Saturday, October 20, 2012

What are some of the things that Red Chief does to annoy Bill in "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henri?

Bill Driscoll endures a fair amount of torture at the hands of Johnny Dorset, also known as Red Chief. The abuse begins during the initial capture of Johnny when the boy throws a brick at Bill and hits him in the eye. When Sam is returning the buggy, Bill receives many kicks in the shins from the boy. His non-stop "during-dinner speech" and his ear-splitting war whoops get on Bill's nerves. The boy keeps Bill up for three hours during the night with his play-acting, and in the morning he takes a knife to Bill's hair and almost scalps him. After that, Bill doesn't dare to sleep a wink while Red Chief is in their care. Later, when Sam leaves again, Red Chief terrorizes Bill by putting a hot boiled potato down his back and squashing it against Bill's skin with his foot. When Sam returns, Red Chief is threatening Bill with a huge rock. Although Sam takes the rock away, Red Chief later takes out a sling shot and slings a rock at Bill, hitting him behind the ear. It knocks Bill a little senseless, and he staggers into a pan of hot water and gets scalded. The next day during Sam's absence, Red Chief rides Bill like a "hoss" for miles, and Bill finally abandons the boy, but he reappears. After such abuse, Bill is more than willing to pay the ransom Johnny's father requires. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thomas Jefferson's election in 1800 is sometimes called the Revolution of 1800. Why could it be described in this way?

Thomas Jefferson’s election in 1800 can be called the “Revolution of 1800” because it was the first time in America’s short history that pow...