Question

how did the situation reverse twenty years later?​

Answer 1

O. Henry is one writer whose style is familiar to generations of readers the world over, and "After Twenty Years" presents a prime example of this style. A typical O. Henry story will involve two people with an emotional connection to each other that is put under stress by the circumstances they face. At the end of the story, a strange twist generally occurs. Sometimes it is a twist of fate, but sometimes the twist is a piece of information that was not previously available to the reader and that sheds a new light on all that has come before it. Though some readers feel that the twist shows an overly sentimental view of the human condition, many readers enjoy the way O. Henry's stories affirm the best things about the human condition.