欧亨利短篇小说简评

欧亨利短篇小说述评学生姓名:指导教师:摘要:作为世界三大小说家之一，欧亨利与契诃夫和莫泊桑齐名。

他的作品因奇巧的艺术构思，出其不意的结尾而著称。

其中歌颂人性的小说是欧亨利文学创作的主流，并且许多作品已经成为了脍炙人口的名篇佳作。

同时也涌现了许多感人至深的经典人物。

表现了欧亨利对人性理想的执着追求。

本文主要分析了欧亨利的写作手法，包括精巧的情节设计，出人意料但符合逻辑的结局和幽默智慧的语言三方面，并在这基础上深刻探讨了欧亨利作品中表现出来的人性的善与恶。

关键词: 写作技巧；善；恶；人性A Brief Comment on O’ Henry’s Short StoriesUndergraduate:Supervisor:Abstract: O. Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. Exquisite plot, wry humor and twist ending dominate his works. The main stream of his works is eulogy of humanity and his many classical works are notable. This thesis mainly analyses O. Henry’s writing style including technique plot making, surprising but logical ending and humorous and witty tone, then deeply analyses the human virtues and defects reflected in O. Henry’s works.Key Words: artistic styles; virtues; defects; human characterContents1. Introduction (1)2. Unique artistic style (1)2.1 Technique plot making (1)2.2 Surprising but logical ending (3)2.3 Humorous and witty tone (4)3. The humanity of character (4)4. Conclusion (7)Bibliography (9)Acknowledgment (10)1. IntroductionO. Henry, originally named William Sydney Porter, is a distinguished American storywriter. He wrote more than 300 short stories in his life. His stories are full of colorful characters. He creates an original, typically American democratic form of short stories with, at its best, a valuable critical awareness of life and society tellingly expressed through humor. Therefore, some critics c all him “the founder of American stories”. Being gifted with humor and a keen awareness of details, he objectively shows us what America looks like. All his stories putting together constitute a true panorama of American life.This thesis mainly emphasizes O. Henry’s unique artistic styles and the human characters. It includes two main aspects. Part one is on the unique artistic styles. O. Henry is a good plot maker, he shows readers the real life of American people by giving people a surprising but logical ending through a plausible plot making using humor and witty tone which gives readers a new open sight. Part two stresses on the human nature that contains the virtues and defects sides. In a capitalist society, the specific characters are the special society. O. Henry shows people clearly in his works.2. Unique artistic styleO. Henry's trademark is the surprising ending that each of his stories contains. He sets a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader is convinced of the general direction of the narrative, the story will be completely reversed. And if we look back to the total story, the ending seems logical and plausible. As a “plot-maker”, and designer of incident, he is an amazing genius. No one can do better than him to holds the reader in “suspense”. More than that, the reader scarcely knows that he is suspended until the very close of the story. Just as turns on the lights and the whole tale is revealed in its entirety. He uses this device of dramatic and humorous effect in the short story collection The Four Million which including “The Ransom of Red Chief ”, “The Gift of the Magi ”, and“The Cop and the Anthem”, “the Service of Love”, “The last Leaf.” He uses compact and vivid language to set a plot and portray the plot through humorous and witty tone.2.1 Technique plot makingThe short story is the one fundamental and self-contained genre in American prose fiction, and the stories of O. Henry certainly makes their appearances in consequence of the prolonged and incessant cult ivation of the genre. As a “plot maker”, he is an amazing genius. No one can better him in holding the reader in “suspense”. More than that, the reader scarcely knows that he is suspended, until atthe very close of the story. O. Henry deliberately designs the little tricks with words, for he is a master of language and not its slave.The typical feature of O. Hen ry’s stories is a twist of plot. His ultimate achievement is to create the twist ending by the plot making and compact structure. He arranges a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader is going to be convinced of the general direction of the narrative, which he takes for granted, the story is completely reversed.For example, in “The Ransom of Red Chief”, two kidnappers, Sam and Bill make off with the little son of a prominent man. According to the general expectation, readers m ay assume that they will either obtain the ransom from the boy’s father or kill the boy in the end. But the plot is totally different. The boy is such a nuisance that they agree to pay the boy’s father to take him back because they can’t stand him anymore. Although the plot far exceeds expectations, readers appreciate the cleverness of plot situation and ending a great