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How does o. henry create and use irony in the ransom of red chief
How does o. henry create and use irony in the ransom of red chief
How does o. henry create and use irony in the ransom of red chief
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Could you even imagine somebody purposely trying to get in jail, or kidnappers paying money to give away their hostage. Well, in two ironic short stories titled “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “The Cop and The Anthem” by O. Henry these things happened. O. Henry became known for surprising ironic endings like these. This irony as well as other literary terms, such as the conflict, the mood, and symbolism the developed themes in O. Henrys short stories. The theme of “The Ransom of Red Chief” is things are not always as they seem. The theme of “The Cop and the Anthem” is be careful for what you wish for. One way O. Henry develops the themes is the conflict. In “The Cop and the Anthem” the conflict is man vs man, because Soapy’s main struggle is with the cops. When Soapy wanted to get arrested, the cops wouldn’t arrest him and when he decided to make his life better, the cops arrested him for soliciting. As stated in the text, “He would be …show more content…
Henry develops the theme is the symbolism. In “The Ransom of Red Chief”, the boy is a form of symbolism. Johnny symbolizes terror as that is what he caused such as he threw “A rock the size of an egg had hit him just behind his left ear. Bill fell in the fire across the frying pan of hot water for washing the dishes.” This supports the theme because the boy appeared like an innocent kid from the distance, but later the symbolism changes the way the readers see the boy. For “The Cop and the Anthem” the symbolism is geese, winter, and the broken glass. The geese symbolize Soapy searching for shelter for the winter like the geese moving south to find a warm home. The winter symbolizes change and the broken glass symbolizes bad luck. All of this symbolism foreshadows the end of the story. This develops the theme because the broken glass shows how he will have the worst luck. And, the geese symbolize that he will find shelter. So, the symbolism foreshadows that he will get into jail. And he wished to get into
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme plays an important role during the course of the novel. Theme is a central idea in a work of literature that contains more than one word. It is usually based on an author’s opinion on a subject. The theme of innocence should be protected is found in conflicts, characters, and symbols. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a conflict that connects to the theme that innocence should be protected is the death of Tom Robinson.
One example of the theme occurs when the author first introduces the story. “But the summer I was 9 years old, the town I had always loved morphed into a beautifully heartbreaking and complicated place.” (pg. 1). The author is saying that the year she turned nine, she found out something about her town that broke her heart and changed the way she saw it. This quote is important because it supports the theme. It shows that now she is older she has learned something about her town that made her wiser than when she was younger. She is now more informed because the new information changed her and caused her to begin to mature.
In the Movie, “Ransom of Red Chief”, and in the book, there are some similarities and some differences. The first difference was Red Chief, or better known as Johnny. In the movie he was a small, blonde headed little boy, but in the story he was a small, red headed little boy with a bunch of freckles. In addition to that in the movie the kidnappers, bill and Sam, took red chief to the woods and set up camp, but in the book it states that they, bill, Sam, and red chief, slept in a cave and camped there. Last but not least was red chief. In the movie red chief also stole bill and Sam’s car and he also put a snake in bill’s bed, but in the story he did neither of those things.
The characters are the young individual who got in trouble, dressed down, wearing casual clothes. Another character is the manager, dressed in their uniforms, a very stern face, have a radio to communicate with their employees. There are conflicts that occur, such as the man against machine, which could be the young individual who have the misfortune of getting a job based on their background. Another problematic situation is the individual against the manager of the store, the person stole 3 items and had an altercation with the manager of taking their products without paying for it. The last problem is man against himself, the individual struggles with himself of making bad decisions in life. After this person purloined from the store, they sat there scared out of their mind. The officer left to go into the store, they sit there quietly thinking why steal a film, they don’t even own a camera. So after they made bad decisions that’s when they think there’s no point of stealing it, and it’s villainous of committing a crime such as shoplifting. The symbolism in this poem contains many, for instance, the film could represent people can take control of their lives and can change it around to do better. Another symbolism is the two snicker bars represent the hunger this person felt, probably lived in a poor neighborhood. Their reactions could represent
