The mood of “The Ransom of Red Chief” is humorous and exciting. The story is simultaneously funny and action-packed—despite the fact that it is just 10 pages long, the story takes several twists and turns as Sam and Bill’s kidnapping plan goes wildly awry.
Although kidnapping a child is, in the real world, serious business, the mood of the story is consistently playful and funny when discussing such things, as seen in the following passage (when Sam and Bill are formulating their plan to kidnap Johnny):
Philoprogenitiveness, says we, is strong in semi-rural communities; therefore, and for other reasons, a kidnapping project ought to do better there than in the radius of newspapers that send reporters out in plain clothes to stir up talk about such things. 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. So, it looked good.
The humorous mood in this passage comes across in a few different ways. First, Sam’s use of unnecessarily large phrases like “philoprogenitiveness” (an arcane word referring to a parent’s love for their children) and “lackadaisical bloodhounds” tells readers that they shouldn’t take him too seriously—he is not a cruel person but more of a silly caricature.
Sam’s conclusion here—“So, it looked good”—contributes to the exciting and suspenseful mood, given that the opening lines of the story just a few paragraphs earlier were, “It looked like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.” This language encourages readers to feel increasingly curious about what exactly went wrong, adding to a suspenseful mood.
