Power And Money In The Ransom Of Red Chief
Today I am going to talk to you all about the topics of Power and Money. A deep hunger for both Power and Money, along with mismanagement once you have them, can sometimes lead to disastrous results. Both of these aspects of one’s life are very important, and sometimes a necessity to exist. Let’s find out about the effects of lots of money and the power of business. Let’s go back to the turn of the last century when American businesses started to develop and take shape. 1920’s was seen as a time of lots of fun and entertainment; a time to make lots and lots of money as many businesses were starting up. This was the time where a lot of people saw an opportunity to invest their money in these companies. They bought stocks in large corporations.
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The article, “Taking care of Business” talks about how the economy boomed during those years; about how making money and spending it became a popular pastime for many Americans. It was called the “Roaring Twenties”; a fast and furious time for businesses. The stock market had started to develop rapidly and the number of banks started to significantly rise. You may remember that people started to give unique and special names for businesses and groups of people, such as some investors were called bulls. They had an ulterior motive to make quick money. The stock market was so popular that people were purchasing stocks on credit. They also paid in installments, which meant to pay a little at a time until the debt was paid off. There was also a different class of investors called the bears. They were the ones worried that the stock market was not good and that a sharp drop in prices or even a crash would occur. Hungry for money can lead to bad decisions if it is not thought through. Lorraine Hansberry demonstrates this in her book A Raisin in the Sun, in which Walter Younger and his family live in a small apartment in Chicago. Walter’s father had passed away a few months ago leaving behind $10,000. While knowing that the money was Mama’s, everyone in the family still had their own dreams about what they wanted to do with the money. On page 33, Walter tells Ruth about the investment he wants to make on a liquor store. “You see, this liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand…That be ten thousand each.” Walter gets high hopes about the investment and is sure that it will work. However, it was obvious that Walter had not thought it through and when one of his partner’s collects the money, he runs away with it. This shows that if you have big dreams you should think it through always before rushing into spending it. The 1920’s also saw another form of growth in American society. American consumerism started to grow and hit full stride. In the article “Taking Care of Business”, chain stores like Woolworth’s and A&P grew rapidly. Having lots of money also gave the companies and organizations power to become more innovative. This is when Automobiles and radios started to be introduced and they were very popular. According to Taking Care of Business, “In 1914, Henry Ford had perfected his assembly-line production system.” Henry Ford was a key manufacturer of American made Ford cars at that time. And also “the first Radio, KDKA…only started recording in 1920.” The radios and automobiles were known to be the biggest productions in the 20’s. People could afford them and by having these things, people could keep up with the changing America. It was obvious that the boom of the 1920’s was not going to last very long. The worst fears of the Bears, was realized when the nation entered into its worst financial panic in its history in October 1929. This would become known as “the Crash.” The “Boom” of the 1920’s had turned into the “Bust,” and the start of the Great Depression. A lot of people started losing all their investments and life savings and business values dropped significantly. Some people who could not make their mortgage payments had to give up their homes. Workers who were lucky enough to keep their jobs had been forced to accept pay cuts, while a lot of them were paid minimum wage. Everyone in the family; men, women and children all had to work to make ends meet, while the working conditions were not every good. In fact, in some places the working conditions were actually quite awful. The packet, “Working Conditions,” explains the level of poor treatment people got at factories and also different kinds of dangerous jobs people had to make a living off of. For example, it talks about a man who worked in a steel mill factory in 177- degree heat in a smoky dangerous room got paid a maximum of $1.25 a day. Similar to him many individuals would get paid $1.25 to $1 or less a day. The dangerous working conditions meant that many people would get into accidents while doing their jobs. There are a lot of factors that caused these accidents. For example at a rail road factory the sound of the trains would be mixed in with the boom of the explosives used and the workers could not tell when a train would come by. According to the packet “Working Conditions”, “in 1890 one railroader was killed for every 306 employed people and injuring one for every 30 employed people.” This amounted to thousands of people killed in one year. Statistics showed that the actual number of deaths actually increased over period of time. This showed that people would really put their own lives at risk to earn some money for themselves and their family, usually just to be able to survive and have a meal a day. Also during the depression, many people got bankrupt, meaning that they lost all of their possessions that many families actually became homeless. These homeless people were referred to as hobos. Hobos are people who travelled by train looking for jobs. When people are desperate they will resort to desperate measures to make quick money.
