Refer to explorations in literature for a complete version of this story. read this excerpt from "after twenty years." bob: 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 plain clothes man to do the job. jimmy which statement best explains o. henry’s choice to have jimmy write the note to bob? a) it illustrates the fact that jimmy is weak in character, and after twenty years only bob really made something of himself. b) it shows the reader that jimmy is a man of the law and needs to explain to bob why he was unable to meet bob as planned. c) it explains why jimmy does not come to meet bob at the appointed time and place twenty years later. d) it provides the reader with insight into jimmy's character and illustrates how different the two men are after twenty years.

When i was young enough to still spend a long time buttoning my shoes in the morning, i'd listen toward the hall: daddy upstairs was shaving, in the bathroom, and mother downstairs was frying the bacon. they would begin whispering back and forth to each other up and down the stairwell. my father would whistle his phrase, my mother would try to whistle, then hum hers backi drew my buttonhook in and out and listened to it -know it was "the merry widow." the difference was, their song almost floated with laughter. how different from the record, which growled from the beginning, as if the victrola were only slowly being wound up. they kept it running between them, up and down the stairs where i was now just about ready to run clattering down and show them my shoes. what is the effect of the parallelism used in the above excerpt? it establishes the rhythm of a duet to echo the song. it expresses the same ideas. it mirrors opposite ideas. it is a paradox.