It is common knowledge that a book is always better than its movie version. This is especially true with the short story, “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry. He writes this story in an enjoyable way, with realistic events, an understandable plot and, overall it is more organized compared to its movie version. O. Henry’s story involves a young boy who gets kidnapped in Summit, Alabama by two con men, who are looking for some cash. The two con men, knowing that this boy is the son of a wealthy man, decide to kidnap and hold him for two thousand dollars ransom. After spending a few days with the boy, they come to regret their decision, because the boy is annoying, impudent and violent. They lower the ransom to fifteen hundred dollars, hoping …show more content…
The con men agreed due to all the trouble the daring little boy had given them, and proceed to get as far away from Summit as possible. However, in the film, two con men buy a beef steak mine that turns out to be worthless. After spending some time in the town they learn that the wealthiest man in the town has a son named Andy Dorset. Bill- one of the con men, thinks to kidnap him and hold him for ransom. After trying to kidnap the boy by force, and failing, they decide to convince him to go with them. Andy is obnoxious at first but as the movie progresses, the boy and the two con men build a stronger relationship. They decide to hold him for forty seven dollars and fifty cents ransom. After the long process of getting the letter delivered, Mr. Dorset receives it and is led to believe that his son is trying to to prank him. His response is asking the con men to bring Andy back at night and pay him two hundred and fifty dollars. Shortly after sending it, he learns that there are two killers on the loose, Filthy McNasty and Strange …show more content…
Henry is organized with his writing in the “The Ransom of Red Chief”. His surprise twist is placed so perfectly into the story that it seems logical, and throughout the story he drops subtle hints, indicating what may happen in the end. For example, Bill starts questioning after almost being scalped, “Do you think anybody will pay out money to get a little imp like that back home?” (p.55) Bill doubts if they will profit from this proposition and begins to wonder if it was worth it. Bill’s growing doubt and hatred for the kid causes him to convince Sam to lower their demands. When receiving the counter proposal from Mr. dorset, Bill leaped at the opportunity of leaving the kid. Bill said, “Sam, what’s two hundred dollars after all? We’ve got the money. One more night of this kid will send me to a bed in Bedlam.”(p.61) Bill is quick to talk Sam into returning the boy and owing Mr. dorset two hundred and fifty dollars. Commentary from Bill shows that he would do anything to get rid of Red Chief and if that means losing two hundred and fifty dollars, so be it . Every event in the story happened for a reason. Every detail is organized and arranged to form one outcome. In the film, the plot is disoriented and disorganized. Many events in the movie have no significance, such as their maid cooking a cat. Added characters and unimportant events contributed to the disorganization of the film’s
In the Movie, “Ransom of Red Chief”, and in the book, there are some similarities and some differences. The first difference was Red Chief, or better known as Johnny. In the movie he was a small, blonde headed little boy, but in the story he was a small, red headed little boy with a bunch of freckles. In addition to that in the movie the kidnappers, bill and Sam, took red chief to the woods and set up camp, but in the book it states that they, bill, Sam, and red chief, slept in a cave and camped there. Last but not least was red chief. In the movie red chief also stole bill and Sam’s car and he also put a snake in bill’s bed, but in the story he did neither of those things.
Sherman Alexie writes in his story, What You Pawn I Will Redeem about a homeless Salish Indian named Jackson Jackson. Alexie takes readers on Jackson’s journey to acquire enough money to purchase back his grandmother’s stolen powwow regalia. Throughout the story, Jackson’s relationships with other charters ultimately define his own character. Alexie, a well know Native American author tells an all too common tale of poverty and substance abuse in the Native American community through his character Jackson. The major character flaw of Jackson is his kindness, which ultimately becomes his greatest asset when fate allows him to purchase back his grandmother’s powwow regalia from a pawn broker for only five dollars.
