Main characters of the story "The Ranson Of Red Chief"

           "The Ransom of red Chief"  has everything a good story needs: two villains who lack skill, a dangerous 10 year old, and a wealthy father.  But wait, irony follows us through all the story...
The boy, Ebenezer Dorset's son is supposed to be a the protagonist or main character is the central or main figure of a story and  Bill Driscoll and the Narrator are supposed to be antagonists in the story.

                                     But is it really so? 

RED CHIEF 
As it's known, protagonist is usually the "good" guy in the story. The principal opponent of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist who represents or creates obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. As with protagonists, there may be more than one antagonist in a story. The entire premise of the story is ironic. O. Henry is a master of irony and the ironic twist ending. One would think the child, would be the protagonist (usually the good guy) and the antagonists would be the kidnappers ( usually the bad guy), but the irony is that the kid turns out to be a giant pain-in-the-neck and the kidnappers can't wait to take him back. The kidnappers are basically good guys who never intended to the harm the kid and actually take good care of him. Red Chief  is a troublesome, and represents a burden to Bill. He is also playful and doesn’t respect other people.
The kid  has caused Sam and especially Bill to live in alert and terror. Although both of them believe that a  10 year old is harmless, Johnny has proved to them that he can be a deathly machine.  Boy is selfish, stubborn and ill-mannered.  Not only criminals  are afraid of him but also all  his neighbors. Maybe that's why when he disappeared all the town continues quite joyful live in peace.
BILL DRISCOLL AND SAM
They are independent, and are inexperienced in kidnapping. They are to be the main criminals of the story but the situation turns that way that they became victims themselves of the Red Chief. Everything starts when  Sam and Bill decide to keep the kid of a rich man in hostage in exchange for two-thousand dollars. However, their flawless plan eventually causes them to lose two-hundred and fifty dollars and left traumatized by their experience with Johnny. Bill is the weakest character of the story. Though he is adult he couldn't manage with 10 year-old kind. Bill is simple-hearted  by his nature and maybe he is really good guy  but life made  him  stick  to the criminal life. Bill has soft character and does not know how to behave with children although he allows the boy to manipulate him. Therefore, when Bill punishes the boy, he didn't take it seriously. We can judge that Bill is good according to his appearance and manners: he is fat, slow and thoughtful. That makes him comical. Sam complete opposition to Bill. He is strong, courageous and persistent. So the boy is afraid of him, Sam has strong spirit and strong character. He is the leader who at the end accepts the  failure of their kidnapping project.
EBENZER DORSET 
 Ebenezer Dorset  seems to be serious, smart, and a caring father. He plays not so important role in the story. He is only a father who is trying to get his son back from two kidnapers. The sarcastic thing about what he did, is that he demands his son back with 250 $. On the other hand, an ordinary father wouldn’t do that, and would pay the ransom without any hesitation. Ebenezer is a shock for the reader.

Plot of the story

          In the  exposition we discover that Bill and Sam are in need of two thousand dollars. In this section , O. Henry introduces the characters and a part of the conflict at an early part of the story. The criminals are desperate and they are making the decision of taking easy money.
          Rising Events introduces us the criminals plan" Bill and Sam kidnap Ebenezer’s son ( 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. ) and hide him in a cave.
- They keep his son in the cave and send the father a letter demanding to be pay ransom in order to get his son back.
- The men start to get bothered by the son. In this section, the father realizes that his son was kidnapped. The author shows how the kidnappers treat Ebenezer’s son , how the men lived in the cave , and a part of their personalities. The author also shows how they plan to collect the money but the difficulties with the kid's behavior makes men (especially Bill) nervous and tired :  I suppose you'll think I'm a renegade, but I couldn't help it. I'm a grown person with masculine proclivities and habits of self-defence, but there is a time when all systems of egotism and predominance fail. The boy is gone. I have sent him home. All is off. There was martyrs in old times," goes on Bill, "that suffered death rather than give up the particular graft they enjoyed. None of 'em ever was subjugated to such supernatural tortures as I have been. I tried to be faithful to our articles of depredation; but there came a limit." Bill sends  the kid home but Red Chief comes back because there he has fun. That brings Bill nervous break down : Bill turns and sees the boy, and loses his complexion and sits down plump on the ground and begins to pluck aimlessly at grass and little sticks. For an hour I was afraid for his mind."  
        Climax of the story :the father suggests that they return his son and pay him two hundred and fifty dollars. In return he will take his son of their hands. In this section the kidnappers are forced to accept the offer and return Johnny home and pay the ransom to the father: "  One more night of this kid will send me to a bed in Bedlam. Tell you the truth, Bill," says I, "this little he ewe lamb has somewhat got on my nerves too. We'll take him home, pay the ransom and make our get-away."
        Anticlimax : -Bill and Sam take the kid back home.
 -They pay the ransom.
 -The father allows the kidnappers to run away.
In this part , things seem to head towards a resolution. And the men stick to the preposition. The men are forced to return the son without getting any money. 

"How long can you hold him?" asks Bill.

 "I'm not as strong as I used to be," says old Dorset, "but I think I can promise you ten minutes."

"Enough," says Bill. "In ten minutes I shall cross the Central, Southern and Middle Western States, and be legging it trippingly for the Canadian border."

       Resolution: The kidnappers escape, and head outside Summit to the Canadian Borders without the money.

         There is no doubt that the conflict in this story is external. Two men who are in need of money decide to kidnap a well known citizen’s son in order to get a ransom of two thousand dollars. The conflict is introduced to us from the beginning of the story. It could also be described as man versus man , since the story describes how they kidnapped the kid

.O. Henry describes how Bill and Sam treat the boy.

