Irony In O. Henry's The Ransom Of Red Chief

Improved Essays
The hysterical tale of two moronic kidnappers and one terror of a child will make baby- sitters everywhere quiver and potential kidnappers reconsider. O.Henry’s short story
“The Ransom of Red Chief “ is a high caliber comedy that utilizes irony and allusions to convey the conception that although it is not what seems most favorable, a sense of justice will play into everything we do.
The irony in the story is very unexpected, making it even more hysterical, but at the same time making the reader sit back and cerebrate about why they are laughing.
Like when the writer verbalized of,” a town as flat as a flannel- cake” availing the reader imagine a diminutive flat town. But perpetuating on to the cessation of the quote,”and called summit, of

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Irony in a Text Situational Irony means about the same thing as a discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. A story that has situational Irony is the Ransom of Red Chief. The situational Irony in the Ransom of Red Chief creates humor and develops a theme by the characters expecting one thing to happen, but another does. The irony in The Ransom of Red Chief creates humor because they tried to kidnap a kid for money but in the end they didn't get any money.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the short story, The Ransom of a Red Chief by William Sydney Porter, the author tells the story of two men who kidnap a boy and hold him for ransom. Sam and his partner Bill, “...had a joint capital of about six hundred dollars, and...needed just two thousand dollars more to pull off a fraudulent town-lot scheme in Western Illinois...,” (The Ransom of a Red Chief, Paragraph 3). This explains that for the scheme that they wanted to accomplish they needed extra money and came to the conclusion that a kidnapping would be an easy way to achieve their goal. This also demonstrates that the two men were quite confident in their abilities to receive the ransom. They also assumed that because, “The father was respectable and tight, a mortgage fancier…

    • 222 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In paragraph 24, sentence 2, it said "realistically trying to take Bills scalp," which is weird sense he was playing Indian. This quote pulled the theme that the boy was a little crazy. This shows how the kid tries to act the rest of the story. Irony is used…

    • 187 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Have you ever heard the saying be careful what you wish for. you often hear the movies books and short stories. Theme is the meaning of the story. Short story Ransom of Red Chief by O'Hara in the movie Home Alone have comment themes. One example in the book that says crime doesn't pay if they had to give Ebenezer towards the $250 to get rid of the kid .…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “The Ransom of Red Chief” has a theme that is crime doesn't pay. He shows this through the actions and dialogue of Sam and Bill throughout the text. The whole story is about how Sam and Bill kidnap Johnny. But in the beginning of the story Sam drops a big hint of what is going to happen later on in the story. On page 11 paragraph 1“It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Along with startling imagery, Douglass makes use of sardonic irony to get his audience thinking and then questioning slavery. Douglass uses many layers of irony ranging from blant to subtle. The full title of his book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave even contains irony. How can one be an “American Slave”? America being the Land of the Free, so the phrase “American Slave” is contradictory.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ransom Of Red Chief Essay

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    “The boy catches Bill neatly in the eye with a piece of brick”(Henry pg 71). The story “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O.Henry is a classic story. This book stars two crooks Sam and Bill Driscoll, on a quest for money. How do they get that money you ask? kidnap!! Yes they kidnap a boy named Red Chief, but is he too much to handle.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The interlopers and The story of an hour. B. Thesis Statement (2.) Both stories contain aspects of irony and foreshadowing as well as wonderful use of Suspense. Using this essay you can see for yourself the similarites and diffrences found in the two stories as they use these liteary techniques. II…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ransom Of Red Chief Irony

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages

    There was once somebody that was so annoying that somebody paid to take them away. " The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry tells a story of a boy and his kidnappers in Summit, Alabama. Johnny, Bill, and Ebenezer's thoughts, feelings, and actions were so tremendously ironic that it made the story humorous and unique. Johnny Dorset did not behave the way one might have thought throughout the story. Firstly, he did not want to go home.…

    • 631 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Similarly to the character’s actions and thoughts, the character’s emotions also exemplify Wise Blood’s theme and the novel’s irony. Hazel Motes, when he enters Taulkinham, has already decided to begin his protest on God. He begins by sleeping with a prostitute named Lenora Watts. He sees her address etched inside a men’s bathroom stall, and immediately after hails a taxi to go to her house (O’Connor 26). Once at her house he sleeps with her for the first time.…

    • 710 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Edgar Allen Poe is famous for his poems and short stories; particularly his dark, mysterious horror stories. What makes his stories so chilling, captivating, and powerful is his technique of using irony. In “The Cask of Amontillado”, various kinds of irony are on display from beginning to end in this illusive tale through the characters, Montresor and Fortunato. Poe emphasizes on three different types of irony in this story to heighten the reader’s engagement: verbal, dramatic, and situational irony. Beginning with verbal irony, it is clear throughout the story that Poe utilizes this irony to communicate one facet, but mean another.…

    • 1242 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    soldiers get scared in The Red Badge of Courage, but learning that others are scared to fight brings Henry a new found drive in fighting: hate. He hates the enemy, he wants to fight, and Henry aims to win. Courage can always be found in the strangest for these soldiers whether in letters or a photo because this is the reality that drives them to return home. Courage is not always an easy thing to come by, especially in war, and Crane does an amazing job depicting this in the realest sense possible. However, having fear is different than not having courage and Crane throws this throughout The Red Badge of Courage.…

    • 828 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Douglass used descriptions of events and circumstances to illustrate the dehumanization of African Americans by slave owners. However, Douglass utilized literary devices to create art and humanize himself and, by extension, all African Americans. Douglass often wrote analogies in his work. Douglass stated that physical violence “was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery,” thereby comparing physical violence to a gateway into slavery, which was like Hell. Hell is known to be a terrible place that nobody desires to go to.…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Irony is a literary technique where the usage of language expresses that something is the opposite of what one expects; it may be used for a humorous effect. There are three types of irony; there is verbal, situational, and dramatic irony. Verbal irony is when an author’s stated meaning differs from the actual meaning, situational irony is when a different situation occurs than what is expected, and dramatic irony is when the audience knows more information that the characters do. In the story “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., there are many examples of situational and dramatic irony shown through the handicaps, the ballerina’s dance, and Harrison’s death. The story introduces a setting where the world is equal in every way; no one…

    • 423 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    War, a controversial dilemma, can often resolve itself through an orderly fashion, rather than an atrocious disaster. In “The Sniper,” written by Liam O’Flaherty, a Republican soldier who fights for his life against the so-called “Free Staters” in the Irish civil war, comes to suffer from drastic emotional trauma when someone he loves becomes fatally wounded. In Liam O’Flaherty’s story, “The Sniper” uses irony to demonstrate how war reduces human beings to mere objects. Unexpected occurrences happen when dramatic irony comes into effect. The irony demonstrates itself when the sniper discovers that the soldier he has most recently shot reveals as his brother, who now rests lifeless on the street.…

    • 983 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays