22 pages • 44 minutes read
O. HenryA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“One thousand dollars.”
This is the first sentence of the story and sets the tone, establishing the $1,000 as a key factor in the story and pulling the audience’s attention to the theme of money and value with one short sentence.
“Young Gillian gave a decidedly amused laugh as he fingered the thin package of new fifty-dollar notes.”
This line characterizes Gillian and his attitude toward money. He has always had money, so an inheritance of $1,000 is amusing to him. In addition, by using the word “thin,” O. Henry demonstrates that Gillian does not consider $1,000 a sum of any consequence.
“A thousand dollars means much or little.”
This is a philosophical statement by Bryson in the men’s club that highlights the subjectivity of wealth: $1,000 may seem like a trifle to one person, but to another it can cure a disease or prevent starvation. In a highly unequal society like O. Henry’s New York, the rich and poor are incomprehensible to one another because money means different things to each class.
By O. Henry
After Twenty Years
O. Henry
A Municipal Report
O. Henry
A Retrieved Reformation
O. Henry
Mammon and the Archer
O. Henry
The Cop and the Anthem
O. Henry
The Furnished Room
O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi
O. Henry
The Last Leaf
O. Henry
The Ransom of Red Chief
O. Henry