Use Of Irony In Ransom Of The Red Chief

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The village called the summit was as smooth as a pancake even though it was in the mountains. The two men were sitting and pondering while looking at the village thinking of opportunity. In the short story, “Ransom of the Red Chief”, by O. Henry, two desperate men are looking to get a quick sum of cash to pay off debts. Bill Driscoll and Sam come up with a plan to kidnap the son of Ebenezer Dorset, a prominent citizen of a town called Summit. Ebenezer’s son was a peculiar ten-year-old child that would prove more of a challenge than the two criminals could ever imagine. Bill and Sam hope for the father to miss his son and hope he will immediately pay the ransom in a large amount of cash. The son unexpectedly loves the time with the two criminals …show more content…

As Henry’s story progresses, Bill and Sam’s agitation with the child continues to grow. Bill and Sam finally have enough of the child and eventually pay the father and then proceed to run away as fast as they can to get away from the child. During the duration of the story, Henry uses irony and hyperbole to create humor throughout the story. Irony is used to create humor in the story. Irony is being used when the son of Ebenezer does not want to leave. The son thinks it is a camping trip and not a hostage situation. Bill says to Sam, “You don’t think he’ll run away, do you Sam’ ‘No fear of it’” (Henry 74). Sam knows the son is having too much fun which is irony in and of itself. This is irony because usually when a kidnapping is in occurrence, the criminals do not let the hostage out of their sight. Bill and Sam do let the son run wild. This creates humor because fun is not expected when a kidnapping is taking place. This creates more humor because they are doing the opposite than what is expected. When Bill and Sam ask for the ransom for the child, they start getting aggravated with the child. This creates more irony because Bill and Sam are supposed to be annoying to the son, but the son annoys Bill and Sam.

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