The Ransom of Red Chief
An obscure tale of two greedy men and the boy who would be chief.
So Who Wrote It?
 William Sydney Porter wrote it.
 Not listed as the author, you say? True.
 O. Henry, the man we know as the author, used a
Pen Name or nom de plume (Oh, fancy!).
 Why? Wouldn’t you like to know.
Who Was O. Henry?
 Good question, Watson.
 Before he was a writer, O. Henry was:
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A drug store clerk
A ranch hand
A bank teller
A convicted felon
Oh, did I forget to mention that? Apparently, old
Mr. Henry got his hand caught in the bank’s
cookie jar and was convicted of embezzlement.
A Life In Bars Continued…
 No, O. Henry did not spend his life in prison.
 Actually, he made a go of writing while inside.
 Shortly, after getting out of prison, he changed his
name from William Sydney Porter to O. Henry. His
writings earned him the income he needed to
support himself and his daughter.
 From there, he became the writer we know today.
O. Henry: The Write Style
 Everything he wrote was Fiction OR NOT REAL
 His stories were short and usually printed in the weekly
newspaper (You know, that paper thing you run over in
your driveway?)
 His stories generally had surprise endings.
 Now stories with twists are often said to be written in the
“O. Henry style.”
 O. Henry preferred to write:
Adventures, Humorous Tales, Slice-of-Life Tales
O. Henry and Irony
 O. Henry LOVED irony.
 In fact, “The Ransom of Red Chief” is stuffed to the
gills with it.
 There are actually 3 different types of Irony.
 Let’s take a look.
Situational IRONY
◦ Situational: irony involving a situation in which
actions have an effect that is opposite from what was
intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was
expected.
◦ Example:
Dramatic Irony
 Oh, let’s see…JUST ABOUT EVERY HORROR MOVIE
EVER MADE!
Dramatic: irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a
drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by
the characters in the play.
 In other words:
We (the audience) see
the spider, but Frodo
(the character) has no
idea.
Verbal Irony
◦ Verbal: irony in which a person says or writes one
thing and means another, or uses words to convey a
meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning
(e.g., sarcasm).
 Example:
 “Gee, I was hoping I’d
get wet today.”
Literary Terms to Know
 Prediction: In other words, you take clues from your
reading to make an educated guess about upcoming
events.
 It’s like previews at a movie theater. You watch the
preview and then you decide whether you will spend the
money to come back and watch the movie.
 In other words, you predict how good the movie will be.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e2xY0pMz70
 Let’s spend a minute and predict what O. Henry’s story
might be about based on the title.
Prediction Practice
 Go ahead. Predict what happened when the front
door opened and I saw this?
 Look, the skinny on prediction is this: the more
information you gather, the more accurate your
guess will be. It’s all about evidence!
Terms Continued
Pun: the humorous use of a
word that suggests a different
meaning than the literal
meaning.
Example: In this instance,
check out the word, “toad.”
It’s a play on the word, “towed.”
Foreshadowing
 Foreshadowing: to indicate
before something happens.
Example: This scene appears in the
movie, Van Helsing BEFORE he
turns into a werewolf.
Allusion
 Allusion: an implied or indirect reference
especially in literature.
 Example: There was an episode of
this TV show titled, “It’s the Great
Pumpkin,
Sam Winchester.”
Hyperbole
 Hyperbole: an extreme exaggeration.
Simile
 Simile: a phrase that uses the words like or as
to describe someone or something by
comparing it with someone or something else
that is similar.
Her hair glistened in the rain like a
nose hair after a sneeze.
Metaphor
 Metaphor: a word or phrase for one thing that
is used to refer to another thing in order to
show or suggest that they are similar.
Example: He is a charging bull when it comes
to getting things done.
 Example: The car became a prison
of gaseous doom once Jill’s father
finished his snack of dried apricots
and prune juice.
Drawing Connections