“The Ransom of the Red Chief” is a short story about how two men that attempted a kidnapping and ended up losing money because of how they carried out they kidnapping. The story may have been a lesson about how people need to plan ahead, but from almost the very beginning of the text, is was quite obvious that the kidnapping was not going to turn out well.
First was when the narrator said that “it seemed like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.” This sentence is spoken by the narrator as he is reflecting on the experience, and from that first sentence, it is already implied that it did not go well. Another good hint about this was how the narrator described the experience as “a moment of temporary mental apparition.” Now, people would only reflect on a decision as a moment of temporary insanity if the idea went very badly. This already sets the idea that the kidnapping did not work.
Another thing was that when they found Johnny, they saw that he was throwing rocks at a cat. Unless this was a common pastime for children when the story took place, one can easily notice that a child throwing rocks at a cat has a messed up idea of right and wrong, and has lots of pent up energy. These two are not really good characteristics for a kidnapping victim, especially once we look at the two main character’s next mistake: The two kidnappers did not bring a rope or any device to bind the child. If they just brought a rope and tied the child up, Bill would not have gone through such torture, which would let the kidnapping go hundreds of times more smoothly then it did
One of the kidnappers next mistake was how they wrote their ransom letter. If the two kidnappers used a more forceful tone while writing the letter, maybe adding phrases that suggested that they could not guarantee the child’s safety or anything that would make the father more desperate or worried about the child, the father would me more likely to pay the ransom. Also, the fact that they signed the letter as “two desperate men” may have given the father the idea that he could use the kidnappers to his advantage. If they signed the letter as just “two men,” that would have made them seem more professional and tougher, thus giving a higher chance of the father paying the ransom.