Mr. Easton's Reputation Essay

Someone’s reputation is often very important to them, and that person may be willing to go to great lengths to protect it. The short story Hearts and Hands by O. Henry, is about three people, a very handsome looking man, a glum-faced man, and a very beautiful woman. Throughout the story a lie is developed and three main identities, a liar, a perpetuator, and the one that believes it all. In order to protect Mr. Easton’s reputation, the marshal lies about his prisoner’s identity to an unsuspecting acquaintance. As stated before, there are three main identities, the first that will be talked about is the liar. The story starts with the description of a beautiful woman and a brief description of two men that are handcuffed to each other. The two men then take a seat next to the woman, and she recognizes Mr. Easton the handsome one and they talk until she notices that he is handcuffed. Jumping to Mr. Easton’s rescue, the other man says “you’ll excuse me, miss, but, I see you’re acquainted with the marshal here” (1). This makes the marshal the liar, as he is covering up for Mr. Easton, so his reputation will not be ruined with Miss Fairchild. The marshal tells this lie because he notices that Mr. Easton and Miss. Fairchild are friends. Mr. Easton follows
The lie is told because the marshal wants to help protect Mr. Easton’s identity. Although other people see through the lie, he is in fact successful with getting Miss. Fairchild to believe the lie. The reader knows that other people see through the lie because another passenger says “That marshals a good sort of chap” indicating that they know who the marshal is and why he told the lie (2). Also, there are many other conversations pointing out that the hand cuffs are on the wrong hands. The only person who did not see through the lie was Miss. Fairchild which was the goal of the marshal all