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Use Of Irony In The Ransom Of Red Chief

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Many different authors have different styles of writing that they use. Styles can vary to an evil, dark story, to a very humorous and funny story. O.Henry's style is very humorous and he is a master of picking when to use irony inside of his short stories. O.Henry's use of irony to entertain the reader, has humorous statements throughout the story, and his use of descriptive language and imagery to better understand the plot line is excellent in The Ransom of Red Chief. The first literary element that O.Henry uses is irony. In this story there are two captors named Bill and Sam who try to pull the ransom on Ebenezer Dorset the father of Johnny, the child who they want to kidnap. As the two captors lure Johnny in and take him to the cave, Johnny is loving it and starts humiliating Bill by throwing hot potatoes down his back, kicking his shins, and trying to scalp him. After Sam and Bill are done with Johnny and they send a letter back to Ebenezer Dorset asking him to take Johnny back. Usually the general mindset of someone being kidnapped is scared and frightful, but Johnny was bullying the captors and the captors were being annoyed by Johnny. In this situation it was the Johnny's time of his life and torture for Bill and Sam. The second element that O.Henry uses is his great humor throughout the …show more content…

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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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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