pkohls,
Contrast and incongruity are some of the hallmarks of O. Henry. While his stories may be lighthearted comedies, the stories expose some truth about the harshness and unexpectedness of life. This can be found in "The Ransom of Red Chief."
When the narrator first sees the kid, who is “throwing rocks at a kitten” (it’s a kitten, not a cat, which makes it even more horrible), and who responds to Bill’s question by hitting
him “neatly in the eye with a piece of brick," uniquely contrasts Red Chief's behavior with his expected behavior of innocence, naivete, and sensitivity.
The description of the town, which is somewhat confusing as to the correct definitions of a flannel-cake and a Maypole exhibits a contrast in not just individuality but for all people in the
"...town down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course. It contained inhabitants of as undeleterious and self-satisfied a class of peasantry as ever clustered around a Maypole."
exhibits a kind of group contrast or incongruity between what they identify as their town in its name and its type of inhabitants as well. This is reminiscent of "Sleepy Hollow" in an incredibly bustling Jacksonian world of trade and commerce.
Even O. Henry’s notions about Native Americans are less striking than are his revelations about the unappealing group of white characters in the story.
In the third paragraph the narrator speaks of his and Bill’s “joint capital.” The two conspirators talk easily about their plan just as though it were a respectable business—as though, say, they were talking about how great a mark-up they should put on their product. Should they demand $2,000, or should they lower the price to $1,500 (paragraph 49)?
The boy’s father, in his letter, offers “a counter-proposition”: He will take the boy off their hands if they pay him $250. O. Henry suggests that our world of buying and selling is all part of one big con game, an incongruity with our capitalist society.
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