Ⅱ. The Humanity of Characters Reflected From the Twist Ending
As we know, the 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. And the twist ending not only gives the readers a sudden fall, but also let us thinks a lot. [3](P128) Think what? From the twist ending, the humanity is clearly presented. Among 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 will display 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.
1. The Human Virtues
Human 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 campaign for office girls.”[4](P28) 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”, [5](P3) they still think, “If a home is happy it cannot fit too close.”[6](P41) 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 au

上一页  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页