The Roads We Take, by O. Henry

Film (audio in Russian, subtitles in English)

Another movie (audio in English, no subtitles)

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Summay and analysis

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken, analysis

Hit the Road, Jack, by Ray Charles

SUMMARY
This is the story of an untrustworthy bandit, "Shark" Dodson.
He and two mates more, John Big Dog and Bob Tidball, robbed a train. In the fray of the attack, John Big Dog was shot dead by one of the train employees. The other two bandits ran away with a big booty of thirty thousand dollars, and happier they were because now they were only two to divide the amount: there wasn’t a third in the party.

They got to the place where they had left their horses and set John Big Dog’s horse free. Then they mount and went away as fast as they could. But during their flight, Bob Tidball’s horse broke its leg, and they had to kill the brute. So now they were two robbers, their booty and only a horse; in consequence, their escape was a bit more difficult, but not impossible. However, Shark Dodson decided that two people were too many people for a horse, and got rid of Bob Tidball murdering him in cold blood to secure his flight and to keep all the money for him only, even though Bob had been a staunch friend of his.

Some years later, we find Dodson  turned on a very respectable rich man with his own company. He had also friends, the  best one of them, Williams, with a big number of shares in Dodson’s company. But all of a sudden, there was a financial crisis, and Williams was on the point of losing all his money. He went to Dodson to ask for help, and Dodson…

 

QUESTIONS

Do you think everyone gets what he deserves in this world? Do you have any example (real or fictional)?

Do you think it’s possible to go up in society and become very rich following strictly legal and ethical ways?

Think about case of betrayal you know and tell us about it, as if it were a story (about love, politics, money…) Do you know any case in which treachery could be justified?

In a moment, Dodson said that he had a most remarkable dream. Do you think it's possible that the first part of the story was only a dream?

 

 

VOCABULARY
quarter-breed, pieces of ordnance, tender, ore, through the mill, currency, conductor, unwittingly, chaparral, pommel, primeval, spryest, posse, haul, sorrel, bottom, cards and spades, desperado, crowbait, boodle, hit the trail, timber, spoil, hitting the breeze, pards, vamoose, cupidity, holders-up, upholstered

Hearts and Hands, by O. Henry

BIOGRAPHY

Oliver Henry, usually written O. Henry, was the pseudonym of William Sidney Porter. He started to use different pseudonyms when wanted to publish his stories while he was in prison. And as he liked O. Henry the best, he kept using it ever after, and we always speak of him as O. Henry. He was born in 1862, so in the middle of the American Civil War or Secession War, between the slavers confederates secessionists and the Yankees abolitionists unionists. His birthday was on the 11th of September, so we have to suppose that if he had known what were to happen, he would have written a story about it, because he liked the surprising ironies of life. He was born in North Carolina, but he went to live in Texas where he graduated as a chemist (or pharmacist, as he was American, not British). He was then 19 years old. When he was 25, he eloped with his girlfriend. They married and they had two children, a boy who died soon after his birth, and, later, a girl, Margaret. When he was 29, he started to work in a bank, and only 3 years later he was accused of misappropriation. In order to avoid the trial and being found guilty, he run away to Honduras. There he started a friendship with a famous train robber. Also, there he coined the expression “banana republic” that appeared in his book Cabbages and Kings. But when he knew his wife couldn’t come to Honduras (as they had planned) because she was dying of tuberculosis, he went back to the USA. He had spent six months in Honduras. Back in the USA, he was found guilty of misappropriation and got a penalty of 5 years in prison, but he went out after 3 years because of his good behaviour. Then he moved to New York, the setting of most of his stories. He died when he was only 48 years old of cirrhosis: as you can imagine, he was a heavy drinker. While he lived in New York, he was a very prolific author because he wrote a story every week for different magazines. He was a popular author; his stories are witty, funny and with a surprising ending, but he wasn’t very praised by critics, because they thought he wasn’t deep enough. His most known short stories are The Gift of the Magi (where a very poor marriage try to buy presents each other in secret), The Ransom of Great Chief (where two bandits kidnap a boy, and the things doesn’t go as easily as they thought), The Last Leaf (where and old artist helps, in a very special way, to spirit another young artist who doesn’t want to fight for her own life), Hearts and Hands (where a prisoner and his guard travel by train and there they find an old acquaintance), etc.

SUMMARY

The story takes place on a train. An elegant young woman is sitting in a coach when two men get up to the train, go into her coach and sit down in front of her. One of the men is nice and handsome; the other is an unpleasant sulky man with a disagreeable appearance. They are tied together by a pair of handcuffs. The worldly woman immediately recognizes the nicer man and greets him with a feeling. He can only give her his left hand, because his right one is handcuffed to the nasty man; this man, however, tells the girl that’s what a marshal has to do when he takes a wrongdoer to the prison. All the same, the young woman and the nice man start a lively and happy conversation. After a while, the ruffled man says it’s cruel for a prisoner not to have time for smoking: since the morning he hasn’t had any; the nice man understands the request, and they both go out to enjoy some tobacco. The other passengers make some remarks about the curious pair.

QUESTIONS 

What is the relation between the title and the story?

What kind of criminal do you think you could sympathize with?

Do you think the art of conversation can be learned? What are the features of a good conversation? Why do / don't you like chatting? Tell us ways to start a conversation, ways to "break the ice".

VOCABULARY

influx, handcuffed, forestalled, pen, counterfeiting, butterfly days, 

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