deal while enjoying the delight of reading.In O. Henry’s works, the events of some short stories are arranged in the specific order which e xceed reader’s normal expectation to the arrangement of those events in his works, make the ending unpredictable and strange. O. Henry deliberately designs the little tricks with words, for he is a master of language and not its slave.The suspense in the story is usually employed in the plot. It is the seemingly insignificant characters that finally become the notable figures that rouse readers ponder. In “The Last Leaf”, Mr.Behrman who is only mentioned in only a short paragraph in the middle of the story to show who he is, and two paragraph tell the reader his rage about Sue ’s fully thought. The main theme of the story is that Sue takes the last fallen ivy leaf as the end of her life. Before they know the end, readers will no doubt ask some questions. Ho w does Sue’s illness? Why does the leaf stick against the wall? Does the leaf fall down? Does Sue die? Why does the author mention Mr.Behrman? The last paragraph reveals. All suspense dissolves. The leave is painted by Behrman, while Sue lives. But the old painter died in hopeless pain by Pneumonia, or rather, to rescue Sue. He has to withstand tough wind and heavy shower and the life-long masterpiece paid off by his life. When we find the plausibility of ending in the previous passage, when Mr. Pneumonia wais called in, the Johsey scarcely moves, only looking through the small Dutch windowpanes at the blank side of the next brick house, the “blank side” of brick later provides the location for Mr.Behrman’s masterpiece, the description of Mr.Behrman. He is p ast 60 and has a Micheal Angeo’s Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp. “Micheal Angeo’s Moses” leaves readers an impression of artistic potential. “Imp” can explain why he was so weak to fight against disease.The comp act structure is O. Henry’s outstanding writing technique. Events in the story are closely connected as chains of rings, which make readers eagerly interested in the ending of the story. As soon as the high light of the reverse of plots, the story ends wit hout any redundant explanations. In “The Last Leaf”, the description of Mr.Behrman, the true hero, only takes up 500 words in more than 5000 words. Meanwhile, the story dismisses a part, rousing us readers a great deal of imagination: How can old man, above 60 years old stand on the ladder, drawing a leaf on the wall in the dreadfully storming night, while his “shoes and clothing were wet t hrough and icy cold.”?Therefore, the main stream of O. Henry’s works is easily perceived: the suspense in addition to wry humor ending is his main rhetoric method.2.2 Surprising but logical endingThe ending of an article has long been considered as a conclusion or just a summary of the whole passage. However, O. Henry illustrates a new way, the so-called twist ending or sometimes the O. Henry’s ending. It means that at the end of an article the mental status or the fate of the character has changed greatly. But the whole passage is suddenly endowed with a great charm because of the ending. The author has your nerves all a quiver until the last sentence. The surprise comes quickly and the story is finished. O. Henry is such a master of the unexpected ending that one must admire his skills.In the story The Cop and the Anthem, Soapy, a homeless tramp, deciding to be sent to the prison on the Island which he called his winter quarter against the rigor and the hunger, attempted to practice several illegal activities for the purpose of “wooing capture”;(O, Henry 2004: 09) but the cop, who stood nearby when Soapy was trying to attract his attention by his anti-law behavior, paid no special attention to Soapy every time, even “seemed to regard him as a king who could do no wrong”. (O, Henry 2004: 09) Developing up here, the story must give the reader the conclusion that Soapy had to go back disappointedly to his home—a park bench. On his way, the sweet music of anthem from the church played by the organist and the beautiful moonlight scenery “wrought a sudden and wonderful change in his soul”, (O, Henry 2004: 10) he made up his mind to “pull himself out of the mire”(O, Henry 2004: 10)and “make a man of himself again”. (O, Henry 2004: 10) Moving like this, the plot is not completely understandable at once. When the reader is puzzled about the use and meaning of growing plot, and just while Soapy was planning his tomorrow’s action for being “somebody in the world”, (O, Henry 2004: 11) an unforeseen plot, and just while abruptly: he was arrested because a policeman thought him doubtful, and the next day he was sentence to “three months on the Island”. (O, Henry 2004: 