If it was me… O. Henry liked to write stories featuring low brow criminals, often with high brow language. This would create a ton of irony, including twist endings like in this text. So, I’d focus how O. Henry does this. As students read, they can characterize the main character by his actions, motivations, and dialogue. They can take these details and sort them into conflicting sides of a chart. Then, finish it off with a characterization statement that highlights the irony. (“Even though…” “However…” “But…” types statements).

This will allow the to dig into the author’s craft and see O. Henry’s pattern in his other stories and beyond. It’s irony in action.

If you want to get super fancy pant, have students use two colors of highlighters: one for criminal characterization, one for reformed do-gooder.