PURPOSE: To identify events in a short story that advance the plot and determine how each event explains past or present actions.

DIRECTIONS: Read the story titled After 20 years by O. Henry.  Answer these questions and submit answers to your instructor for credit.

DUE: _____________________________

1. What time of the day/night does this story take place? Why is that important?

Why has the man in the the doorway come back to the old neighborhood after twenty years?

2. What clues help us realize Bob was wealthy?

3. What clues helped you figure out that Bob was a "shady" character?

4. What does the police officer realize when the man in the doorway lights his cigar?

5. Why was it important for the police officer to talk to Bob while he was waiting by the restaurant?

6. How does the man in the doorway describe Jimmy Wells?

7. What happens to Bob at the end of the story?

8. Why does the police officer need to know if the man would wait for his friend of "call on him sharp"? What do you think the officer would've done if the man had said he would leave at 10:00?

9. Several details about Bob's appearance and behavior warn us that he is hiding from someone.  What clues hint at something sinister about Bob?

10. After the policeman left, another man shows up to meet Bob? It's not his friend, Jimmy. Who is it?

11. What tips off Bob that this man really isn't his friend?

12. When did you realize who the police officer was? Find and explain the first clue to his identity.

13. What happened to Bob at the end of the story?

14. Why wasn't Jimmy with his friend at the end of the story?

15. Both men honor a commitment they made 20 years ago but for Jimmy Wells there's one thing more important than even a long friendship. what truth about loyalty versus honesty does this story reveal to you?

16.  Some people don't like O. Henry's surprise endings. They think these endings make the stories unbelievable. Do you agree? or disagree? Explain why or why not.

CHECK TEST--True / False

1. Bob waits in a doorway to meet his old friend Jimmy Wells.

2. Bob last saw Jimmy ten years before.

3. Bob recognizes Jimmy as he sees him.

4. The third man in the story is a plainclothes police officer.

5. Jimmy Wells tells the other police officer where to find Bob.

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