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e’s attitude toward economy. Illuming in the tide of materialism, people pay much attention on consumption, even take it as an “adventure”[16](P145). 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 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 are 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.
⒉ Plot Making Technique
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. [17](P42) 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 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上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页
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