Character Clues

Character Analysis

Actions

Our first introduction to Johnny is seeing him "throwing rocks at a kitten" (6), a direct way of showing us what a little monster this kid is. Bill, for his part, meekly goes along with whatever the other characters do, while Sam's Zen-like confidence is reflected in the pipe he constantly smokes. These actions that are not simply observations or movements of the plot, but actual means of illuminating these character's traits.

Physical Appearance

We've already talked about Johnny's hair, "the color of the cover of the magazine you buy at the news-stand when you want to catch a train" (3). It's a great snappy phrase, but it also demonstrates the kind of trouble he represents. Red equals danger. Red equals warning. Red equals unending pain and a sort of agony only a ten-year-old boy can inflict. Thus does O. Henry fill out a huge amount of what this character is all about in the space of a single sentence.

It applies to more than just physical characteristics too. Consider Bill, "rolling up his trousers and examining some bruises on his shins" (13). Those bruises immediately speak to the kind of guy Bill is (a guy who gets hit by stuff a lot) as well as what happens to him throughout the course of the story. O. Henry can be subtle when he wants to, but with his physical descriptions, he bears it all for us to see.

Location

Sam and Bill are small men in a great big world, and their efforts to better themselves fly directly in the face of a world that really could care less. Their fumbling, bumbling kidnapping routine is contrasted with their setting, which seems completely oblivious to their efforts:

Nobody was dragging the creek; no couriers dashed hither and yon, bringing tidings of no news to the distracted parents. There was a sylvan attitude of somnolent sleepiness pervading that section of the external outward surface of Alabama that lay exposed to my view. (30)

Sam, at least, seems aware of the irony, but that doesn't change anything for him; he's still just a little man trying way too hard to be a big one, and getting a fistful of "No One Gives a Hoot" for his efforts.