The Ransom of The Red Chief is a short story about how two men want to earn some money, so they kidnap a boy to get a ransom. The characters in this story include of Sam and Bill, two “criminals”, Johnny, the 10 year old boy who is kidnapped, and Ebenezer, the father of Johnny. I personally think the main theme of the story is to not try to find the easy way to success, or to get money. This is the theme, because when Bill and Sam attempted to earn money by kidnapping a boy, it resulted in getting their plan backfired, as they kidnapped a little rascal who was too much of a pain to keep with them. The story starts off with Bill and Sam kidnapping Johnny, and driving him off to a cave. The two criminals soon begin to learn that Johnny is quite annoying and bratty. Johnny forces they two men, especially Bill, to play games with him. While they play his games, Johnny has a fun time hurting Bill which frustrates Bill. Later on in the story, Sam leaves Johnny with Bill so they can send off a ransom letter to Ebenezer. As Bill endures Johnny , he eventually gets sick of Johnny and sends him back home. When Sam returns from sending off the letter, Bill finds that Johnny had followed him back to the cave. The climax of the story starts when they receive their letter back from Ebenezer offering them a deal. The deal consists of them returning Johnny back to Ebenezer while also paying him 250 dollars to have Johnny off their shoulders. In the end, Johnny is returned and the two men find that their plan had been backfired. I recommend this short story because it is quite funny and has a exciting plot twist and lesson learned.
