What is the moral lesson in The Ransom of Red Chief?
What is the moral lesson in The Ransom of Red Chief?
The moral of the story is that one should never underestimate the power of one’s opponent.
What is the symbolism in The Ransom of Red Chief?
The boy who calls himself the Red Chief is shown to be mischievous. The Red Chief is a symbol of a mischievous and angry leader of pain, who is widely known as the devil. Just as how the devil “sticks” around, the Red Chief wouldn’t leave until Sam and Bill “payed the price”.
What are the major plot points from The Ransom of Red Chief?
The Ransom of Red Chief Summary Bill and Sam, two petty criminals looking for an easy two thousand dollars, hatch a plot to kidnap and hold for ransom Johnny, the 10-year-old son of Ebenezer Dorset, a wealthy pillar of the community. They pick up the boy and take him to a cave hideout, but there the tables are turned.
What is the summary of The Ransom of Red Chief?
It follows two men who kidnap, and demand a ransom for, a wealthy Alabamian’s son. Eventually, the men are driven crazy by the boy’s spoiled and hyperactive behavior, and they pay the boy’s father to take him back.
Why did the father’s response surprise the kidnappers?
The father’s response surprises the kidnappers because they expect him to love his child and want him back. In fact, the kidnappers rely on this for their scheme to earn money: Bill, the more battered between the pair, hastens to bring back the child and pay the ransom to the father.
Who is Red Chief?
Red Chief, as Johnny Dorset likes to call himself, is the freckle-faced ten-year-old son of Ebenezer Dorset, one of the wealthiest men in Summit, Alabama. Red Chief is an apt nickname because he has bright red hair, and immediately becomes the “chief” over the two petty criminals who kidnap him.
What is the climax of the ransom of the Red Chief?
The climax, or the place in the story immediately preceding the resolution of the conflict when the tension is at its highest level, occurs when it becomes apparent that, not only will Bill and Sam not receive the ransom they have demanded, but that they will actually have to pay Johnny’s father to take him back.
Why did Bill ask Sam for a gun?
Why did Bill ask Sam for a gun? At the same time he feels he needs to warn him because they never know what the boy might be planning to do next. That is why he asks, in a semi-humorous fashion, whether Bill has any heart disease in his family. He thinks Bill might have a fatal reaction to the shock.
What is the climax of the Red Chief?
How did Bill and Sam finally get rid of Red Chief?
Bill and Sam finally get rid of Red Chief by paying his father to take them off their hands. This is ironic, to say the least, as the two hapless kidnappers had hoped that little Johnny’s father would pay them a ransom for returning their son.
What is Red Chief’s real name?
To entertain him, they play a running game of cowboys and Indians, of which Johnny goes by the name of “Red Chief.” Bill Driscoll, one of the kidnappers, allows himself to be called “Old Hank, the trapper, Red Chief’s captive,” who is supposed to be scalped at daybreak.
How did the kidnappers finally get rid of the boy?