Characters in O. Henrys short stories 论欧亨利短篇小说的特点

was deeper. The number of lower class poor people rocketed .The whole society were undergoing a profound change. The development of consumption culture and subsequent problems of morality consisted of many contradictions in people’s social behaviors. Such characters as Sacrifice, Diligence, and Model are stressed in the end of 19th century, while Personalities like Purchase, Vanity, and Personal Success were stressed in the beginning of 20th century. Many of O · Henry stories take place in New York, the capital where the contradiction sharply exists. O · Henry has an obvious affection for the city. His stories deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, policemen, and waitresses. He opens \Four Million” by observing \York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million'.”2The characters of the story are mainly the lower class who struggles to make a living in sadness, impoverished, crucial and unjust society. Whether good or bad, provide for its people, some people corrupted, some still stood at the very first place, keeping pure hearted and self-sacrificed. Different changes found expression in different character behaviors.

In “The Gift of Magi”, we readers are not only touched by the supreme of valuable love, but at the same time we get clues of how the consumption culture exert its impact on people’s attitude toward the change of the society in that period. Concepts of social status are hidden behind the behaviors of consumption, thus creating a utopia that “everyone is equal before commodity”. It seems that people could reestablish his or her social statues through consuming behaviors. Gift, sending to close friends or relatives to strengthen the bonds of relationship at the first place, then becomes a commodity that goes far beyond its real significance. Both Jim and Della’s gifts are completely beyond their purchasing power. That would reflect people’s attitude toward economy. Illuming in the tide of materialism, people pay much attention on consumption, even take it as an “adventure”. The commodity-status relationship dominates people’s mind. Though Della and Jim’s buying gifts are greatly influenced by the consumption culture shift, the ending shows out the true love through their tough course of purchasing. Another example, from “The Cop and the Anthem”, we can see the so-called “quality under law” at the end of 20 century is only superficial and unjust to everyone. The social disorder coexists with the prosperity of the

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social economy, which vividly justifies Soppy’s morbid mindset, and distortion of the humanity.

Let’s take “The Romance of a Busy Broker” as an example again. The twist ending is not implausible and unreasonable. On the surface, it may seem an attraction and wry story, but on second thoughts, we find that the fundamental of Maxwell’s characters lies in the capitalist economy. The real incentives of those brokers are their greed for money and their worship for mammon.

In coincidence, the various humanity is an indispensable part of the society or jungle universal. Under the social pressure, the roles express the complex humanity. Moreover, the twist endings foretell the fate of the capitalist society.

In American fiction, the cultivation of the short story runs throughout the 19th century, not as an orderly consecutive evolution, but as a process of incessantly elaborating the various possibilities of the genre. It goes from Washington Irving, to Edgar Allan Poe, to Nathaniel Hawthorn; after them comes Bret Harte, Henry James and later, Mark Twain, Jack London and finally O · Henry. The 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 cultivation of the genre. As a “plot maker” and designer of incident 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 at the 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 · Henry’s stories is a twist of plot, which turns on an ironic or coincidental circumstance. 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 may 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

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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 of occurrence by distorting the chronicle order in which they occurred, which exceed reader’s normal expectation to the arrangement of those events in his works, make the ending unpredictable and strange. As a “plot maker” and designer of incident 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 at the 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 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. How 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 past 60 and has a Michael Angelo’s Moses beard curling down from the head of a satyr along the body of an imp. “Michael Angelo’s Moses” leaves readers an impression of artistic potential. “Imp” can explain why he was so weak to fight against disease.

The compact 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 without any redundant explanations. In “The Last Leaf”, the description of Mr. Behrman, the true hero, only takes up

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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 through 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. Ⅲ. Humanity and the Ending with “Smiles with Tears” A Goodness Reflected in the Ending

Human being has many virtues from ancient times to the present. They are goodness, bravery, honesty, hard working, politeness, thrifty, generosity, hospitality 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 campaign for office girls.” There is no denying that the narratives of humanity by O · Henry have everlasting influence. Although they are poor, leading the life “made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating”, they still think,” If a home is happy it 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 goodness 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

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