The Ransom of Red Chief

Author's Note: This is my response to my quote from the short story "Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry. I have the quote stated first, then the reason why I think it's the most interesting part of the story.


"Red Chief," says I to the kid, "would you like to go home?"
"Aw, what for?" says he. "I don't have any fun at home. I hate to go to school. I like to camp out. You won't take me back home again, Snake-eye, will you?"
"Not right away," says I. "We'll stay here in the cave a while."
"All right!" says he. "That'll be fine. I never had such fun in all my life."

I think that this is the most interesting part of the story because the kid reveals that he doesn't want to go home. This is proof that the kid's parents don't let him have fun, so when he is taken by Bill and the other man who took the kid, he doesn't want to return to his parents. He says in the story that he doesn't have any fun at home, he hates going to school, and he likes to camp out. He likes being in the cave and 'playing' with the kidnappers because he didn't have to go home or go to school, and he was outdoors. The quote from the story basically sums up why the kid isn't fighting them or begging them to go home to his parents. The parents obviously don't want the kid back, so when the two men ask for two-thousand dollars in ransom, the parents ask money from them to take the annoying pesk of a kid off their hands. They asked for two-thousand dollars, and ended up paying two-hundred and fifty dollars to have the kid taken away from them.