After Twenty Years Short Summary by O Henry (Class 11)

Introduction

William Sydney Porter, also known by his pen name, O Henry, was a prominent short story writer from America. His stories mostly dealt with the lives of people residing in New York.

The endings of his stories often surprised the readers. This new device of "surprise endings" was introduced by O Henry and is now named after him. The short story 'After Twenty Years' also consists of a twisted ending. This story starts when a man standing outside a shop meets a cop patrolling around New York. The story's ending is unpredictable and leaves its readers questioning the importance of morality and friendship in one's life.

Summary

The story starts with the cop who is roaming around the streets of New York on a cold, rainy night. His name is not mentioned yet, but the way he checks every door he passes by and his description suggest that he is a responsible and honest man. He does the standard checking if the doors of shops in that domain are locked and secured properly.

While roaming around the street, he comes across a man (Bob) standing beside the door of a shop. As the cop approaches the stranger, he hurriedly explains his presence by stating that he was only there to meet an old friend. Exactly twenty years ago, they had made a promise to meet at the same place. The times have changed now, and the shop stands where a restaurant maintained by 'Big Joe' used to be. The cop comments that the restaurant was shut down around five years ago.

The man near the shop door is wearing a big jewel necktie and has a white mark near his right eye, which he might have acquired in a squabble with someone. This description does not particularly imply that this man is a criminal, but he clearly appears to be rich. The stranger starts to talk about his once best friend, Jimmy Wells. According to him, Jimmy and he had dinner in the restaurant before parting on the night twenty years ago. He was eighteen years old then, and Jimmy was a couple of years older than him. The following morning the man had to leave for the West to acquire a fortune. However, Jimmy decided to stay back to find what fate awaited him. The two friends, even though very fond of each other, were polar opposites in character. They both pledged to meet again at the same spot to see if they had achieved what they truly wanted.

The cop gets intrigued while listening to the story and questions the man if he and his friend have been in contact since the time they parted ways. The man reveals that they tried to maintain the connection by writing letters. However, the letters stopped after a couple of years. Nevertheless, the man remains assured that Jimmy is going to come because he is the man of his word. The man has travelled a long way to wait for his friend, and he would be elated if his friend showed up as well. The man takes out his expensive jewel-studded watch and notes that it is three minutes to ten, and his wait is about to end because it was exactly ten when they went their separate ways twenty years ago.

Taking the note on man's expensive watch, the cop comments that he might have achieved prosperity in the West. The man felicitously ratifies that he had, but he is worried about Jimmy, who was a 'slow mover' and might be living in New York with no accomplishment. He hopes Jimmy has done well for himself. If the West has taught him something, it is to fend for himself at all costs, and he is afraid Jimmy might not be able to do that by staying in New York. The cop asks that if his friend does not arrive by ten, he will leave the spot. However, the man is adamant about staying there for at least half an hour if Jimmy does not arrive on time. With this, the policeman continues on his way.

Around this time, the wind was picking its pace, and it was raining heavily. The man still waits at the door of the shop for his friend to show up. There was no guarantee that Jimmy would show up, but the man remained persistent. Twenty minutes later, a tall man arrived, running through the rain and greeted the waiting man. Hesitantly, he asked the first man if he was Bob. The man on the door inquires if he is Jimmy Wells. After the confirmation of their names, they shake hands and catch up for the years they have not seen each other. The new man finally expresses his happiness to meet his old friend Bob and explains that they used to eat together at the same restaurant, but now it's over. A new man inquires if his life in the West has been fruitful, and Bob replies affirmatively.

Bob observes that Jimmy has become taller than he was twenty years ago and believes that he was expected to be taller when he turned twenty. Bob further questions him about his life in New York. A new man responds that he works in the city, so he is doing well enough and suggests having a long chat, reminiscing about their past.

Both of them start to take a stroll together along the street. Bob begins to narrate his story of the time spent in the West while a new man listens attentively. As they approach the electric lights of a shop, Bob jerks away from him and says that the other man is not a very old friend of his. He had come to this conclusion by noting the shape of the other man's nose, which appeared different from Jimmy's. The other man reveals that he is actually a police officer and was only acting as Jimmy so he wouldn't have any difficulty in arresting Bob, who is a runaway fugitive. Bob didn't know it, but he had been under police custody for the past ten minutes, and it was a hunch of Chicago cops that Bob might have come to New York.

The officer delivers the letter that he was told to pass on to Bob. With shaky hands, Bob opens the paper and starts reading. The content of the letter discloses that Jimmy (the first cop) had arrived in front of their meeting spot as promised and found out that Bob was the wanted delinquent that Chicago police were on the lookout for. Being his friend, Jimmy didn't want to arrest Bob by himself. Therefore, he said goodbye once again and sent another cop to arrest him.

Themes

'After Twenty Years' deals with major social themes like friendship, crime, and honour. Both Jimmy and Bob fulfilled their promise to meet at the same place after twenty years, but the situation didn't go the way they might have expected. The main themes of the story are discussed below:

1. Good cop or Bad friend?
   From the beginning, Bob couldn't stop praising Jimmy as a friend or his twenty-year-old version in front of the first officer. Phrases such as "my best friend", "best fellow in the world", and "true as any man" are used by him to describe his friend. However, from the ending, we can see that Jimmy could only see a wanted fugitive when he went to meet an old friend. It didn't take him much time to decide to hand over Bob to the police on a silver platter. When the first cop asks Bob if he going to leave if Jimmy doesn't show up and by getting the response he needed he goes to lay a trap for Bob. His mind was already made up when he first saw Bob. Bob might not have even considered the possibility of Jimmy being a police officer as his first words to the man in uniform were uttered to steer clear of him. However, Jimmy might have felt a little responsible towards Bob's capture because he could have kept his identity hidden from his old pal, so, he decided to send a message. Jimmy had chosen his obligation over his friend, and times have changed both of them into strangers.
2. Cut what you have sown
   Bob was not shy about flaunting his wealth in front of the cop he met, which symbolizes that he had eventually found success in the West. The means of that wealth is revealed at the end of the story when the reader comes to know his true business. Even though he highly praises Jimmy as a friend, he acts quite condescendingly towards his slow and weak attitude towards life. In contrast to Jimmy, Bob is ambitious and clever, but he is not above using morally unacceptable ways to acquire wealth. In the end, we realized that they both fulfilled their promise of meeting after twenty years, but they had changed a lot in that time and it wouldn't result in a happy ending. The prosperity Bob had gained in the West was for nothing now that he was arrested and sent to prison.
3. It's not just time that changes
   The story starts on a positive note with the policeman who is patrolling around the streets of New York City and comes across a man who is waiting for his old friend. As the story progresses, it takes a mysterious turn, and we find out that nothing is as it is. Bob meets Jimmy (the first officer) but doesn't recognize him, even though he was there to only meet him. He could only identify that the man addressing himself as Jimmy was not him after some time. We have no account of how Jimmy and Bob treated each other before they went their separate ways. So, it cannot be confirmed if anything in their personality and outlook on life has changed. It might be the case that Jimmy wasn't as involved in their friendship as Bob, which might have made it easier for him to choose his responsibility over his friend. On the other hand, the way Bob praises and defends Jimmy every chance he gets indicates that he was there to meet Jimmy, even if he risked getting arrested.

Consequently, it was no one's fault how the circumstances changed the two main characters. They both made choices that led them to take action. We still didn't know the extent of the crime for which Bob was arrested. However, this begs the question: "Is supporting a good friend who is a bad person a betrayal of morality?"