At the beginning of each of the tales both Odysseus and Huck are being held against their will, they manage to escape their initial surroundings but end up getting trapped again later on. As previously mentioned, at the beginning of Odysseus’s tale he is being held captive by Calypso on her Isle because she wants to make him her husband, and although this scene is highly comparable to Pap holding Huck captive on an island for money, it can also be compared to the beginning of Huck’s tale when he is living with Widow Douglas. 2She took me in for a son, and allowed she would civilize me.” (Twain, Page 1.) The two women that are holding the heroes hostage have similar reasoning’s behind them and both would be huge lifestyle changes for the characters, Calypso wants to marry Odysseus and in a similar way Widow Douglas wants to tie Huck down and civilize him. Just as Odysseus shows his yearning for freedom to Hermes, Huck shows his wish to escape and his longing for freedom when he says “when I couldn’t stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.” (Twain, page 1.)
Harper Lee takes inspiration for her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, from her own life experiences. The story tells about the lives of Jean Louise Finch and Jem Finch, the two children of a talented lawyer, who introduces them to racism and bigotry at a very young age. The Tom Robinson trial, similar to the Scottsboro trial, causes Jem and Scout to recognize the distinctly different types of people living in Maycomb. Man’s inhumanity to man compels Harper Lee to uncover the shameful acts of society; these injustices, especially those of the Tom Robinson trial, open Scout and Jem’s eyes to the defective perspectives held by society; reading To Kill A Mockingbird, leads me to wonder how far our society has truly come.
Henry Starr was a real man, in the real Old West. He wrote his life story while in prison in a book called Thrilling Events. Although the book I read is based on a true man, some of the events are exaggerated, or retold differently then the actual event.
According to many experts of both history and literature, Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero is used to describe many protagonists in both American and world literature. There are many aspects to Aristotle’s definition, and each idea helps to explain the structure, purpose, and intended effect of tragedy. Many of Aristotle’s ideas can apply to multiple characters in The Crucible. Although Proctor unarguably represents the tragic hero of this novel, Reverend Hale’s story fits surprisingly well with the criteria that Aristotle believes to define a tragic hero. Hale is a character of noble stature, suffers with his tragic flaw of arrogance, yet has a reversal of fortune that is not fully deserved and not fully
Kelly had us watching this man for the past month, what time he leaves his house, to what time he gets to his house. We had to know what time he went to bed to what time he was mostly alone in his mansion. His name was Charles Urschel, wealthy tycoon and businessman but to us he was just a way to get money. James Connor and I accompanied Kelly when he plotted to raid the wealthy man’s home and kidnap him for ransom money. It was a very still calm night, light breeze. It was as if I could sense the nervousness on my partners face but for Kelly I saw nothing. Just the cold, hard, terrifying look that was always on Kelly’s face unless he was with his wife. We waited...
To begin with, after sending a ransom note, the two men get a return message back from the father of the boy, stating that he will gladly take the boy from the men if they pay him 250 dollars. In his note, the father writes that if “you bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. You had better come at night, for the neighbours believe he is lost, and I couldn’t be responsible for what they would do to anybody they saw bringing him back” (TRORC, pg. 14, par. 3). This is contrary to what the men originally want, as they are expecting payment, rather than having to pay the father of the boy. They were originally sure that they could get easy money out of the deal. They believe all of this based on the fact that the father, and not on the boy himself. In addition to getting a return message that dashes their hopes of getting easy money, the two men decide to return the boy and pay the 250 dollars, contrary to their original plan. After receiving the note, Sam, the other kidnapper, is angry at first, but his accomplice Bill says, “What’s two hundred and fifty dollars, after all? We’ve got the money. One more night of this kid will send me to a bed in Bedlam. Besides being a thorough gentleman, I think Mr. Dorset is a spendthrift for making us such a liberal offer. You ain’t going to let the chance go, are you?” (TRORC, pg. 15, par. 2). Sam eventually agrees with Bill, and they both return the boy and pay the 250 dollars. Their plan to make easy money has failed due to the fact they went on the original appearance of the boy and his father, and not the actual temperament of the boy. Along with returning the boy and paying 250 dollars, the two men make a very quick get away. Sam comments
