23 pages • 46 minutes read
O. HenryAfter Twenty Years
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1906A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Identity and Change
Identity is who we are and how we distinguish ourselves from those around us. The theme of identity is complex in this narrative, as the perception of the identities of the characters changes continuously over the course of the story, and they are represented and demonstrated through the actions of each character. Bob goes from appearing to be a financially successful, hard-working, incredibly loyal friend to being revealed to be a criminal who has been running from the law for 20 years and stealing his riches rather than earning them. The patrolman evolves from being a confident protector of the peace and a listening ear to Bob’s story to being the very friend that Bob has been speaking about, and ultimately, he decides to turn in his own best friend. The tall man who appears to be Jimmy at first is revealed to be a trickster and an undercover police officer. The short story rewards further readings to catch the situational irony, and the sense that nothing is as it seems on a dark, rainy night creates an atmosphere appropriate for mistaken identities and truths that are only revealed once the characters step into light.
The largest area where identity and change come into play is in the relationship between Bob and Jimmy, and the way that their expectations of each other are far removed from the reality. For example, Bob has a static vision of who Jimmy is—unambitious and slow, even “kind of a plodder” (Paragraph 13). His description of Jimmy is part of why Bob does not recognize his friend; the Jimmy that Bob describes would never grow into a successful, trusted city employee. In reality, Jimmy is now an energetic, devoted police officer, and an unexpected source of danger to Bob. While we do not get access to Jimmy’s thoughts or point of view, it can be assumed that he did not expect his dear friend to now be a criminal; he too believed that Bob’s identity would not change, and yet it did, drastically. Through this, we can see that Jimmy, much like Bob, is a hopeful person, but without the egotistical desire to put down others that Bob carries with him through the years.
Hubris and Self-Centeredness
Both Bob and Jimmy have opportunities to act out of ego, but only Bob utilizes those opportunities. He has a strong self-importance and a great sense of his own infallibility. He does not travel with protection and boldly speaks to a police officer, even though he knows that he is a wanted man. He seems to think that his wealth and power will protect him from the consequences of his actions. He talks a great deal about himself and his good attributes, his willingness to do what needs to be done to make money, regardless of the morality of it, and his strong work ethic. He is so focused on himself and presenting himself as powerful to a stranger (who he does not realize is his friend, Jimmy) that he doesn’t notice that he is opening himself up to danger. Further, he talks about Jimmy and New York City as if his understanding of them from 20 years ago is still valid—he thinks he knows it all, while not processing the obvious changes, such as the restaurant that he and Jimmy went to being closed now. Bob’s understanding is clouded by his hubristic belief that he has the correct perception, even though he hasn’t been in New York City for twenty years, during which time the city exploded in wealth, population, and national intrigue. Bob’s diminishing beliefs about New York City and the kind of people who stay there, like his friend Jimmy are found to be wanting and lead to his arrest and downfall. Bob is unable to understand that when a city develops a new life, the people within are bound to change as well to keep up (Paragraph 13).
In contrast, Jimmy is not self-centered, to the point that he allows Bob to say untrue and even unkind things about him without protest, so that he can make sure that he is able to apprehend Bob. He also clearly still feels loyal to Bob, as demonstrated by his inability to arrest Bob himself; but he selflessly puts those feelings to the side in order to help Bob be arrested and uphold the law. In this way, Jimmy is not a victim of hubristic thinking and actions. He does not experience a downfall, but rather stands by his values and does what he believes is right.
Loyalty
Bob and Jimmy find themselves and their sense of loyalty to each other challenged by new forms of loyalty in their lives. For Bob, his loyalty is to his pursuit of material security and the criminal actions that he takes to support himself, while Jimmy’s loyalty is to keeping New York City safe and enforcing and obeying the law. Even though Bob is loyal to his life of crime, he risks it all for his loyalty to his friend, and even though Jimmy is loyal to the law, he can’t bring himself to be the one who arrests Jimmy. The power of loyalty as a force is explored in this story, and it indicates that what Jimmy and Bob developed as a friendship before parting must have been meaningful and impactful to both of them. This raises the stakes of their meeting and their eventual separation—their loyalty to each other means that they both have something at stake, and something they ultimately lose, when Jimmy reports Bob to the plainclothes police officer. What each character is loyal to demonstrates their values and shows what kind of person they are. Bob’s loyalties reveal him to be self-centered and untrustworthy, while Jimmy’s show that he is morally upright and puts his beliefs about what is right and wrong before his own personal feelings. The fact that both characters, criminal and police officer, experience loyalty makes the argument that they may not be so different after all, and it develops and humanizes Bob’s character. With this demonstration of loyalty to his friendship, he is not a one-dimensional “bad guy,” but a person with deeply felt emotions and connections to others. Similarly, the fact that Jimmy cannot arrest him himself shows the complexity of his character, as someone who will do the right thing but cannot fully face the consequences of doing so. The story shows loyalty in many different forms, the flexible, complicated nature of what it means to be loyal, and the way that ideals, lifestyles, and people require their own kinds of loyalty.
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