dialogue between Bob and Jimmy wells after 20 years
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After Twenty Years Questions and Answers
by O. Henry
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From the story "After Twenty Years" what is the significance of the dialogue of the story?
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MWESTWOOD eNotes educator | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
It is the dialogues of "After Twenty Years" that propel the plot and reveal O. Henry's signature irony in this story.
From these dialogues, then the main characters meet and speak in the exposition, the problem of the plot is presented as they converse, the climax occurs as Bob speaks to the plain clothes policeman, and the resolution comes with the written note from Officer Wells as a communication with "Silky" Bob.
The stranger who stands in the doorway of what once was a restaurant divulges to the policeman on his beat that he is waiting for an old friend. It was twenty years ago, he says, that they parted ways, and they agreed on that night to meet again. He adds with dramatic irony,
"We figured that in twenty years each of us ought to have our destiny worked out and our fortunes made, whatever...
In “After Twenty Years,” written by O. Henry the dialogue of Bob through a note to Jimmy Wells was "I was at the appointed place on time. When you struck the match to light your cigar I saw it was the face of the man wanted in Chicago. Somehow I couldn't do it myself, so I went around and got a plainclothesman to do the job".
The “After Twenty Years,” written by O. Henry is a simple and clear story of two friends Bob and Jimmy Wells who parted their ways and before parting they decide that they will meet in the same New York street after twenty years.
After twenty years Bob was waiting on a New York street for Jimmy Wells whom he agreed to meet twenty years earlier, and he shares his story to a passing policeman. This situation can be understood by societies all over the world of all generations. In the end, readers get to know that Bob had become a criminal whereas Jimmy Wells was the passing policeman with whom he shared his story.
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