In the short story “The Ransom of Red Chief,” by O. Henry, Sam and Bill kidnapped an eight-year old boy and kept him in a cave to make some money. The two men decide to write a letter asking for $2,000 in return of the boy. At first, the men controlled the boy and told him what to do. But after the boy got comfortable at the cave, he started controlling what goes on around him. Sam and Bill are unable to control the boy, called Red Chief, who wouldn’t leave them alone. “Red Chief was sitting on Bill’s chest, with one hand twined in Bill’s hair. In the other he had the harp case-knife we used for slicing bacon; and he was industriously and realistically trying to take Bill’s scalp.” This is an example of a desperate man trying to impose power on the weak. Similar to this, in “Thank You M’am” by Langston Hughes, a desperate young man tries to snatch a purse from Mrs. Washington to satisfy his hunger for a new pair of suede shoes. He did not seem to know the consequences of his actions. However, Mrs. Washington helps him out. "Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes," said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. "You could of asked me." This is another case of a desperate man trying to make a quick return in difficult
circumstances. United States was not the only country going through a bad time. In 1939, Britain and France declare war on Germany for crossing the boundaries and attacking Poland, starting what was known as World War II. Earlier during World War 1, the Allied Powers which consisted of Britain, France, and few other friendly countries had defeated the Central Powers which consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary. As a result of losing this war, Austria-and Hungary were separated into two countries and the balance of the land resulted in other small countries that we now know as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and other countries near them being formed. Since Germany was the greater of the two powers, the Allies demanded that the Germans pay for the damages caused to them. The damage caused during the war was very great and Germany became bankrupt paying for this. This caused the German people to become very angry at their governments. Adolf Hitler was the leader of a political party called the Nazis party in Germany. He took advantage of the anger that the people had after World War I to make himself the dictator of Germany. In order to get the power he wanted, he made the Germans become anti-Jewish. By becoming the dictator, Hitler helped the Nazis party in gaining more power. After Hitler started World War II, the Allies decided to do something against Hitler’s actions. Germany tried very hard to defeat Britain weren’t able to. Although United States was not directly involved in the war between Britain and Germany, they did begin to help Britain. United States was also at war with Japan because they had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In the mean time, Japan was expanding its authority on various islands in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. One by one the United States army won victories over Japan in these Islands through a strategy called “island hopping.” The Japanese did not give up the fight. In order to stop the Japanese invasion, President Truman ordered to drop two atomic bombs called “Little boy and Fat man.” Soon after the Japanese surrendered and president Truman declared the war officially over on December 31, 1946. In this discussion I have shown how hunger for more money and power can lead to disastrous endings with failures and even bankruptcy or death. There can be situations where people resort to desperate measures to quickly get what they want. It pays to sometimes understand the situations and help these people out where possible, such as what Mrs. Washington did. It was also clear that while it is good to have hunger for more money and power but it is always better to use your resources in a just, fair and thought out manner so that the outcome is better understood. It might pay to be a “bear” rather than a “bull” sometimes. What you rather be?
The article, “Taking care of Business” talks about how the economy boomed during those years; about how making money and spending it became a popular pastime for many Americans. It was called the “Roaring Twenties”; a fast and furious time for businesses. The stock market had started to develop rapidly and the number of banks started to significantly rise. You may remember that people started to give unique and special names for businesses and groups of people, such as some investors were called bulls. They had an ulterior motive to make quick money. The stock market was so popular that people were purchasing stocks on credit. They also paid in installments, which meant to pay a little at a time until the debt was paid off. There was also a different class of investors called the bears. They were the ones worried that the stock market was not good and that a sharp drop in prices or even a crash would occur. Hungry for money can lead to bad decisions if it is not thought through. Lorraine Hansberry demonstrates this in her book A Raisin in the Sun, in which Walter Younger and his family live in a small apartment in Chicago. Walter’s father had passed away a few months ago leaving behind $10,000. While knowing that the money was Mama’s, everyone in the family still had their own dreams about what they wanted to do with the money. On page 33, Walter tells Ruth about the investment he wants to make on a liquor store. “You see, this liquor store we got in mind cost seventy-five thousand…That be ten thousand each.” Walter gets high hopes about the investment and is sure that it will work. However, it was obvious that Walter had not thought it through and when one of his partner’s collects the money, he runs away with it. This shows that if you have big dreams you should think it through always before rushing into spending it. The 1920’s also saw another form of growth in American society. American consumerism started to grow and hit full stride. In the article “Taking Care of Business”, chain stores like Woolworth’s and A&P grew rapidly. Having lots of money also gave the companies and organizations power to become more innovative. This is when Automobiles and radios started to be introduced and they were very popular. According to Taking Care of Business, “In 1914, Henry Ford had perfected his assembly-line production system.” Henry Ford was a key manufacturer of American made Ford cars at that time. And also “the first Radio, KDKA…only started recording in 1920.” The radios and automobiles were known to be the biggest