The Cop and the Anthem Themes
Freedom and Confinement
O. Henry turns this theme upside-down and shakes it in this story. "The Cop and the Anthem" is about a free man, Soapy, trying to get thrown in jail. Over the course of the story, Soapy begins to d...
Rules and Order
"The Cop and the Anthem" is set in New York City in the early 1900s. The city is shown as a fairly orderly place. By contrast, our main character, a homeless man named Soapy, is all about disorder....
Society and Class
Considering how short of a story "The Cop and the Anthem" is, we certainly get to see quite a few different classes throughout the story. Soapy's homeless existence and the money and power present...
Transience
This short story shows us one day and (briefly) one morning in the life of Soapy, a homeless man living in New York City in the early 1900s. There is nothing stable in his life except the city itse...
Dreams, Hopes, and Plans
One moral we might get out of this story (if we were looking for morals) is that our goals and dreams, our hopes, and our plans for the future might play a big role in determining the course of our...