23 pages • 46 minutes read
After Twenty Years
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Symbols & Motifs
Big Joe Brady’s Restaurant
Even though New York City is the setting of the story, Big Joe Brady’s Restaurant is the more precise setting, as it is where Bob and Jimmy promised to reunite after 20 years. The restaurant is the last place the friends had gotten dinner together, so they agreed that it would be the meeting place. Unfortunately, 20 years later, the police officer (Jimmy) explains that it had been closed for five years. Thus, the restaurant represents the friendship between Jimmy and Bob: a happy place of the past, now unavailable to them, where they could meet and speak as peers. The restaurant has disappeared, just as their friendship and connection can no longer be accessed by either of them. Further, it is the first indication of the monumental change that has occurred, reflected in the changes in New York City, since Bob and Jimmy last saw each other. The men they have both grown into means the termination of their friendship, just as the growth of the city led to the closure of the restaurant.
Expensive Possessions
At the beginning of the story, when the officer, later to be revealed as Jimmy, notices the man standing in a darkened doorway, the first attribute of the man that is noted is that he has an “unlighted cigar in his mouth” (Paragraph 3). This is the readers first sign that the mystery man is affluent and flaunts his wealth to feel powerful. Bob mentions that he and Jimmy promised to meet up in 20 years in order to discover what men they had become, so it’s apparent that Bob wants Jimmy to know exactly how wealthy and successful he has been as soon as he looks at him. As Bob begins to tell the officer his story, he lights his cigar, a symbol of wealth. In doing this, he enables the officer to see his face, his scar, and his bejeweled attire. It’s at this moment that the officer, Jimmy, recognizes Bob’s face as that of a wanted man, instantly ending the potential of an incredible reunion and a celebration of friendship. Bob continues to flash his watch and other indications that he is wealthy, all of which he believes keep him safe; ultimately, they are what gets him arrested.
The West
The West is an unseen, secondary setting for the story. At first, it is where Bob has found his fortune and it seems to be a place where a man can make something of himself, but the narrative reveals that it is actually more sinister than it sounds. Bob alludes to the uncertainty and cruelty of the West, affirming that in exchange for fortune, the West “is a pretty big proposition” (Paragraph 9), forcing him to keep moving addresses and thus putting “a razor-edge on him” (Paragraph 13). The reader finally finds out when Bob, nicknamed “Silky” Bob, is arrested, that this fortune has been acquired dishonestly and that he has had to keep “hustling around over it pretty lively” in order to avoid justice (Paragraph 9). Such a perception and glorification of the West is in keeping with the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the West had earned the nickname “the Wild West,” a land that attracted the kinds of people who were anti-authoritarian and wanted to live under their own set of laws. In many cases they were actually able to do so, as the West was so geographically large that exercises of effective law enforcement was few and far between. Not only this, but as the West became ever wilder and more lawless, exhilarating tales of legendary outlaws such as William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid became integrated into popular culture and media (such as dime novels, which were easily bought and read by the masses), further indicating that Bob would have been able to make money as a criminal in that region.
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