productions in the 20’s. People could afford them and by having these things, people could keep up with the changing America. It was obvious that the boom of the 1920’s was not going to last very long. The worst fears of the Bears, was realized when the nation entered into its worst financial panic in its history in October 1929. This would become known as “the Crash.” The “Boom” of the 1920’s had turned into the “Bust,” and the start of the Great Depression. A lot of people started losing all their investments and life savings and business values dropped significantly. Some people who could not make their mortgage payments had to give up their homes. Workers who were lucky enough to keep their jobs had been forced to accept pay cuts, while a lot of them were paid minimum wage. Everyone in the family; men, women and children all had to work to make ends meet, while the working conditions were not every good. In fact, in some places the working conditions were actually quite awful. The packet, “Working Conditions,” explains the level of poor treatment people got at factories and also different kinds of dangerous jobs people had to make a living off of. For example, it talks about a man who worked in a steel mill factory in 177- degree heat in a smoky dangerous room got paid a maximum of $1.25 a day. Similar to him many individuals would get paid $1.25 to $1 or less a day. The dangerous working conditions meant that many people would get into accidents while doing their jobs. There are a lot of factors that caused these accidents. For example at a rail road factory the sound of the trains would be mixed in with the boom of the explosives used and the workers could not tell when a train would come by. According to the packet “Working Conditions”, “in 1890 one railroader was killed for every 306 employed people and injuring one for every 30 employed people.” This amounted to thousands of people killed in one year. Statistics showed that the actual number of deaths actually increased over period of time. This showed that people would really put their own lives at risk to earn some money for themselves and their family, usually just to be able to survive and have a meal a day. Also during the depression, many people got bankrupt, meaning that they lost all of their possessions that many families actually became homeless. These homeless people were referred to as hobos. Hobos are people who travelled by train looking for jobs. When people are desperate they will resort to desperate measures to make quick money.
In the short story “The Ransom of Red Chief,” by O. Henry, Sam and Bill kidnapped an eight-year old boy and kept him in a cave to make some money. The two men decide to write a letter asking for $2,000 in return of the boy. At first, the men controlled the boy and told him what to do. But after the boy got comfortable at the cave, he started controlling what goes on around him. Sam and Bill are unable to control the boy, called Red Chief, who wouldn’t leave them alone. “Red Chief was sitting on Bill’s chest, with one hand twined in Bill’s hair. In the other he had the harp case-knife we used for slicing bacon; and he was industriously and realistically trying to take Bill’s scalp.” This is an example of a desperate man trying to impose power on the weak. Similar to this, in “Thank You M’am” by Langston Hughes, a desperate young man tries to snatch a purse from Mrs. Washington to satisfy his hunger for a new pair of suede shoes. He did not seem to know the consequences of his actions. However, Mrs. Washington helps him out. "Well, you didn’t have to snatch my pocketbook to get some suede shoes," said Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. "You could of asked me." This is another case of a desperate man trying to make a quick return in difficult
circumstances. United States was not the only country going through a bad time. In 1939, Britain and France declare war on Germany for crossing the boundaries and attacking Poland, starting what was known as World War II. Earlier during World War 1, the Allied Powers which consisted of Britain, France, and few other friendly countries had defeated the Central Powers which consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary. As a result of losing this war, Austria-and Hungary were separated into two countries and the balance of the land resulted in other small countries that we now know as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania and other countries near them being formed. Since Germany was the greater of the two powers, the Allies demanded that the Germans pay for the damages caused to them. The damage caused during the war was very great and Germany became bankrupt paying for this. This caused the German people to become very angry at their governments. Adolf Hitler was the leader of a political party called the Nazis party in Germany. He took advantage of the anger that the people had after World War I to make himself the dictator of Germany. In order to get the power he wanted, he made the Germans become anti-Jewish. By becoming the dictator, Hitler helped the Nazis party in gaining more power. After Hitler started World War II, the Allies decided to do something against Hitler’s actions. Germany tried very hard to defeat Britain weren’t able to. Although United States was not directly involved in the war between Britain and Germany, they did begin to help Britain. United States was also at war with Japan because they had bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In the mean time, Japan was expanding its authority on various islands in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. One by one the United States army won victories over Japan in these Islands through a strategy called “island hopping.” The Japanese did not give up the fight. In order to stop the Japanese invasion, President Truman ordered to drop two atomic bombs called “Little boy and Fat man.” Soon after the Japanese surrendered and president Truman declared the war officially over on December 31, 1946. In this discussion I have shown how hunger for more money and power can lead to disastrous endings with failures and even bankruptcy or death. There can be situations where people resort to desperate measures to quickly get what they want. It pays to sometimes understand the situations and help these people out where possible, such as what Mrs. Washington did. It was also clear that while it is good to have hunger for more money and power but it is always better to use your resources in a just, fair and thought out manner so that the outcome is better understood. It might pay to be a “bear” rather than a “bull” sometimes. What you rather be?