“The Ransom of Red Chief” is told from the first-person perspective of Sam. Therefore, the writing style matches Sam’s personality. Though readers do not know Sam’s full backstory, it becomes clear via his comments throughout the story that he feels and acts intellectually superior to small-town southern people (likely because he is from somewhere in the northern United States). One of the ways Sam acts intellectually superior is through his writing style—in trying to prove to readers that he is well-educated, he ends up using a confusing array of words, such as in the following passage:
There was a sylvan attitude of somnolent sleepiness pervading that section of the external outward surface of Alabama that lay exposed to my view.
Though some people may read this sentence and feel that Sam is saying something deeply significant, this is likely simply due to the fact that he is using “intellectual” language. Taking a closer look at the passage, it’s easy to see that Sam is actually saying very little of substance—“somnolent sleepiness,” for example, simply means “sleepy sleepiness.” In his wording of “the external outward surface of Alabama that lay exposed to my view,” Sam again repeats himself, as “external,” “outward,” and “exposed to my view” all mean essentially the same thing. Written in a more direct, less performative writing style, the sentence would essentially say, “The rural town in Alabama I was in seemed sleepy.”
O. Henry’s decision to narrate from Sam’s point-of-view—and have the writing style be overly ornate and repetitive—is one way that he adds humor to the story. Readers, he hopes, will see through Sam’s “intellectual” performance and take even more pleasure in the ways that Johnny and Ebenezer alike—as less-educated southerners—repeatedly outwit him.
