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The Ransom Of Red Thief Situational Analysis

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Authors use situational irony to create surprise for the reader. The author creates surprise for the reader through events in the plot. Situational irony is when there is an unexpected twist in the course of a story. O. Henry produces the emotion humor through situational irony in “The Ransom of Redchief.” Also, Guy de Maupassant creates the emotion sympathy for the reader using situational irony throughout the story “The Necklace.” By examining these two stories, it is clear that authors utilize situational irony to affect readers’ emotions. Guy de Maupassant in “The Necklace” uses situational irony to create the emotion sympathy when She was at the ball and she was having the time of her life, “Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs …show more content…

Henry in “The Ransom of Red Chief” Uses situational irony to produce humor for the reader through the plot. Situational irony is present when the men kidnapped Johnny and he was happy about it. The two men are talking to Johnny, “‘Red Chief,” says to the kid, “would you like to go home?” “Aw what for?” says he. “I don’t have any fun at home . . . I Like to camp out. You won’t take me home again, will you?(41)” This is situational irony because Johnny is kidnapped and he does not want to leave even though when you are kidnapped you are supposed to be scared and are longing to go home. O. Henry uses situational irony to make the reader again feel the emotion humor when the kidnappers were attempting to collect a ransom from Red Chief's father but the understood what a pain Johnny is and that he could use that against the kidnappers. Eventually Johnny’s father sent a letter back to the kidnappers proposing his trade. ‘“you bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands.(52)”’ This statement is an example of situational irony because when a parent's child is kidnapped it is an instinctive reaction to do whatever you can to get your child back. What Johnny’s father is doing is the complete opposite and that creates the emotion humor for the

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In “The Ransom of Red Chief,” both situational and verbal irony is used many times through the story to create a humorous tone. Verbal irony is used in “The Ransom of Red Chief” when Bill says to Sam “I was rode, the ninety miles to the stockade, not barring an inch. Then, when the settlers was rescued, I was given oats. Sand ain’t a palatable substitute. ”(The Ransom of Red Cheif pg. 77) Bill is telling Sam how awful Red chief is to him and creates a humorous tone by using verbal irony.

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The situational irony in “The Ransom of Red Chief”, by O. Henry, implies a humorous effect on the reader. One example in the story, is the boy enjoys being kidnapped, and ends up torturing Bill. Getting the boy to the cave at first was hard for the criminals, but once the boy got there, he started having fun. He loved camping out and pretending they were Indian chiefs. “‘Red Chief,’ says I to the kid, ‘would you like to go home?’

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You might expect a kidnapper to be incontrol, demanding, and fearless. But this is not the case in the story “The Ransom of the Red Chief” by O. Henry, where the author uses situational and verbal irony to develop the tone of the story. Both verbal and situational irony are used throughout the story to develop a humorous tone. Situational irony is used in many instances in the story to create humor.

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Imagine someone spends their entire life working hard towards becoming a divorce lawyer and then they suddenly are facing the same problem they are meant to help find a solution for, divorce. This is an example of an ironic situation. Irony is used in many different forms of literature and by many different authors and writers to highlight and focus on important aspects of their work. Ironic situations provide more information to the reader and allow revelations to be made within the story. For instance, an author who uses this literary technique is Richard Connell in one of his most well-known short stories, “The Most Dangerous Game”.

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441 Words | 2 Pages

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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What would you do if everything that you did in your life came out just like you wanted it to? However, life does not work like that due to something called irony. O. Henry's short story “The Ransom of Red Chief” is a high level of comedy that uses irony and allusions to convey the idea that sometimes things don't come out like we expect them to.

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Unexpected surprises are usually a good thing, but sometimes they are not. Many authors enjoy using situational irony to surprise their readers. Not only does it astonish their readers it can also create other emotions. In particular, Guy de Maupassant uses situational irony to make his readers feel justice to the main character in his short story “The Necklace.” Also, O.Henry uses situational irony to form humor in his short story “The Ransom of Redchief.”

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By looking at both of these stories, we can imply that authors can adopt situational irony to surprise the reader. The boy should be scared, but instead, Red Chief is very happy to be abducted in “Ransom Of Redchief” by O. Henry. He is having the time of his life living in a cave and toying with Bill, constantly wanting him to play indians with him. “Yes sir, that boy seemed to be having the time of his life” (40) said Old Hank.

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A final example of situational irony is when “Red Chief’s” father responds to the ransom note. The reader expects that the father will be willing to pay anything to get his son back. We would think that he is worried, anxious, and upset for his child.

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To clarify, when reading the note sent by Ebenezer, Sam recites, “ I think you are a little high in your demands…you bring Johnny home and pay me two-hundred fifty dollars and I agree to take him off your hands”(Henry 9). Ebenezer’s response letter containing a ransom contains irony because the men originally sent a ransom to Ebenezer. Evidently, Henry uniquely uses irony in the form of ransoms like to irritation. As can be seen, the use of irony depicted through the irritation the men face creates humor and develops the theme. Furthermore, when talking to Sam about being left alone with Red Chief, Bill explains,” I never lost my nerve yet till we kidnapped that two-legged skyrocket of a kid” (Henry 5).

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Edgar Allan Poe creates horror and suspense in his use of irony -including verbal irony, situational irony, and dramatic irony-in his short story “ The Tell-Tale Heart”. Verbal irony is when something that is said means the opposite of what is meant. Poe uses verbal irony when he states, “ I loved the old man.” Situational irony is similar. It is defined as when what happens is different from or even the opposite of what we expected.

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Dramatic irony is usually an over the top, tragic form of irony. Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of an ironic situation. Every expresses the common theme in their own way. Although both of these literally pieces provide us with the theme of irony, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives the reader a sense of suspense with the irony that proves to be more effective. Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" emphasizes on how a man’s thoughts and perception can affect oneself and other’s lives.

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O.Henry is a mastermind behind his use of irony as he was using his irony to entertain the reader throughout the story. He was also using humor, and mainly using Johnny, and his actions to entertain and make the reader laugh. O.Henry was also using the perfect combination of words to paint a picture in the reader's head which definitely helped me understand the plot line much better. O.Henry's funny writing style definitely had showed itself in many great ways in his short story The Ransom of Red

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516 Words | 3 Pages

Henry uses situational irony to convey his theme in the story “The Ransom of Red Chief”. Two thieves change from wanting to hold a kidnapped boy for ransom to instead giving the boy back to his father, along with $250.00. They quickly realize that the boy, nicknamed “Red Chief”, is not who they expect him to be, and their whole kidnapping scheme consequently does not go as planned. Eventually, Bill Driscoll, one of the thieves, begs to let the boy go back home even though they have to pay the boy’s father $250.00. Bill says, “You ain’t going to let this chance go, are you?”

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1217 Words | 5 Pages

O. Henry’s unique style is shown in his work. A style O. Henry writes with is situational irony. Situational irony is when there is a surprise, or the story has a plot twist. In the story, The Gift of the Magi, Della

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