Setting

This story takes place in a cave near Summit in Alabama. As the narrator of the story says : " There was a town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit". The other gives us the example of vivid irony with the help of  simile.   This setting reflects Bill and the narrator’s personality and the cave resembles their way of life which is moving from a place to another. If the setting was in another place like a village, the father of the kidnapped boy would probably not be able to pay the ransom. And probably the kidnappers wont get their two thousand dollars. Besides,
the criminals chose this town because: " It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious and self-satisfied a class of peasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole.  

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. So, it looked good".  

        I suppose, that when someone trys to describe O. Henry’s writing style, he  always uses the term “smile with tears,” which is really  implies O'Henry's  twisted way of thoughts and endings about every sort story. These stories usually end in a humorous, ironyc but also cruel kind of way. It’s absolutely useful to elevate the artistic thought in writing a thoughtful story. I think that in "The Ransom of Red Chief"  uses vivid irony, humor, exaggeration   and the other stylistic devices  that are blend in the story. Besides, O'Henry experimented with the sentence structure: we can find Asyndeton, Aposiopesis,  Polysyndeton, Separation, Ellipsis and Rhetorical questions that transforms the sort story into a really true-to-life situation.   In order to emphasise  Red Chief's  (boy's) main features of character, the author  uses a lot of bright  similes and metaphors  that helps us only to imagine hat the  devilish behavior  has the kid.  Through  the main characters' speech we can understand that time up-bringing. Parents like to pet their children and are ready to pay any cost for their   life : " The rowdy kid like that is just the kind that parents dote on."  What's more, O'Henry uses brisk Allusion and Antonomasia : " Snake-eye, the Spy, Old Hank, the Trapper, Geronimo and the examples of Bible characters such as  David, Goliath and king Herod".
       So, it proves my idea that this short story is not just the story for children, the reader should be aware in other literary works in order to catch  up the humor of "The Ransom of the Red Chief". This is the story for  deeper considerations about the society and the role of individuals in  its closed circle.

Watch the movie http://icinemax.net/4950-pohischenie-vozhdya-krasnokozhih-the-ransom-of-red-chief.html

That kid can kick hard!!!

       O. Henry is the pen name, formerly named William Sidney Porter (William Sydney Porter). He is the famous American critical realism writer,  the master of the short stories. American Realism was a late nineteenth-century literary movement that began as a reaction against romanticism and the sentimental tradition. American Realism was most commonly a feature of narrative fiction and it influenced on O. Henry’s style of writing.

       O. Henry created his stories on the background of rapid development of capitalism and business when the invasion commercialization of American society  suppressed and destroyed in people kindness and spirituality. O. Henry’s  characters - a common "small, ordinary" people of American society: clerks, teachers, artists, photographers, stenographer. The writer portrays all of them  as carriers of the idea of humanism. These people  are friendly , can sacrifice, love their neighbors,  have the desire make the goodness, although they  are suppressed by the bourgeois reality. O. Henry is trying to develop in his characters  the sense of beauty, The writer wants to break their mechanical movement of life,  and to awaken the mind, humanity.  

       While reading the story, I noticed that this story is greatly influenced by the author experience. The action takes place in American town Summit in Alabama. It is vital to note that O. Henry travelled a lot and took a number of different jobs. The other quite interesting fact  concerns his imprisonment  because the First National Bank of Austin was audited by federal auditors and they found the embezzlement shortages and he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. So, maybe it is not the coincidence that his characters are criminals. O. Henry as no one else felt the condition of those “ Two Desperate Man” . Nevertheless, he started his writing career in prison.  Maybe the writer wanted to tell  that everything in life has its price: and it’s not so easy to steal the money as it seems to be (in case of ramdom).

       O. Henry was brilliant in the usage of jargon, sharp words and expressions, and  colored dialogues that made the effect of closeness to real life conditions. "Sam, do you know who my favourite Biblical character is?" "Take it easy," says I. "You'll come to your senses presently."  "King Herod," says he.  

It goes without saying that the whole story permeated with humor and even with the elements of irony. To say the truth, I laughed  and enjoyed reading the story. It is full of comic episodes : "

1)      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.

 "That will cost the old man an extra five hundred dollars," says Bill, climbing over the wheel.

2)      "How long can you hold him?" asks Bill.

 "I'm not as strong as I used to be," says old Dorset, "but I think I can promise you ten minutes."

"Enough," says Bill. "In ten minutes I shall cross the Central, Southern and Middle Western States, and be legging it trippingly for the Canadian border."

      From my point of view , this story suggests  the theme of bad child’s upbringing and the patent’s negligence, the theme of getting easy money and its consequences , personal qualities of character and attitude to the different problems.  So “The Ransom of Red Chief” is not just funny  story for children but  also the story with deep meaning and  for further considerations.

     As for other O. Henry’s works, we should mention "The Gift of the Magi", "The Cop and the Anthem”, "The Duplicity of Hargraves” and “The Last Leaf”. 

       I looked through  all the given stories in the lists and    the  only one  caught my attention and intrigued  me the most.  "The Ransom of Red Chief"  is a short story written by O. Henry.
       I believe that I will not be difficult to analyze it because it is one of the most popular O. Henry's  short stories . Besides, I read  it and saw the movie long time ago based on this story.

      It goes without saying that  "The Ransom of Red Chief" is about  two men who kidnapped and attempted to ransom a wealthy Alabaman's son. The more they spent time with that naughty boy the more they assured  themselves in failing the ransom. The point is that at the end  the criminals  had to pay  the boy's father to take him back. It makes the comic effect for the whole events.


     Like some other Henry works, "The Ransom of Red Chief" has become a familiar cultural trope. Its influence is seen in movies and Television series.

     Speaking of the title, it's rather suggestive. If I hadn't read the  "The Ransom of Red Chief", I would have associated the title with the real person, the chief of the Indian tribe.