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Situational Irony In 'The Ransom Of Redchief'

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Surprise can be used in many ways to conjure numerous emotions from the audience. Authors normally use a device called situational irony to provoke surprise, but surprise can come in different ways. Guy de Maupassant in “The Necklace” uses situational irony to elicit a feeling of sympathy from the reader. In “The Ransom of Redchief” by O. Henry, O. Henry uses situational irony to create a humorous surprise for the reader. After reading these two stories, it is obvious that authors use situational irony to get the readers feeling a specific way.

In “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, situational irony is used to create a sense of sympathy. Mathilde thought she should be the richest woman in Paris, but she ended up as one of the poorest. …show more content…

Henry, “The Ransom of Redchief,” O. Henry uses situational irony to create a humorous feeling. In the beginning, the narrator Sam and his partner in crime, Bill, decided to kidnap a small town boy of a nicer family to collect the ransom. The boy they choose is Johnny Dorset, son of Ebenezer Dorset. Once Johnny has been kidnapped, he starts to enjoy the life of being a kidnapped child because he is having so much fun. Johnny pleads to Sam, also known as Snake-Eye, to not take him back home. He says, “‘You won't take me back home again, Snake-Eye, will you?’” (4). It is normally conceived that a child that is kidnapped will be scared, but Johnny Dorset is not like most kids. When Sam and Bill were passing by the Dorset household, Johnny was throwing rocks at a kitten. Another ironic aspect to O. Henry’s story is that Sam and Bill must pay ransom to give Johnny back to his parents. The original plan was to collect ransom for Johnny, not to have to pay to give him back. In the letter that Mr. Dorset sent to the two men, he stated, “You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands” (52). Sam does not want to agree, mostly because this was not part of his plan to earn money, but Bill has had an awful experience with Johnny so he pays the

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In the story The Ransom of Red Chief, the story follows Sam and Bill, with the story giving first person perspective to Sam. The story follows the two men who are staying in a small town called Summit, even though the town is as flat as a pancake. The two men had to raise some money to pull off a scam they had planned, and that's when they came up with a plan to kidnap Ebenezer Dorset’s child. Ebenezer was a banker in the town with many riches, which made him a prime victim for the two men, but they didn’t mind thinking about the boy and his behavior. They went to Ebenezer’s residence to capture the boy, but it was not an easy battle like one would suspect.

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The story and the movie “The Ransom of Red Chief” have a bunch of differences. In the movie, Sam tells a random kid to send a letter to Mr. Dorset. But in the story, Sam took the letter to the post office and a mail man took it to Mr. Dorset. Another difference is that in the story, the kidnappers offered Johnny Dorset some candy and kidnapped him. But in the movie, the kidnappers didn’t offer him candy and just put him in a trunk.

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Situational irony is a very strange thing. In the story “The Ransom of Red Chief,” by O. henry makes situational irony with a funny humor. For instance the boy, John, is happy to be kidnapped by Bill and Sam. When asked if he would like to go home he replys “Aw what for?, I don't have any fun at home.”

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In many stories irony is used as humorous and suspenseful due to the characters. In this particular short story the author uses humorous irony but also has a humorous tone to create the difference of the plot. In this short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, he uses a different scenario of irony in which case is when a young boy gets kidnapped by two men. Even though the child has been captured, he ends up having the upper hand.

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In the story of the Ransom of Red Chief, Bill and Sam asked Red Chief do you want some candy and then Bill and Sam kidnapped Red chief while Red Chief’s father named Ebenezer Dorset was on the porch sitting in the rocking chair asleep and then Bill and Sam put Red chief in the wagon and him to the cave. Bill was threatened by Red Chief and he hit Bill in the eye with a rock and Red Chief made the green snake bite Bill when he trying to get some sleep and Bill stayed up until the next morning. The story and the movie of The Ransom of Red Chief, Ebenezer Dorset sent the letter is about the two desperate men and Bill and Sam soon return Red chief back to the Dorset’s house and Ebenezer Dorset gave the 250 dollars to Sam and Bill and

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