Good day to everyone listening to this short analysis, my name is Natalia González and

today I will be briefly dissecting 1906’s ''After Twenty Years'' by O. Henry, also known
as William Sydney Porter. His work was often set in the early 20th century and would
tackle the struggles of working class characters, such as waiters, criminals and social
outcasts. In this instance, a police officer is walking late at night in a New York City
street, a “fine looking cop, watchful, guarding the peace”. Then he notices Bob, a
successful man from the West, standing in a dark doorway to a shop. The officer
approaches him, and Bob explains that he is waiting for an old friend, Jimmy Wells.
Twenty years ago, the two men had agreed to meet on that day, at Big Joe’ Brady’s
restaurant. The officer leaves after a little more conversation and twenty minutes later,
Bob sees a man in a long coat approaching him. Thinking this tall man is Jimmy Wells,
he receives him excitedly and the man in the coat suggests that they go somewhere else
to catch up -since the restaurant that they had agreed to meet at was no longer there.
Walking together, and as Bob was talking about the stories of his life, the bright lights
from a shop reveal that this man is not Jimmy Wells. He is just another police officer,
who proceeds to put him under arrest. Finally, he receives news from Jimmy, but only
through a note that he had passed to the officer in the coat. Jimmy had been there at the
right time, it is just that they had both changed. Bob was now a wanted criminal and
Jimmy could not bring himself to arrest him, so he had to get a coworker to do it.

Now, if you are thinking this is quite the twist for a story about old friends meeting
again, it certainly is! O. Henry tended to include these surprise endings in his work.
However, more than just a story about friendship, I consider this is a tale about loyalty
and the passing of time. The restaurant that is no longer there, the trouble the characters
had to recognize each other, the node to the Wild West – even the title of the story!
They all point to how time gets you from point A to point B in ways you did not expect
or do not like. Now that times have changed, to whom should you stay loyal? Your
family, your friends, your job, yourself? We can tell Jimmy and Bob would answer this
question differently.

Bob said in the story, “In New York a man doesn’t change much. In the West you learn
how to fight for what you get” However, time changed them both. Taking Henry’s work
and the information of this story into account, we can infer these events belong to the
period within 1870’s and the early 1900’s. Both the time when New York started
emerging as a prominent North American city and the West was still present as a myth
and a reality.

In Jimmy’s case, he would have probably witnessed the emergence of New York as the
new metropolis at the turn of the century. The immigrants that started coming, the
development of the city's infrastructure, maybe even the “construction boom” that we
often see in period films. Likely, Jimmy would be part of “a proud police force
marching in front of a large crowd”, along the “street sweepers in clean white suits” that
the library of congress mentions in an essay on the topic. After 20 years, his loyalty as a
fine police officer belonged to his job, the city and his own moral compass. So much so,
that he did not hesitate to get Bob arrested. Just as he said in his note, he did not see his
fellow from his younger years; he saw “the face of the man wanted by Chicago cops.”
You can tell he was planning to arrest him all along, since he also asked him “if he isn’t
here at ten, are you going to leave?” to make sure he would be there when his coworker
arrived. However, it made sense that he could not arrest him himself. The dilemma was
still present, because Bob WAS his friend. He was probably thinking, “Would arresting
my old friend mean that I am betraying him? Jimmy kept his side of the promise as
well, but for him, duty came first.

On the other hand, Bob chose something else for himself. O. Henry did not include the
nature of Bob’s crimes in the story, but we can assume that he was not an angelic
upright man considering the Chicago police went as far as alerting another city’s police
department to stop him. Besides, he hinted at it by stating that he had to fight for his
success, and fight for what he got. He was probably in the midst of running away or
moving all over the area to avoid his arrest and sentence. Besides, you could infer that
he used his fierceness, confidence and sharpness to his advantage. For example, it seems
he was able to guess what the first police officer was thinking and tried to ease his mind
a little. Why would he state the reason why he is standing outside in the middle of the
night? On top of that, he was aware that someone might be looking for him. He chose to
stand in a darkened area, possibly to avoid people recognizing his face. The reader
could also notice his bold and confident nature made him able to speak to a police
officer directly despite his record. Apart from all that, Bob was a man of his word. It
seems he already had that tendency early on, but it is also possible that the “code of the
West” influenced him. As Kathy Weiser from Legends of America affirmed, it was not
really an official written set of rules, but people in the area were bound by respect for
the land, hospitality and, of course, loyalty. Being true and sticking by those he cared
about was a part of Bob as much as Jimmy’s. Ironically, a display of goodness is what
ruined his dubiously wealthy life style.

Still, if you look at these two people in this situation, they are not that different from
each other. Of course, that does not mean they do not think apart. In fact, they might
have not been able to understand each other had they had the chance to chat earnestly.
In reality, despite all the life experiences they had had in 20 years, they acted just the
same in this occasion. Both of them did what they thought had to be done. Thank you so
much for listening to my analysis, I hope you have a nice rest of your day.