurs soon afterwards as the men await the depositing of the ransom money into the appointed spot.  A "half-grown boy" on a bicycle deposits something into the box Sam has set up.  After waiting an hour, Sam climbs down from his post and discovers, not money, but a letter in "a crabbed hand."  The father of the boy, Ebenezer Dorset, contends that Sam and Bill's demands are "a little high."  Instead, he offers to take the boy off their hands if they will pay him two hundred and fifty dollars.  To this Sam utters an exclamation, but when he looks at Bill he sees "the most appealing look in his eyes I ever saw on the face of a dumb or talking brute."

So, in the resolution of the conflict, there is the typical O. Henry unexpected ending as Sam and Bill return "Red Chief" to his father, pay the two hundred and fifty dollars, and run when the father says he can only hold the boy for ten minutes. 

What is the initial major conflict in The Ransom of Red Chief?

The conflict at the beginning of O. Henry's classic short story "The Ransom of Red Chief" is two men (Sam and Bill) in need of money.  As the story says in the opening lines, "it looked like a good thing."  Bill and Sam came up with what seemed like a good plan: kidnap a kid and ransom the kid for money.  To complete the plan, the men pick out a quiet town and a rich family with only one son.  They think that this will optimize the amount of ransom they can collect. Of course, the plan didn't work out when they kidnap Johnny, the most annoying kid in town.

What is the plot of "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

Sam, the narrator, and his friend Bill Driscoll need two thousand dollars to pull off a "fraudulent real estate deal." So, they decide to kidnap a child from one of the wealthier men in the town of Summit. Ironically, the child (Johnny Dorset, aka "Red Chief") doesn't plead to go home. He acts like he is camping out with his kidnappers and they soon discover that Johnny is extremely rambunctious and a general pain to be around. 

The irony continues when Sam goes to town. He expects to see the town in an uproar about the kidnapping but nothing has changed. They write a ransom letter to Johnny's father, Ebenezer. The response they get from Ebenezer is not what they expect: 

You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. 

Because Johnny is so impossible to be around, they actually agree to Ebenezer's terms. The irony is that instead of extracting a ransom, they have to pay Ebenezer to take his own son back. 

Who are the protagonist and antagonist in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?

In this story of ironic reversals, even the protagonists and antagonists are transposed.  The boy whom Bill and Sam kidnap becomes their foe and they, who have done the kidnapping and should be the antagonists, find themselves in the positions of protagonists.

Sam narrates at the beginning of the narrative:

We chose for our victim -- the only child of an influential citizen named Ebenezer Dorset.... Bill and I thought that Ebenezer would pay a ransom of two thousand dollars to get his boy back.  But wait till I tell you.

This red-headed boy of ten turns out to be more than Bill can handle; for instance, when the men kidnap Johnny Dorset, the son of Ebenezer Dorset, the bank manager and wealthiest man in Summit, Alabama, the boy immediately hits Bill with a brick, and he fights violently with the men:

That boy put up a fight like a wild animal.  But, at last, we got him down in the bottom of the carriage and drove away.

Then, while Sam returns the rented buggy, little Johnny reverses roles as he becomes a violent Indian who holds Bill captive. Bill tells Jim,

 "I'm Old Hank, the trapper, Red Chief's captive.  Im going to be scalped at daybreak.  By Geronimo!  That kid can kick hard."

Red Chief continues to terrorize Bill when Sam goes down the mountain where they are hiding in order to drop off the ransom note. When Mr. Dorset reads the note, he makes a counter-offer that the men pay him to take the boy off their hands, stipulating that it be at night so that no one can witness the boy's kidnap. So, the two kidnappers end up paying the father to reclaim his son, the initial victim who becomes the men's antagonist.