11) The story stops here suddenly in spite of the reader’s not immediate understanding. But after a moment of consideration, the reader’s surprise turns into admiration for hisastonishing contrivance of tricky ending which reveals rigorously the real facts of reversal between truth and falsehood in capitalist society which confuses right and wrong.2.3 Humorous and witty toneO. Henry, a great designer, is skillful enough to dye some color of pink in a tragedy, or kind of sadness in comedy. O. Henry’s stories are humorous encyclopedia of American life. This means that this work is full of various humors, sometimes even with exaggeration. It fully discloses the essence of American society: the weak are the prey of the strong, which is regarded as the law of the jungle universally. Right and wrong are confused, good and evil are disordered; Materialism and individualism dominate people’s mind. This writing technique makes his work enjoy the fame of “Smile with Tears”.The humorous paragraph describes the congested conditions of a room where the hero and heroin live in the “The Service of Love”, the story tells of an earnest young pair of art students, the Lattabees, who prop up each other’s courage when their funds run out by pretending to have lucked into a steady income from their professional skill in painting and music. But it turns out that Delia’s service has been ironing shirts in a laundry while Joe has been firing the furnace in the same building. Readers are not surprised to find out how precious their genuine love for each other is. Monetarily they were poor, but they are mentally wealthy. We may laugh with tears after finishing reading the story. O. Henry carries an abundant good humor with hum and sees the bright and amusing side of things. O. Henry is not the comic wit that explodes the reader into a huge guffaw of laughter and vanishes. His humor and twist ending are of that deep quality that smiles at life itself and mingles our amusement with our tears.Such examples can be found throughout the story. These sentences seem to be talked about very casually to make the story appear to be a comedy. But meanwhile, we can also feel the sadness and helplessness of the hero Soapy. Readers are seduced by humor language and stories plots step by step, but finally cannot help laughing, but with pitiful tears.3. The humanity of characterAmong O. Henry’s short stories, the eternal theme proves to be the humanity. Whether simple or complex, the mystery of human motives controlled by human nature is exposed. There are good and evil elements in human nature, for the two are often mixed with each other more or less. When the good elements in human nature occupy the predominant portion, man will carry forward his virtues such as kindness, generosity, hospitality, self-sacrifice for love and friendship, helping others without asking for rewards. While the evil things defeat the good in human nature, man willdisplay such human defects as being gluttonous and lazy, rapacious, officious, vain arrogant, cowardly, impetuous etc. The human motives become more and more mysterious and various. When tempted, good man would do evil things; when moved by noble-minded people or touching things, the demon will forsake darkness for light and turn over a new leaf in his life. In O. Henry's world, established figures become boobs and rich men become dunces, while rogues become heroes and down-and-outers become gentlemen.3.1 The human virtuesHuman being has many virtues from ancient times to the present. They are kind, brave, honest, hard working, polite, thrifty, generous, hospital and so on. Some people still pay a great deal in order to maintain these virtues, they sacrifice their own happiness even their life for lofty love and friendship; they help others without asking for rewards and regard it as a pleasure; they give up their own treasure and chance to others etc. Such people bring love and fine things to the world; they are the ones who endow the world with light and hope. O. Henry has a great understanding of the trials of the lower class, and he frequently pictures the lives of ordinary people of early twentieth century America with warm and sympathetic colors. These characters are frequently the overlooked: the struggling shops girl, the unsuccessful artist, and the impoverished. Even Theodore Roosevelt said: “It was O. Henry who started me on my cam paign for office girls.” There is no denying that the narratives of humanity by O. Henry have everlasting influence. Although they are poor, le ading the life “made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles pre dominating”,they still think, “If a home is happy i t cannot fit too close.”Most of O. Henry’s stories show that the humble