Examples Of Irony In The Ransom Of Red Chief

“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry contains several marvelous examples of irony. First of all, the story begins in a tranquil village called Summit which was handpicked by two kidnappers, Bill and Sam, who decided to kidnap a little boy in Summit called Red Chief because they presumed that Red Chief’s father, Ebenezer Dorset, would give them a lot of money, but, ever since the beginning, Bill and Sam who assume the roles of Old Hank and Snake-eye, respectively, in Red Chief’s game notice something quite peculiar about this boy. This boy is acting like he is having the time of his life, and he has so much energy that he completely terrorizes Bill. One day, when Sam asks Red Chief if he wants to go home, Red Chief answers with a childish,

Also, most kidnappees actually want to go home, but Red Chief likes Bill and Sam much more than his village; he thinks of them as boisterous play friends instead of terrifying kidnappers. It is even more ironic because Bill and Sam specifically selected Summit and Ebenezer’s son because they were sure it would work out. Moreover, Red Chief continues to terrorize Bill with his silly, vicious games, and when Sam needs to take the ransom letter to Ebenezer, Bill pleads with all his life to not be left alone with the intimating Red Chief. While Sam is on his journey to Summit, Red Chief gets a piggyback ride from Bill for ninety miles to the stockade and back. Red Chief drives Bill so crazy that Bill tries and fails to get rid of Red Chief by sending him home, and when they come back, Bill explains in excruciating pain that, “‘On the way he kicks my legs black and blue from the knees down; and I’ve got two or three bites on my thumb and hand cauterized’” (8). Normally, a kidnappee does not menace his kidnapper so much that the kidnapper cannot even get the courage to fight back; the kidnapper normally wants to show his power to the kidnappee so that the kidnappee does not even think of

Not even able to stop a little weak kid from doing anything, Bill is a terrible kidnapper which is ironic because kidnappers normally choose to be kidnappers because they are enormous, threatening beasts who need money. Finally, Bill and Sam originally wanted the ransom to be two thousand dollars, but they changed it to fifteen hundred when they sent the letter because they just wanted to get rid of Red Chief as quickly as possible. When they got the response letter back from Ebenezer, instead of getting an expected surrendering letter, they got a letter that said: “You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands” (9). This is the most ironic part of the story that everything has been building up to because, ever since the beginning, Bill and Sam tell themselves that they can deal with Red Chief for a little longer if it means a lot of money, but now they see that they are not going to get any money and that all their tenacious hard work was for nothing. Instead, they might need to lose money. Additionally, Ebenezer controls all the power right now because the kidnappers will do almost anything to get rid of all the anguish caused by Red