In O Henry's short stories, The Gift of Magi, After Twenty Years, and The Ransom of Red Chief, there are many commonalities throughout the texts. Among the many commonalities, one of the strongest was that all of them ended with a plot twist. This writing pattern of O Henry’s can be seen in The Gift of Magi when Della and Jim were exchanging Christmas gifts, but it definitely was a surprise for them when they saw what the other had gotten them. The pattern can also be witnessed in After Twenty Years when you find that Bob’s success didn't come from a regular job, and Bob and Jimmy’s reconnection after twenty years apart didn't go as planned. A final story where this pattern can be witnessed is in The Ransom of Red Chief, where the kidnapping …show more content…
The Ransom of Red Chief is the story of two men who wanted to take part in a money scheme, but only had six hundred of the needed two thousand dollars. They needed the money fast and the quickest way to get the money in their mind was to kidnap the child of a wealthy man and agree to return the child for two thousand dollars. The plan that sounded so magnificent for them was put into place immediately. They brought the boy back to the cave to hold him theirs, expecting his family to come looking for them. At that point in the story O Henry wants the reader to believe that the story will end in the way they expect: the boy returns home, the father gives them all of the money the demanded, and their money scheme goes as planned. But, O Henry’s plot twist pattern was put into action and the story didn't end as expected. What yen happened was the kidnappers realized that kidnaping that boy was a horrific mistake. The boy hurt them and basically drove them so crazy that they offered to pay the boy's father five hundred dollars to simply take him back. The surprise ending of The Ransom of Red Chief is another example of a story written by O Henry that ended with a plot
There are many different types of heroism that exist among the heroes of past and present. Heroism usually is thought of as battling and triumphing over an obstacle, or conquest of a fair-maiden’s love. But notice what this passage from the Mahabharata says about “The True Hero.”
Officially credited with 80 air combat victories, 26 year old Manfred von Richthofen (“The Red Baron”) was not only Germany’s greatest Ace, but the greatest Ace of World War 2. Despite the fact that he was killed nearly 100 years ago on 21 April 1918, the question still remains: Who killed Manfred von Richthofen? While the kill was credited to be the work of Captain Roy Brown, a Canadian pilot, there are reasons to believe that the Baron was killed at the hands of a different soldier. Sergeant Cedric Popkin, of the 24th Australian Machine Gun Company is the man who was most likely to have shot his plane down. Not only was Cedric within the range the bullet was shot from, but bullet trajectory and evidence from the official autopsy comes
When the topic of slavery is brought up, it is usually assumed we are talking about the thirteen million Africans who were captured, transported and enslaved in the Americas but that is not necessarily true. The history of American slavery began long before this. Native American slavery has traditionally been treated as a secondary matter when compared to the African slave trade. Indians were enslaved in large numbers and forced to labor as slaves or in other forms of servitude. They would do many different tasks ranging from working on a plantation to working in mines to working like a slave in domestic settings. Native Americans were used as slaves for as long as they could but until the number of European immigrants began to rise at an alarming rate. The arrival of Europeans and their disease and tools for war caused a drastic drop in the number of Native Americans as a whole, thus creating the
This creates a twist in the plot, making readers discover the true meaning and thinking back to all they had read. Oedipus is told that he has fulfilled his fate and discovering his true identity in the middle of the play, and Mrs. Hutchinson discovers her fate in the middle of the short story as well. This encompasses the full knowledge of the detriments to come. Overall, both dramatizing pieces encompass unknown suspicions that are already evident within communities but not apparent to the readers, yet they are gradually revealed. This creates a captivating plot and accomplishes the goals of the writers – to compel readers to uncover the brutal yet enthralling
The book Redcoats and Rebels is written by Christopher Hibbert, a British author. The main idea and subject of the book is the American Revolution through the British standpoint. He wrote this book to inform the audience of the American War of Independence while simultaneously incorporating interesting new material. He also wrote this book directed to the general reader, but also hopes the student audience will find this book useful.
Hidden subjects, the corruption of innocence, gender, and the destructiveness of heroism, can all be argued to be the main theme of The Turn of The Screw but only one can really bring the truest theme out of the story by Henry James. Many argue that there is no theme, or more than one but I believe that Forbidden subjects is truly the source that really captures what the story is all about. We can easily come to this conclusion by looking at the items in the story and piecing them together. For example, the young male child named Miles suddenly gets kicked out of school, but the reason for the expulsion is never uncovered. As the story continues, there are more questions and mysteries that never become revealed, which I believe is the entire purpose as to why James wrote this; to simply leave us puzzled as a crossword. Yes, the other themes are well organized and presentable, but they are not the underlying theme that James is trying to convey. James skillfully incites the reader’s anxieties by arousing the psychological mechanisms of the horror of the unknown. Without the forbidden objects in the story, it would just be another ghost tale with no mystery. That is why I firmly believe that hidden objects and solving mysteries are the main and most important theme to Henry James’s “The Turn of The Screw”.
