Text Analysis

The Kind of Ransom of Red Chief the Boy Who Was a Pest

Author's Note- This is a piece about a small paragraph from a scene in the short story "The Ransom of Red Chief."  I chose this scene with two other members who are also writing about this scene.  I am working on body paragraphs and idea application.

"But we're dealing with humans, and it ain't human for anybody to give up two thousand dollars for that forty-pound chunk of freckled wildcat.  I'm willing to take a chance at fifteen hundred dollars.  You can charge the difference up to me."  This quote that Bill said to Sam in the short story "The Ransom of Red Chief" symbolizes a boy who is on the verge of craziness.  At one point the boy even threatened the kidnappers that he was going to scalp them and light them on fire the morning after they kidnapped him.  The thought out plan came back to bite them later.

When Bill and Sam stole the kid who called himself "Red Chief," they never thought of the craziness and insanity of a boy.  When they got "Red Chief" to go with them and hop in their van, they urged him with candy.  When "Red Chief" heard this he threw a brick at them, but accepted, they noticed he was hyper and in his own world.  I believe this is foreshadowing telling them he will ware them out.  Plus the boy didn't want to stay home, this was an immediate red flag for me telling me that even if they did get money for him it wouldn't be much or at least not as much as they expected.  As the story went on, another quote told me what they thought they would get.  But based on the boys experience, they should have thought more carefully.

The idea was well thought out, for a day, but when Sam was about to write the note and ask for $2000 for the kid to return home safely, Bill begged Sam to lower the ransom.  This is also foreshadowing that the ransom could drop more if they feel insecure about the price.  They thought the father would want his son back, and boy were they wrong.  The father sent a note back saying he would take the boy for $200 dollars in return.  After thinking about it they finally gave up.  The boy is a pest that is way to hyper and insane.  To add to their abuse from a young boy just wait what they do to get him back to the house.

After a backfire decision, they bribe the "Chief."  With a "so-called" silver mounted rifle and a pair of moccasins.  If he is such a pain in your side that you have to bribe him to get him to leave, it is obvious that the father knew what he was doing.  The kidnappers had no idea what they got themselves into.  It reminds me of a character in a story where he did not know what he would get himself into, but in the end he pays a price not expected.

"The Glorious Whitewasher" is an excerpt from the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.  In the excerpt there is a boy named Tom that is washing a fence with the whitewasher water when a boy named Jim comes along.  Jim has been sent to give extra water to Tom when Tom convinces Jim to wash for him while Tom gets water.  Jim gets caught for doing the work and gets beaten by Aunt Polly who told Jim what to do.  Jim thought he was doing good for washing the fence but gets in trouble.  Kind of like Bill and Sam but only they knew that they would get in trouble if what they were doing didn't work.

The foreshadowing in the story gave most of it away.  If you read in detail throughout the story you can imagine what the ending will be like.  The symbolism to me meant that you need to think carefully about decisions and go the extra mile before you decide and it ends up biting you later.