Huck Finn learns from the actions of people around him, what kind of a person he is going to be. He is both part of the society and an outlier of society, and as such he is given the opportunity to make his own decisions about what is right and what is wrong. There are two main groups of characters that help Huck on his journey to moral maturation. The first group consists of Widow Douglas, Miss Watson, and the judge. They portray society and strict adherence to rules laid out by authority. The second group consists of Pap, the King, and the Duke. They represent outliers of society who have chosen to alienate themselves from civilized life and follow no rules. While these characters all extremely important in Huck’s moral development, perhaps the most significant character is Jim, who is both a fatherly figure to Huck as well as his parallel as far as limited power and desire to escape. Even though by the end of the novel, Huck still does not want to be a part of society, he has made a many choices for himself concerning morality. Because Huck is allowed to live a civilized life with the Widow Douglas, he is not alienated like his father, who effectively hates civilization because he cannot be a part of it. He is not treated like a total outsider and does not feel ignorant or left behind. On the other hand, because he does not start out being a true member of the society, he is able to think for himself and dismiss the rules authority figures say are correct. By the end of the novel, Huck is no longer a slave to the rules of authority, nor is he an ignorant outsider who looks out only for himself. This shows Huck’s moral and psychological development, rendering the description of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” as a picaresq...
“The Hound of the Baskervilles” demonstrated the differences between the upper class and the lower class and even between those people who were in the same class as each others at the end of the 19th century in England. Beside those differences, there were also some similarities between the two classes. In this essay, I will analyse how they are alike and different in some main aspects such as the belief in the curse, the relationship to the law, their mysterious actions, and especially the subjugation between people in the same class.
The success of “The Briefcase” is based on a reader’s ability to forego detailed description for the thrill
In the beginning I was confused on why he was having flashbacks of the whipping. When he goes in town and hears the whips snapping, brings back bad memories of what the three men done to him. Then he tries to sleep and dreams about being beat with whips and wakes up in a cold sweat. He sees the marshal telling the town people as they stood back and watched. That he would see them in hell. I think if the author may use 1st person, which it was to symbolize the superiority of The Nameless Character of Clint Eastwood who was really Marshall Jim Duncan. He had come back to punish the town for what they had done, or what they should have done. He tells the town that they don’t need him and they can fight the brothers off by themselves. He gives them the guns and strategy to do it, but they insist that they need him. Eastwood gives those three times to get rid of him and let him be, but the town keeps pestering him. Then the town makes a grave mistake. They make a deal to give him ANYTHING that he wants. Who else would you make a deal like that with, none other tha...
This is an odd little book, but a very important one nonetheless. The story it tells is something like an extended parablethe style is plain, the characters are nearly stick figures, the story itself is contrived. And yet ... and yet, the story is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking because the historical trend it describes is powerful, distressing, even heartbreaking.
The life of O. Henry ties in very closely with the narrative The Ransom of Red Chief.
While hundreds, even thousands of excellent movies have been made over the years since motion pictures were invented, there are some movies that stand out among the best. There are various reasons for these standouts, sometimes incredible acting, sometimes impeccable story lines, but in many cases, it is the issues addressed by the movie. Most of the greatest movies contain commentaries or analyses of certain issues, be they moral, social, or otherwise. John McTiernan directed one of these films, The Hunt for Red October, based on the similarly titled best-selling novel by Tom Clancy. The Hunt for Red October, a product of the anti-communist attitudes of the 1980’s, is above all a commentary on morality. It follows a critical moral decision made by one man, Soviet Captain Marko Ramius, portrayed by Sean Connery, and follows the consequences of that moral decision to their conclusion. While this is not the only instance of morality being questioned in this movie, it is the most important, as it is the decision upon which the story is based. Other characters, like Alec Baldwin’s character of Jack Ryan, and Scott Glenn’s character Captain Bart Mancuso also have to make moral decisions that will have important effects on Ramius’ decision.