Ransom Of Red Chief Vs. Home Alone

The theme of a story is the moral message or lesson of a story. After reading and watching the two stories I found that the theme for each of them are very similar and could be used for both but for the short story, Ransom of Red Chief, is that looks can be deceiving and from the movie, Home Alone, it is that big things come in small packages. In the text it states, “ It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you” (O. Henry 61). This shows that what the criminals thought would be a good thing, may not have turned out that way. In the movie, Harry and Marv said that Kevin, the little boy, was “just a child” and “stupid” (Home Alone). This reveals that what they thought of the boy was completely opposite and that thinking this way will

In Home Alone it shows the criminals starting to yell. Every time they fall into another trap of the boy’s, they continue to get more mad and say they’re going to kill him (Home Alone). This reveals that the criminals don’t have the tolerance for the kid they were calling stupid to begin with. One thing we also notice is that things went in the opposite direction as to what Marv and Harry thought it would be. The goal for them was to take down the boy and rob the house but the boy took down the criminals and nothing was stolen. Even though Home Alone isn’t an actual remake of Ransom of Red Chief, both stories have many similar events taking place. One event that was similar was how both families in each were both targeted for the crimes due to their wealth. On page 62 it says, “We chose for our victim the only child of a prominent citizen named Ebenezer Dorset. The father was respectable and tight with his money. He was a mortgage buyer; a stern, honest passer of collection plates; and a foreclosure” (O. Henry 62). This highlights that since the criminals knew all these things about Ebenezer, they knew he had money, loved his kid and will pay the ransom. In the movie, the men go to a very nice

One way the movie is more modern is because they drove different things to get from place to place. On page 62 it says, “...we drove in a buggy past old Dorsets house” (O. Henry 62). This highlights that this story took place before cars were popular and that things were very different in this time because you don’t ever usually hear the term “buggy” anymore. In the movie, it shows their cars in the garage, and vans that take them to an airport (Home Alone). This reveals that what they considered a car then and what we consider a car now from 1910 to 1990 has changed drastically. Another reason the movie is rendered new is how they communicate. In the story it says, “Together we wrote a letter that ran this way:” (O. Henry 69). This shows that phones were not yet popular and writing letters was probably the quickest way to communicate without talking face to face. In Home Alone, the family uses telephones to call home to see if Kevin is okay (Home Alone). This explains that technology has been updated since then and calling was much quicker than writing a letter. The last reason the movie is still considered modern is how they get to far away places, maybe even over seas. In the story it says, “... at the newsstand when you want to catch a train” (O. Henry). This definitely shows us that