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Q&A
Roland Barthes, a literary critic, wrote that “Literature is the question minus the answer.”
All forms of literature cause one to think about questions ranging from simple moral questions to
deeper, intrinsic questions of character. While one may think literature offers the answers to
these questions, it actually is forcing one to come up with an answer. Perhaps the form of
literature which produces the most thought from the reader is short story format. Short stories,
due to their length, have to pose questions within the bounds of a few pages. As a result, the
questions asked demand the reader to truly find his own answer. For example, The Spy by Bertolt
Brecht and The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry offer insightful questions without definitive
answers within their short page spans. These stories, and literature in general, pose questions in
order for the reader to come up with an answer--an answer which ends up being more important
than the question itself because it is the answer that leaves lasting effects on the reader.
Brecht sets up The Spy in Nazi Germany with a man, his wife, and their son. During a
conversation, which hints at disapproval of current leadership in Germany, the Boy, a Hitler
Youth, disappears. This sends the Man and the Wife into a frenzy. At first, the Man only sees his
comments as a parenting strategy, because “Neither in the old days nor now did I [he] wish to
have my [his] son’s imagination perverted” (Brecht 1224). At this point, the Man begins to
question his own parenting skills. Upon being verbally prodded by the Wife that their son,
realistically, could turn them in to the Nazi’s, the Man realizes “Everyone’s suspect. Once the
suspicion there, one’s subject” (Brecht 1227), which is when he begins to become increasingly
paranoid. In the end, the Boy returns and, seeing his parents awfully worried, inquires “What’s
the matter with you people?” (Brecht 1229), implying his parents’ worries seem far-fetched and
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strange. The Boy explains that he had just gone to the store to get chocolate, yet it is apparent
that the Man and the Wife are still in disbelief when the man asks his wife if “you [she] suppose
he’s telling the truth?” (Brecht 1229).
The reader, upon finding that the Boy had just returned from the store, may originally see
the Man and the Wife as being overly cautious. However, when the time period and
circumstances are considered, it may cause him to examine just how much control authority
figures have over his own life and if his loyalty is first to the law or to family. Furthermore, the
reader may question as to how realistic it is to be betrayed by family members, especially adults
by children. This examination of betrayal of authority by the reader may cause him to question
the level of trust in his own relationships, platonic and otherwise. If the reader is a parent, it may
cause him to question his worries about his own children’s behavior. However, the answers to
these questions will not be found within the text but only upon the personal evaluation of the
reader. The answers to the questions offered by the text may in turn lead the reader to make
changes in their own lives, eg. becoming a more trustworthy person or putting more/less trust
into his children. Thus, the answers the reader comes to end up being more important than the
questions because the answers impact his life.
The Ransom of Red Chief, similar to The Spy, poses a variety of questions about personal
behaviors in relation to others. The story starts when two men develop a scheme to kidnap the
son of a prominent man and set a ransom for his return. The boy’s character is first shown when
he is first seen “throwing rocks at a kitten” (Henry 20) and catching one of the kidnappers, Bill,
“neatly in the eye with a piece of brick” (Henry 20), which foreshadows the kidnapper’s plans
turning upside down. The boy, of course, ends up terrorizing the men. Bill, in fact, is so
frightened by the boy that Sam, the other kidnapper, at one point claims to be “worried for his
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[Bill’s] mind” (Henry 24), and now the topic of the important of mental health is on Bill and
Sam’s mind. Originally planning on asking for $2000 in ransom for the child, the men set the
figure to $1,500 not “to decry the celebrated moral aspect of parental affection, but we're
[they’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” (Henry 23); it is at this instant that the reader
begins to see the kidnappers’ plan truly unravel. In the end, the men actually end up paying the
child’s father $250 just to take him back off their hands!
This strange turn of events causes the reader to question his own plans and if he controls
his fate, as well as if humans have a dollar worth and the importance of self-worth to mental
health. Another major concept brought into question is karma: did the kidnappers’ plan fall to
pieces because of the negative connotation behind their original act? The answers that the reader
comes up with may inspire him to change his life such that he does more good deeds or stops
sacrificing mental health for material objects.
The Ransom of Red Chief, like The Spy, also brings up questions of parenting and
personal behavior in relation to others. In The Ransom of Red Chief, the father of the boy knows
that his son is such a troublemaker that even kidnappers would gladly return him. This inclines
the reader to get a sense that the father is not really concerned about his child, but only himself.
Similarly, the Man and the Wife in The Spy, instead of worrying about all the dangerous things
that could have happened to their son due to his disappearance, worried about their own fates had
he turned them in. However, the time period (wartime Nazi Germany) in The Spy may cause the
reader to see the “selfishness” of the Man and the Wife more acceptable than that of the father in
The Ransom of Red Chief upon answering the questions regarding parenting in both stories.
Therefore, the answers still prove to be more important than the questions even when literary
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works are compared in their content.
Literature offers questions without definitive answers, prompting the reader to discover
the answers himself. It’s almost as if the literature knows that the answers to the questions will
vary from person to person, and it is this subjectivity that makes the answers more important.
When answers impact and cause change in the lives of readers, it allows the readers to grow as
people who have new perspectives to offer the world. Questioning and finding answers from
literature helps humans each advance individually, which causes all humans to advance
collectively as a society due to the sharing of new thoughts and ideas--thoughts and ideas that
were the result of answers—answers which keep humanity going.