Frederick Douglas’s 1852 short story, “The Heroic Slave”, was loosely based the true story of a slave rebellion that occurred on the American ship named Creole. Divided into four parts, the plot of this story follows a slave named Madison Washington, who would eventually be the leader of the story. At the start of the short story, a “northern traveller” named Mr. Listwell saw and overheard Washington in a field. As Mr. Listwell observes him, Washington is performing a soliloquy, in which he verbalizes his wishes of gaining freedom (Douglass 174-182). In part two, Washington acts upon his grievances and finally escapes from bondage. Coincidentally, he arrives at the home of the same traveller who eavesdropped
Are there many ways that themes and symbols can be shown in stories? Geoffrey Chaucer uses many different themes, symbols and styles in writing all of tales in The Canterbury Tales. By using these things, Geoffrey utilizes several specific symbols to illustrate various central themes. The characters in the tales make the same mistakes that ordinary people would make, and they receive the same or even worse consequences. One message that is portrayed is greed can make people to evil actions. An example of this is in "The Pardoner's Tale," when the three friends wind up killing each other because of their greed for the money. The second message that is displayed is that one should be careful when meeting strangers and to be cautious of the sincerity of false flattery from those that one does not know. For example, in "The Nun's Priest's Tale," Chanticleer falls for false flattery from Sir Russell Fox, but then he gets even with him when he to uses it to trick Sir Russell Fox. The third and last message that is shown is that reformation in a person can occur because of some type of punishment. This theme occurs in " The Wife of Bath," in that the lady that the knight has to marry is old and ugly, but because of this punishment of having to marry her, he eventually starts to like her. As shown with the three friends in "The Pardoner's Tale", greed stabs friends in the back and deceives them into doing wrong. There are two occasions in which the three friends plot against each other so one may receive more money than the others may. First of all, the three friends find a collection of gold coins under a tree, which they decide should be theirs and they choose to try to take it. They realize ...
We recommend that you stop reading the book at the end of Henry's story (p. 86). You won't want to, because the ending is very bleak and you will be looking for some respite from the story, something to encourage you. Unfortunately, the final part of the book consists of H.L. Roush's theological reflections on the story, and for the most part they aren't edifying. Best to think through the story yourself, perhaps even read it to your children, and together as a family consider what went wrong for Henry, how he might have avoided the downward spiral, and what lessons can be applied to your own circumstances.
“What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie gives readers a look at the life of homeless, easygoing, middle aged Native American, Jackson Jackson. The story, which is set in Seattle, describes the conditions that Jackson finds himself in. Alexie’s choice of motifs emphasizes the significance of cultural and historical references. With these concepts in mind, the reader is taken through a journey of self-realization. “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” narrates the internal struggle Jackson feels trying to figure out his personal identity as a Native American. The story chronicles situations that illustrate the common stereotypes about Natives. Through Jackson’s humble personality, the reader can grasp his
In much of The Things They Carried, stories are retold time and time again. One reason for this is the idea of keeping a story’s story-truth alive. In “Good Form,” O’Brien differentiates what he calls story-truth from happening-truth. Story-truth seems to give us a better understanding of O’Brien’s sentiment in a particular story even though the story itself may not be true at all. On the other hand, happening-truth is what actually happened in the story, but may not contain as much emotional authenticity as story-truth. According to O’Brien, story-truth is therefore truer than happening-truth. Relating back to storytelling, O’Brien retells stories continuously to maintain their sentiment and emotional value. Without this continuous repetition, this sentiment fades away and the emotional value of the story is lost.
Simply put, Blue Girls is about beauty. The poem focuses on the realization and truthfulness that beauty undoubtedly fades. The speaker appeals to young girls, warning them to not put all their hope in their beauty, but to still utilize it before it diminishes.
One of many short stories that would be classified as a mystery is O.Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”. As stated before a mystery will always keep readers questioning what will happen next. Considering this, it becomes evident that “The Gift of the Magi” is a mystery. In O.Henry’s short story, there was a married couple who had no money to buy gifts for the holiday. Because the wife, Della, really wanted to buy her husband, Jim, a band for his watch she had all of her beautiful, precious hair cut off so she could get enough money to buy it. The mystery kicks in when Jim sees her hair and he became “as quiet as a hunting dog when it is near a bird. His eyes looked strangely at Della, and there was an expression in them she could not read …” and Della says ‘“My hair
...ocuses on their climb up the mob ladder. Henry goes through a lot of significant changes within the movie such as the changes of a human trying to adapt to his environment. Starting out from small crimes and growing to eventually dealing drugs and numerous other crimes. His boss from the mob named Paul and also Tommy and Jimmy helped guide Henry through problems making sure he made no mistakes and could adapt to his surroundings acting as his institution. Guiding him throughout the movie but also dealing with the conflicts when Henry would learn of new ways to make money through crime and manipulation. This acting as the conflict between human nature and institutional demand in that no matter what institutions do to try to prevent mistakes or unpredictable behavior, human nature will always continue to evolve and need more help in order to adapt to new environments.
This story does not have a surprise ending nor does is really have a sense of