Throughout the historic course of literature, one story known as “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Cornell has incorporated specific types of irony for multiple differing and fundamental reasons. Situational irony is the first use of ironic elements that will be discussed in regards to the story. Situational irony is defined as “an incongruity that appears between the expectations of something to happen, and what actually happens instead ” (literarydevices.net). The story’s climax offers a unique twist to the plot as it includes an unexpected discovery, ultimately incorporating situational irony into the sequence of events. The story starts out with the introduction of the legendary hunter Bob Rainsford as he is shipwrecked and trapped on a deserted island. While staying on the island, Rainsford is introduced to the eccentric General Zaroff, who is a self proclaimed expert hunter as well. In short, the General turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who forces Rainsford into a game of “cat and mouse”, which causes Rainsford to fight for his life. This state of affair is considered to be situational irony because Zaroff defies the expectations of being a hunter to the audience. This is specifically shown in the text when Rainsford confronts General Zaroff in regards to what he is hunting:
Situational irony is used in both O’Henry’s “The Ransom of Red Chief” and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant but the effect of the techniques on the tone of each story is very different. In O’Henry’s story, the protagonist, Red Chief, is being kidnapped by two criminals, Bill and Sam. There are many ironic events that occur in the story. For example, the reader expects Red Chief to want to go back home to his family but instead, he is having the time of his life. As hard as Bill tries, he cannot even send him home. Bill utters to Sam, “‘I showed him the road to Summit and kicked him about eight feet nearer there at one kick’” (6). This is comical because it is using a literary technique known as slapstick comedy. The reader can imagine Bill swinging his leg and kicking Red Chief all the way back to Summit. Another example of situational irony in the story is that the reader would expect that Red Chief to be scared but what is actually happening is that Bill is terrified. While speaking with Sam, Bill complains about Red chief yet again, “‘I’ve stood by you without batting an eye ...
One of the symbols that is given is a fence. A fence is something that surrounds for example your home and additional things that need to be secure. In Fences, the fence is a symbol because they want the fence to be built because they want to keep the love ones inside the gate along with, keeping the enemies out. The second symbol I found was baseball. In the book baseball does not refer to the sport with a ball and a bat, what it symbolises is when Troy found out that black people were being discriminated which is mention plenty of times when Cory talks to him about him signing the paper to let him be recruited. The purpose of themes and symbolism in play’s is to keep the focus of the play and helps you gather information to answer your own answers at the end. While symbolisms makes you think a little more to get the hint they are trying to give
and reckless in love and relationships. In this case, Romeo and Juliet do not fall under the odd. Shakespeare tells the great love story of the two young star-crossed lovers - Romeo and Juliet, ending with the tragic deaths of six people including the suicide of the two lovers. The decisions and actions that Romeo and Juliet have made reveals the overall theme Shakespeare was expressing - Young love is often more reckless and impulsive due to young people's rash decision making and the high level of zeal that they possess.
“It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you,”(Henry, pg.1) about this comedic story that identifies two moronic characters and one holy terror of a child, who they thought they could handle. O. Henry’s short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” is a high level of comedy that uses allusion and irony to convey the idea that you must be wise before pursuing an act, because it may come back to bite you.
Anthem is a book full to the brim of symbolism. Some of it is clear to see and others you have to really pay attention to capture. Anthem is not a hard book to understand, but it can still be difficult to grasp the full meaning of it. The meaning of which is elusive at points, slipping between your fingers and resting on the pages in plain view. Unity, we, I, Ego, it all plays a major part in this book along with the symbolism of things.
Another interesting factor about this story is the irony and tone in this story and how it adds toward each character.
We can see how we can connect the emotions and messages implied by different songs can tie into the story Anthem. As we read the novel, we were able to identify the different parts of the story as well was the different emotions expressed by each of the characters. By paying attention to the messages and emotions, we were able to find songs that contained lyrics with similar messages and emotions. By tying in songs that we listen to today with the novel, we can actually connect with the story better.
Theme plays a very important part in this short story. Theme is the idea of a literary work abstracted from its details of language, character and action. The great example of theme that is evident throughout the entire short story is the duty to perform certain acts. We can see here that the Irishman Donovan is very big on obeying his duty to carry out orders that have been authorized to him.
The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.
O Henry was best known for his ironic endings in his writing but the plots of his writing wasn’t all similar. The text “The Cop and the Anthem” and “After Twenty Years” are two stories written by O Henry that has similar ending, ironic ending. Both stories have an ironic ending with the characters being arrested but however the reasons and motivations of why each character was arrested was different causing the difference in the plot. In the text “The Cop and the Anthem”, the character, Soapy, had wanted to be arrested which creates a whole ironic plot, while in the text “After Twenty Years”, the character, Bob, was trying to not get arrested, creating a normal plot unliked the text “The Cop and the Anthem”.