How Friendship can Interfere with The Law

by Inaya Majid

In “After 20 Years” by O. Henry, friendship wants to be kept; whereas in “The Hitchhiker” by Roald Dahl, the law is challenged because of friendship, but in both, we have the same idea that friendship can always try to bend the law. 

When the reader first reads “After 20 Years” we skim the idea that the policeman (Jimmy Wells) feels bad arresting Bob. Jimmy Wells still wants to maintain his friendship with him, but at the same time, the law has to come first. We really see this when you look in-depth into the story.  For example, “… I saw it was the face of the man wanted in Chicago [and] somehow I couldn’t do it myself…”. Jimmy did not want to arrest his friend, but since he was a policeman, the law forced him to. He really tested to see if he could bend the law for his friendship. He left the scene of arrest and got another officer, a plainclothes man, to arrest Silky Bob, who could have escaped.

Alternatively, in “The Hitchhiker,” the law is challenged because of the hitchhiker and the driver’s friendship.  The police gave them a ticket because they were speeding, which is against the law. If you see it from the policeman’s perspective they were breaking the law, but from the hitchhiker’s perspective, he understood that he was breaking the law, but the driver was just showing him how fast the car could go.  As he had egged him on, it should not be the driver’s fault.  Because of their friendship, the law is tested. We see this when the hitchhiker takes the ticket book away from the policeman. We see that in this story, friendship will come first before the law.   

Even though both of these stories are different they both have the same idea that friendship can make you consider bending the law.  In “After 20 Years” the policeman does not arrest him on the spot – otherwise (he must think) they will lose their friendship. I bet after Jimmy hears “…[we were] just like two brothers, together,” he must have been touched.  In “The Hitchhiker” they were breaking the law, but the hitchhiker felt that it was a nice enough trade as he been given a ride.

After reading these two stories, we realize that the law has to come first and yet, that the law is always tested, and often broken, when friendship is at stake. For instance, consider someone very close to you – think of the person you would go any length to help, if they got in trouble. Now, imagine that you have an opportunity to warn them about a pending arrest. Would you weigh the chances of getting caught (and perhaps punished at school, and having your parents find out) with the freedom your action could preserve? If you take the question seriously and think about it, allowing for certain options or possibilities to appear in your imagination, I think you would be surprised what you would be tempted to do.

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