How did the boy initially respond to his kidnapping in "The Ransom of Red Chief"?
The little boy named Johnny Dorset, who calls himself Red Chief, is delighted with being kidnapped because it lets him escape from the discipline and chores of home, if any; because it gets him out of school; because it lets him live in the outdoors like a real Indian; and because it seems like the supreme adventure of his life. He relates well to Bill and Sam. He has never known any adults who behaved in such an antisocial way. They become, in his eyes, like Indians themselves. Being outlaws, the two men have relinquished whatever dignity and authority they might have had as respectable adult citizens. Red Chief treats Sam as an equal and Bill as a subordinate. The kidnappers' biggest problem is not keeping their captive in their custody, but in getting rid of him. They have a tiger by the tail.
“Red Chief,” says I to the...
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kid, “would you like to go home?”
“Aw, what for?” says he. “I don’t have any fun at home. I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won’t take me back home again, Snake-eye, will you?”
“Not right away,” says I. “We’ll stay here in the cave a while.”
“All right!” says he. “That’ll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life.”
He couldn't have much fun at home with his father. The name Ebenezer Dorset suggests that the man is a sourpuss and a skinflint like Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' famous tale "A Christmas Carol." The boy is having so much fun because of the contrast between life as a kidnap victim and life at home.
It turns out that Ebenezer drives a tight bargain, as he probably has done all his adult life, since he owns much of the property in the vicinity of Summit and holds mortgages on the rest. Instead of paying to get his wild son back, he demands $250 to take him off their hands. And because of the trouble Red Chief has given them, they are willing to pay the reverse-ransom.
O. Henry's stories are often ironic. But "The Ransom of Red Chief" is crammed with ironies. The kidnap victim enjoys being a victim. His father doesn't seem to care if he ever gets him back. And the kidnappers have to pay reverse-ransom in order to get rid of the victim.
When Sam and Bill decide to kidnap the son of the most prominent citizen in town, "a mortgage fancier" and wealthy man named Ebenezer Dorset, they capture an enfant terrible who later calls himself "Red Chief."
After Bill and Sam drive into town, the men pull up next to a little boy who is throwing bricks at a cat.
“Hey, little boy!” says Bill, “would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?”
The boy hurls a piece of brick at Bill.
“That will cost the old man an extra five hundred dollars,” says Bill, climbing over the wheel.
Clearly, this rambunctious and unmannerly boy has been spoiled and allowed to be impetuous and wild, rather than be made to behave.
Of course, the humor of the story derives from Red Chief's further acts of terror at the camp that Bill and Sam set up above the town. Sam returns to this hideout many times to find Red Chief has battered Bill. Sam also awakens to find Red Chief sitting on Bill, holding the man's hair in his hand with the intention of scalping him. Sam and Bill try to return the boy after obtaining no word from his father. Ebeneezer Dorset only takes the boy back when Sam and Bill pay him, not the other way around as the kidnappers originally hoped.
Sam and Bill select the son of Ebenezer Dorset as their victim. After storing their provisions in a cave on the mountain, they drive their rented buggy into town and spy the boy throwing rocks at a kitten. They try to entice him into the buggy by offering him candy and a ride. The boy, whose name is Johnny, throws a piece of brick at Bill that hits him him in the eye. The men have to struggle with Johnny to get him into the buggy; in fact, he "put up a fight like a welter-weight cinnamon bear." This means that the boy does not go willingly, nor is he convinced by the bribe they offer him.
However, once Johnny is at the camp of the kidnappers, he begins to enjoy himself. He pretends to be Red Chief, an "Indian" who has captured Hank the Trapper, played by Bill. Bill has bruises all over his shins where Johnny has kicked him. Ironically, Johnny is very happy in his captivity; he "seemed to be having the time of his life." He thinks camping out in a cave is a lark. In fact, during dinner he assures the men he doesn't want to go home at all because he doesn't have any fun there. He would much rather camp out with his friends "Snake-eye" and "Hank."
Although Johnny fights the men during his initial capture, he soon warms to the idea of camping out with the men and declares he has "never had such fun in all [his] life."
The little boy at first fights vigorously against being kidnapped. He struggles, the narrator tells us, like a "welter-weight cinnamon bear." Once brought to the cave where they are hiding him, however, the boy begins to have fun. He isn't frightened at all and soon has named himself Red Chief and dressed up like a Native American. He plays a game in which he takes Bill captive and states he will scalp him at daybreak. Bill is bruised because of how hard Red Chief kicks him.
Red Chief says he is having a great time camping out in the cave and tells the narrator, Sam, that he will be broiled alive the next day.
Bill is, according the narrator, terrorized by the little boy from the start, especially after he actually tries to scalp him with a knife. It isn't much better for Sam: instead of being frightened at being kidnapped, the boy frightens and intimidates both his captors.
What are two actions of the boy before his kidnapping in "The Ransom Of Red Chief"?
Sam observes two things the boy does before he and Bill grab him and pull him into their buggy.
One evening after sundown, we drove in a buggy past old Dorset's house. The kid was in the street, throwing rocks at a kitten on the opposite fence.
'Hey, little boy!' says Bill, 'would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?'
The boy catches Bill neatly in the eye with a piece of brick.
These actions by the freckle-faced ten-year-old boy ought to have given Sam and Bill fair warning that he was going to be hard to handle. They also foreshadow the coming troubles for the benefit of the reader. Sam and Bill ought to have selected a more manageable victim. They obviously don't know anything about kids. What has them focused on this particular boy is the fact that his father seems to be a man who would have a lot of money. Also, the boy they have targeted is an only child. Sam, the narrator, has said:
We selected for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier and a stern, upright collection-plate passer and forecloser.
The boy, who calls himself Red Chief, turns out to be a holy terror. But his father Ebenezer is even worse. Instead of paying the two kidnappers the two thousand dollars ransom they demand, Ebenezer makes a counter-offer he knows they can't refuse. He will take Red Chief off their hands if they pay him two hundred and fifty dollars cash. In his note Ebenezer adds:
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.
O. Henry probably gave Red Chief's father the first name of Ebenezer as an allusion to Charles Dickens' famous character Ebenezer Scrooge of A Christmas Carol. Scrooge was a man who was capable of driving a comparably hard bargain.
Was the boy in "The Ransom of Red Chief" troubled by his kidnapping? Why or why not?
No, Red Chief definitely was not troubled by the kidnapping. He thought it was great fun to be out camping with Sam and Bill. Likely, the boy exhausted and infuriated everybody from his home and neighborhood, so nobody wanted anything to do with him. Even his father knew how much trouble the boy is, which is why he told the kidnappers that he would take little Johnny back, if the kidnappers paid him to take Johnny back. Here is the letter that Ebenezer wrote back to Sam and Bill about the return of Johnny.
"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. 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."
As for Johnny, he had the full attention of Bill for most of the time. He got Bill to play all kinds of cops and robbers and cowboys and Indians. He got to sleep out in the wilderness and wasn't cooped up in a house with all kinds of rules. Probably my favorite Johnny Dorset sequence is his rapid fire statement/question speech right after dinner. It's exhausting and hilarious to read at the same time.
'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?'
No, I don't think he's troubled at all about being kidnapped.