“The Roads We Take” by O. Henry

Essay D

“The Roads We Take” by O. Henry

(The analysis of the text)

The American short-story writer William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), who wrote under the pseudonym O. Henry, pioneered in picturing the lives of lower-class and middle-class New Yorkers. He is best known for his short stories which are always witty, containing wordplay and clever twist endings.

In a short story “The Roads We Take” O. Henry dwells on a subject of greediness, moral choice of a man, hypocrisy and betrayal which the man is capable of in order to achieve the aim. The author provokes the reader to think of one important question. What is more important in a crucial moment: to rescue your friend or to make profit on something and leave your friend in trouble?

The biggest part of the narration is formed of the main character’s dream. So the dream begins with the description of an armed attack and a robbery of the train called “Sunset Express”. The author depicts three members of a robbery, their names are Bob Tidball, “Shark” Dodson, who are friends and at the same time the key characters, and John Big Dog. After portraying the characters the author describes the robbery of the safe in the express-car and the murder of John Big Dog. Then Bob Tidball and “Shark” Dodson get successfully away with money. On their way Bob Tidball’s horse breaks its foreleg, which turns out to be a fateful accident. Then Bob Tidball and Shark Dodson make a halt and discuss whether they can move ahead together on one horse. Tidball is sure that the horse can carry them both, but regardless Bob’s opinion Dodson ruthlessly kills him and leaves alone with the full amount of money. Then the dream finishes and Dodson, the Wall Street broker, finds himself sitting in a chair while his clerk is waiting to tell him some news. The clerk tells him that the old friend of Dodson has come to settle the deal. We see that Dodson treats him as mercilessly as he treated his imaginary friend in his dream. This time he leaves the man without all his money and a place to live.

The text under study presents a piece of narration interwoven with pieces of description and short dialogues. The text can be divided into three parts according to the impression each part produces. In the beginning the narration is brisk and the description of the robbery obviously has a touch of irony. But as the story develops the tempo becomes slower and the text gradually acquires a gloomy shade. The prevalent mood of the second half is suspense as the tension between two main characters grows bigger. However this atmosphere fades away when the main character wakes up. So the third part is rather neutral, but on the whole the story has rather oppressive effect on reader.

Bob Tidball produces an impression of a sprightly and good-natured lad. The reader sees that he is sincerely happy when he gets money. It is worth paying attention to the important role of the vocabulary which O. Henry uses in order to describe the character’s traits. Bob Tidball jokes saying “ joyfully ” that Dodson is an “old double-decked pirate” and says that “ by jingoes ” they “ made a haul. ” The selected colloquial vocabulary shows the reader that Bob Tidball is an ignorant and simple-minded man. Bob Tidball acts honestly towards his partner; and he doesn’t expect that his partner will betray him. He truly believes that everything will turn out all right as he has always thought of Dodson as of a devoted friend. These lines prove it: “I’ve always give you a square deal, and thought you was a man ”. Dodson also speaks simple language but he is obviously not simple-hearted. As we can see he turns out to be a traitorous friend.

As for “Shark” Dodson, it is necessary to start with his alias. Here O. Henry uses an antonomasia which points out a most characteristic feature of a person. The reader might expect Dodson to be a cunning man. To my mind, Dodson is a rather contradictory character. He is obviously cruel, pitiless and a “false friend” as the author characterizes him. The scene of Bob Tidball’s murder demonstrates it. At first Bob Tidball thought that it was just Dodson’s joke so much surprised he was. But then he talked about their past when they had helped each other a lot, as if he was trying to realize that his pard was really going to kill him. During his speech Tidball mentioned that he had never believed anyone who told him stories about Dodson “shooting one or two men in a peculiar way.” This phrase instantly puts the reader on a guard and adds to Dodson’s dubious background. The thing which really strikes about Dodson is his transformation from a man with the “ sorrowful look ” into the one with “an evil face” (“the soul of the man showed itself … like an evil face in the window of a reputable house”). This description brilliantly portrays Dodson’s treachery as it was revealed in an urgent moment. In this comparison “reputable house” stands for the person’s outward appearance and one’s ideas of it, but behind the façade there always can be things contradictory to the things on the outside. So, O. Henry shows that the person uncovers oneself when the turning point comes.

Several times the reader may assume that Dodson is sorry indeed that the story took a tragic turn. He says “ almost pathetically ” that he is sorry because of the horse (and he repeats the phrase three times). Not long before he killed Bob Tidball his face “ bore a deeply sorrowful look”. Judging from these descriptions it’s possible to say that his cruelty was forced. One of the important traits of Dodson’s character is that he is irresponsible for what he has come to, for his actions. His fate has brought him to difficult circumstances and Dodson submits to them without making any attempts to change anything and rescue the partner. We see that he considers the coincidence with the horse as a fateful one. It does not take much time for Dodson to take the decision about Bob Tidball (he knew what to do since the beginning of their short halt). Dodson is ready to do a horrible deed because long ago he chose a road which implied such actions and he would never be able to take another one. The reader learns about it from the piece when Dodson tells Bob Tidball about his background.

The semantic centre of the story is Dodson and Bob Tidball’s conversation which reveals their different life views. This dialogue helps the reader to explain Dodson’s decision to kill Bob Tidball as well as brings the reader to the understanding of the main themes of the story.

So in his dream Dodson imagined himself as man who happened to come to the West after he had ran away from his home in Ulster County, New York State (he was seventeen). Dodson had always known that his devotion was to earn a lot of money: “I had an idea of goin’ there and makin’ lots of money”. However, the primary phrase here is Dodson’s confession: “I always felt like I could do it.” In several phrases Dodson described the moment when he was walking one evening and the road forked which literally means that had to make a choice: which life to lead and what a person to be. O. Henry is not straightforward while describing Dodson’s moral choice, he only gives the reader several hints, words which the reader should put together like a puzzle and finally see the whole picture. Dodson believes that the person is incapable of changing the important decision which he has taken in his life as it has already influenced him and his life as well. In his opinion, a man can have only one lot. The Wall Street broker Dodson from “Dodson & Decker” appears to be a very steadfast man in terms of his views, his cupidity is confirmed with theory so to speak (which in brief sounds: “Bolivar cannot carry double”). According to the cruelty which Dodson treats his friends with, the reader may assume that the stories about his “shooting one or two men in a peculiar way” must be true. It is hard to earn lots of money being an honest man but it becomes easier when all means are good for reaching the aim.

Bob Tidball’s views are polar opposites of Dodson’s. Tidball thinks that the man is the one who can deliberately guide his life. He says that “ it ain’t the roads we take; it’s what’s inside of us that makes us turn the way we do.” His viewpoint is opposed to Dodson’s as he believes that the man can find a way out of any situation no matter how difficult the circumstances might be. The conflict of two characters is eternal. For me this story is partially the reminiscence of Karl Marx’s words that social being determines one’s consciousness.

In the story “The Roads We Take” O. Henry reflects upon the subject of moral choice. He describes the man who preferred profit to friendship. The author is almost impartial throughout the story, but the reader may notice that he disapproves of “Shark” Dodson’s deeds. O. Henry portrays a dishonest, greedy of gain man who has no idea of sympathy and lives without following moral principles. The story is also interesting because of philosophic reasoning concerning one’s choice of course of life which the author fills the plot with.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-04