Definition of Mood
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.