little insignificant people of New York are just as admirable and their lives are as worthy of attention and interest and, as he implies, as respectable as the members of the Four Hundred.Take “The Gift of the Magi” as an example, we will find the ingenuity of O. Henry’s unexpected endings. From that condensation of the charm of human virtues the love-sacrificial theme is shown. It is about a young couple that is short of money but desperately wants to buy each other Christmas gifts. Unknown to Jim, Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy platinum as the chain for Jim's watch; unknown to Della, Jim sells his most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jeweled combs for Della's hair. The author arranges the entire plot just to get the readers to wait, to cause suspense, the pleasurable excitement and anticipation of the outcome. From the beginning, the readers keep guessing what Jim and Della will buy for each other, and the coincidence of their gift is the great suspense the author put in his article. And then he gives the answer to the question. Here is the ending: “Here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children ina flat who most unwisely scarified for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in the last word to the wise of these days let it be said tha t of all who give gifts.” (O, Henry 2004: 35) However, the story end comes when Jim reveals that he has sold his watch to buy Dalla her present, from where the poor couple’s love is show. Therefore, O. Henry ends the story artfully, and with deft touches he elicits the reader’s admiration and sympathy for his young couple shows love for each other more than compensates for their lack of money and material possessions. Though confronted with cruel reality and dull daily routine, Della and Jim can never change their eagerness toward love. To them the most valuable material possession is so slight and insignificant before the spiritual possession of love romance. That is sparkling with fragrant charm.There is another story about sacrifi cial theme entitled “The Last Leaf”, a warm and tragic tale describing how a dying artist proves as resilient as the last leaf on the wall outside. Sue, a poor painter, attacked by Pneumonia, wanted to turn loose her hold on everything, and go sailing down, just like one of those poor tires leave. But after beating rain and fierce gusts of wind, an ivy leaf still stands against the brick wall, which gives her the hope of living, mak ing her realize that: “It is a sin to want to die”. The ending reveals that Mr. Behrman, a kind old artist dies at previous night by pneumonia, painting the leave on an outdoor vine in the storming night ----in his effort to restore Sue’s will to live. Though the touching ending makes us absorbed in sadness, the readers can still find gleams of hope and desire out of despair. It not only enlightens the girl’s courage for better life but also moves every reader to tears. Those glittering human virtues however counterpoint to the capitalist industrial bourgeoisies’ human defeats, telling us that life is supreme and thus upgrading the theme.By and large, through the portrayal the panorama of a throng of people either of upper class or lower class, O. Henry’s eulogize the specious and precious human virtues.3.2 The human defectsOn the other hand, human beings have many defects, too. They benefit themselves at the expense of others. In order to make money they never show mercy and sympathy to the poor. They realize their own aims by hook or by crook. Their evil deeds make the world vicious. By exposing the human defects and the dark side of the world, O. Henry wants to awaken people’s conscience and their deepest desire for all good things, so that people can make their efforts to save and clean the whole world. Some people love money than anything else. In “Mammon and the Archer”, Anthony Fuckwell, a retired manufacturer and proprietor of Rockwall’ Soap, has the greatest esteem for the value of money. “I bet my money on money every time, I’ve been through the encyclopedia down to Y loo king for something you can’t buy with it, andI expect to have to take to the appendix next week, I’m for money against the field. Tell me something money won’t buy. ” (O, Henry 2004: 113) His son wants to ask for a girl’s hand but there is too little time left. Surprisingly, a fortunately traffic tie-up offers enough time for the son. But the ending discloses that it is the father who makes the accident in order to help his son to win the girl’s heart. The theme of the story come out: confronted with the Mammon even Archer has to be bent his head down. To Anthony and his peers, the only thing worthy of their thought is money. With