The Ransom of Red Chief

Sam is the protagonist and first-person narrator. He is the leader in his criminal partnership with Bill Driscoll. Despite Sam’s important role in the short story, he is a flat character and an unreliable narrator. He makes incorrect assumptions, and he disregards Bill’s feelings and concerns. He narrates the events with a sarcastic and humorous tone, and in turn, his tone characterizes him as patronizing and selfish. Sam’s sarcastic tone emerges in the opening scene and continues to the final line of the story.

Although Bill concocts the plot for the kidnap with Sam, Sam is the brains of the operation. He orders Bill to watch Johnny, and he continues to leave the two of them alone after Johnny terrorizes Bill. Even after Johnny’s violence and the shocking counteroffer from Dorset, Sam retains his condescending tone, saying that “this little ewe lamb has somewhat got on my nerves too” (77).

Sam is wary of Johnny, but he is willing to put Bill in harm’s way, which forces the reader to question Bill’s loyalty to Sam. Sam also demeans Bill multiple times in the story. When Bill is first attacked by Johnny, Sam calls Bill a “desperate, fat man” (73).