The Cop and the Anthem 警察与赞美诗 欧亨利

On the opposite side of the street was a restaurant of no great pretensions. It catered to large appetites and modest purses. Its crockery and atmosphere were thick; its soup and napery thin. Into this place Soapy took his accusive shoes and telltale trousers without challenge. At a table, he sat and consumed beefsteak、 flapjacks、doughnuts and pie. And then to the waiter be betrayed the fact that the minutest coin and himself were strangers.
Ironic coincidence Black humor Profound contrast Surprising ending
1: The short story is full of ironic coincidences, which is mainly reflected in the series of tragedies to catch the cop’s attention. 2: The writer uses the ironic coincidences to show the social situation of America: the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility; confusing right and wrong; the weak are the prey of the strong.
William Sidney Porter was born in North Carolina,

in1862. When he was 3, his mother died, and he was raised by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt. He was an avid reader, but at the age of 15, he left school, and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He got little education but listened and read a lot. He continued to Houston where he had a number of jobs, including accountant, land board clerk, reporter. In 1887, he married Athol Estes Roach; they had daughter and a son. O. Henry last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health and financial problems In 1910, he died of cirrhosis of liver in New York.
Cabbages and Kings《白菜与国王》
The Four Million《四百万》 The Gift of Magi《麦琪的礼物》 The Last Leaf《最后一片叶子》 The Furnished Room《带家具出租的房间》 The Cop and the Anthem《警察与赞美诗》
For years the hospitable Blackwell’s had been his winter



quarters. It seemed that his route to the coveted island was not to be an epicurean one. And yet the meat would leave him filled and happy for the journey to his winter refuge. Three months of assured board and bed and congenial company , safe from Boreas and bluecoats, seemed to Soapy the essence of things desirable. Arrested seemed but a rosy dream. The island seemed very far away.
Cop: the safeguard and protector of the people and society;
Anthem: the religious music which purifies people’s heart and sublime the spirit;
Cop + Anthem=?
Wrong society and human nature
Thank you!
• 10 collections and over 600 short stories
• He was a prolific American short-story writer
• • • •
who wrote about the life of ordinary people in New York City like clerks, policemen and waitresses. He was a master of surprise endings, known as a good end, it was called “O. Henry-end”. He was called Prose Laureate of Manhattan and father of American modern short stories. He is one of three short story master in the world. (O. Henry, Maupassant, Chekhov) O. Henry's short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise ending.
How do you understand the title “The
Cop and the Anthem ”?
State of minds of the people in lower class. Hypocrisy of the seeming high class people. The antithesis of the secular power and religious power.
1:The description of the environment shows the luxurious life of the ruling class and makes a sharp contrast to the under class people , who possess almost nothing such as Soapy. 2:Another contrast is the cops’ attitude to different people which means the attitude to the rich and poor: belly the weak and fear the strong.
It is the most remarkable characteristic of O. Henry’s short stories. The readers are often suspended and they scarcely know they are suspended until they come to the very close to the story.
The Cop and the Anthem
O. Henry
O. Henry
1862-1910
Wilwenku.baidu.comiam Sidney Porter
• The Harrells, with whom Porter stayed in Austin,
had a cat named Henry that Porter would Play with. The cat would come running when Porter would shout “Oh, Henry!” • William Trevor writes that when Porter was in the Ohio State Penitentiary "there was a prison guard named Orrin Henry, whom William Sydney Porter . . . immortalized as O. Henry". • The writer and scholar Guy Davenport offers another explanation: "The pseudonym that he began to write under in prison is constructed from the first two letters of Ohio and the second and last two of penitentiary."