Essay Questions

Why does Soapy decide to commit a succession of petty crimes?

Soapy is cold, winter is approaching, and he has nowhere to live. He needs to find somewhere to stay immediately and so he plans to get arrested and taken to the city jail, where he will be warm and will be fed three square meals a day. He has become used to thinking of the jail as a hotel for homeless people and so logically assumes that if he commits enough petty crimes he will be able to stay at the jail for the entire winter. He decides to commit crimes that also benefit him in that he tries to eat dinner at both a posh restaurant and a run-of-the-mill diner so that he can eat a good meal before he is arrested.

How is this story similar to other O. Henry stories?

O. Henry was best known for short stories that featured lower class protagonists and an ironic twist at the end. This story has both of those features; Soapy is a lower-class, homeless man who has had many brushes with the law. He came to New York to seek his fortune but it never really panned out; although O. Henry writes about characters in all sorts of different settings and locations, he returns time and time again to New York City as the backdrop for his narrative.

Another aspect of this story that fits the O. Henry template so well is the fact that there is an ironic twist at the end of the story. This is definitely the case in this story. Soapy is desperate to get arrested through the majority of the story yet he does not manage to do so; once he decides that this is no way to live and that he needs to turn his life around, he is arrested. This is exactly the kind of ironic twist that O. Henry is known for.