“The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry is a short story that is set in a town in Alabama called Summit. It portrays two kidnappers, Bill and Sam, who are trying to make a ransom off of this crime. One day, they notice a young boy throwing rocks at a kitten, and they decide that this is the perfect child to kidnap. They offer him some candy and expect him to get in the buggy with them easily, but, instead, the kid, Johnny throws a brick at Bill and hits him in the eye. When Johnny realizes where they are going, he is extremely excited to go camping and be away from his home, which is the exact opposite of what Bill and Sam expected to happen. Later, they send a letter back to Johnny’s father saying that if he pays Bill and Sam 1,500 dollars, they will return Johnny to him. After they send the letters, they quickly become fed up with Johnny. The father knows how much of a distraction and troublemaker Johnny is, so he realizes the kidnappers probably want to get rid of him. As a result, the dad tells Bill and Sam that if they pay him 250 dollars, they can return Johnny. They agree.
This short story may seem like a typical fun short story for kids, but it holds several important meanings throughout it. One theme that is revealed is, do not try to obtain money from doing wrong actions, but instead earn it from hard work. These two kidnappers were trying to get money from taking advantage of others, but in the end, they had to pay money instead of receiving money. In the real world, kidnapping is a much more significant crime than shown in the short story. People can be sentenced to jail for years, but if they worked hard, they could most likely gain the same amount of these beneficial things they are trying to obtain. If they worked hard, they would not have to face all these consequences.
Another theme that is shown is that once something is becoming a problem, don’t continue trying to keep it for a reward. Most likely, keeping this issue, for example, Johnny is probably not worth the money that comes with him. Even if they were to keep Johnny longer so that they would obtain all the money, they still wouldn’t obtain that money because Johnny’s father is okay with them taking Johnny for a few days. The outcome would probably be the same, but they would have just kept Johnny for longer, making it a hassle to them. Umm… 🙂