the ironic rhetoric method, O. Henry ends the story with a fat boy without any clothes on shooting arrow around with a bow. That is pictured Cupid, in a new, unexpected way, thus bringing readers a new sense to the topic “Mammon and the Archer”. This usage of the twist ending adds artistic effect to the person’s character described.In a capitalist society, many people even do evil things against their conscience, so as to earn money. In “The Furnished Room”, the housekeeper, Mrs. Purdy, cheats a young man who is seeking his lover, in order to let him rent the room. Then the young man commits suicide out of despair. At the end, after the young man dies, we find the man’s lover commit suicide at the same rented room. Mrs.Purdy talks about it with another housekeeper in an indifferent tone as if it were only a trifle that could be the topic for gossip over dinner. The society is so doomed by an atmosphere of gloom and indifference that it makes people treat others or even friends without sympathy, equaling to committing murder.In “The Romance of a Busy Broker”, the businessman Maxwell is so crazy about his golden eternal business- make big money against the clock. More than that he even forgets he has married or not. And in a tumult of a preparation out of his work, he asks his wife to marry again. Those twist ending exploses the whole theme of the article. Are the readers to deride the broker or to show sympathy for the broker’s tender wife?The author uses pungent rhetoric methods not only to show us the humanity vividly, but also to enhance the theme: the gluttonous and cruel side of those bourgeoisies.4. ConclusionO. Henry focuses on the poverty-stricken life and spiritual depression of common people. He takes great sympathy on them, with dissatisfaction with the greediness of the rich and the noble. O. Henry is adept at seizing and grasping the typical scenes in life, in which each episode of the life of the characters that had been in dilemma and confronted fatal decision was presented. Through this, he not only chiefly portrays the hero’s mentality but also fully reveals the inner contradiction of life. Finally, the human virtues and defects emerge from the twist ending. That notonly arouses readers ponder about the humanity but also earns O. Henry’s story fame of “smile with tears”. Henry not only widens the experience of his readers, he also restates the verities that exist wherever people continue to strive for truth and beauty in life. The humanity reflected from the twist ending makes his stories at their best an influence for the furthering of those ideals that still tend to command the allegiance of civilized men. O. Henry is the “founder of American stories”. His works are like a mirror of American society at that time. A multiple of reflections are rippling through the years passing by. The plots in O. Henry’s works appear to be nothing special at first glance. Nevertheless, read those to the ending and you will find something unusual out of what seems to be too ordinary. His works are full of depth in portraying an unfathomable humanity of character.In a nutshell, O. Henry’s artistic charms will everlast and be vie wed as a perpetual encyclopedia of American life.Bibliography[1] Medrick, Fred. An introduction to American literature[M]. Henan University Press,1985[2] Hudson, Long. O Henry The Man and His Work[C]. New York:Russell and Russell,1969[3] O, Henry, Heart of the West[M]. New York: McClure, 1907[4] O, Henry, The Four Million[M]. New York: Dobleday, Doran and Company. 1906 P68[5] O, Henry, 欧亨利短篇小说[M].青海：青海出版社，2004[6] 李国宁. 欧亨利式结尾的艺术魅力[M]. 北京：清华大学出版社，2003[7] 李遇溪. 外国文学名著赏析词典[M]. 杭州：浙江文艺出版社，1988[8] 欧亨利. 四百万[M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1988[9] 荣四才. 欧亨利与欧亨利奖[J]. 外国文学. 1993(6):34-35[10] 吴伟仁. 美国文学史及选读[M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1990[11] 魏春艺. 欧亨利小说人性世界面面观[J]. 丹东师专学报，2003，P28[12] 赵书颖. “含泪的笑”与“含笑的泪”浅析欧·亨利的主题[J].黑龙江教育学院学报, 2004〈3〉. P66[13] 赵丽，黄春妮. 欧亨利作品导读[M]. 武汉: 武汉大学出版社 2003 P3AcknowledgmentAt the point of finishing this paper, I’d like to express my sincere thanks to all those who have given me hands in the course of my writing this paper. First of all, I'd like to take this opportunity to show my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Wang Xiaoyun, who has given me so much useful advices on my writing, and has tried her best to improve my paper. Secondly, I’d like to express my gratitude to my classmates who offered me references and information on time. Last but not least, I’d like to thank those leaders, teachers and working staff in Mianyang Normal University and especially those in the School of Foreign Languages. Without their help, it would be much harder for me to finish my study this paper.。