Sam

Character Analysis

The Narrator

Sam is a two bit con-man. His vision of a hard day's work involves short changing shop keepers and stealing apples out of little old lady's grocery bags. If he lived in the 21st century, he'd be running low-rent Internet scams involving off-shore gambling. He seems smart enough for a small time crook, but he has a limited vision of how the world works. He and his friend Bill travel from town to town looking to get rich quick. "It looked like a good thing, but wait till I tell you," he says at the very start of the story (1), giving us a hint at the troubles to come.

Part of these troubles stem from his inability to handle the dirty details. He enjoys the "idea" of his scheme rather than the realities of it, which is why he keeps Bill around. Bill's catching on to Sam's shortcomings, though. He says:

You're afraid. You was to be burned at sunrise, and you was afraid he'd do it. (28)

At least Bill's aware of Sam's shortcomings. Bill's criticism doesn't seem to dent Sam's capacity for coming up with new hare-brained schemes, but that's probably a good thing, because if he didn't, there would be no story for us to laugh at, so we'll let it slide.

There's another, much more important reason to stay on Sam's side despite his obvious character flaws. In some ways, we've all got a little bit of Sam in us. We all look for ways to make our lives a little easier, and while most of us don't resort to kidnapping a child, we like to think of ourselves as very clever when we figure out some little dodge or angle that benefits us. Look at Sam's early lines, where he says he has it all figured out:

It looked like a good thing. (1)

It looked good. (3)

Bill and me figured that Ebenezer would melt down. (4)

He thinks this whole kidnapping thing is going to be a piece of cake; he can't imagine anything going wrong, just like we often do in less extreme (though possibly still illegal) circumstances:

We knew that Summit couldn't get after us with anything stronger than constables and, maybe, some lackadaisical bloodhounds and a diatribe or two in the Weekly Farmers' Budget. (3)

Of course, that scheme we think we've figured out will turn around and bite us as often as it won't. Sooner or later, we all stumble into poorly conceived ideas that run us through the ringer.

That's probably the main reason behind why O. Henry chose Sam as the narrator. We can identify with him much more readily than we can any of the other characters, and when we laugh at his pratfalls, we're also laughing at ourselves a bit. That's how satire grants us wisdom: letting us look at ourselves and the foolish things we do to make us more aware of them, and perhaps a little more humble in the process.

And therein lies another interesting aspect to Sam's character. Besides his skills as a third-rate schemer, Sam is a man of patience. He patiently sets up Johnny's kidnapping. He patiently leaves Bill to "play" with Johnny. He patiently waits for Bill to return with Johnny. Even when things go wrong, he's always up for a little relaxation:

I wasn't nervous or afraid; but I sat up and lit my pipe and leaned against a rock. (25)

That patience allows Sam to take failure in stride. When the plan begins to go pear shaped, he doesn't take it out on Bill, and it never occurs to him to become overwrought or upset—he just moves forward as best he can. Bill is clearly distressed by every moment he spends with Johnny, but Sam is above it all. Whatever will be, will be for Sam.

In that acceptance may lie something of a lesson for us from O. Henry. When things go wrong for us, we might consider taking them in stride the way Sam does. It would certainly go easier on our blood pressure.