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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 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. [18](P78)
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 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.”?[19](P173)
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.
Ⅳ.Comment on the Twist Ending
⒈ Humanity Are Fully-depicted
Most of O. Henry’s stories of News York City make the point that the humble little insignificant people of New York are admirable and their lives are worthy of our attention and interest. As O. Henry implies, they are as respectable as the member of the Four Hundred. Everyday they are busy dealing with dull routines; they show their sympathy and love through so tiny things. O. Henry said, “There are stories in everything; I’ve got some of my best yarns from park benches lamp ports, and newspaper stands.”[20](P28) Thus, the specified social condition and particular circle of people O. Henry observes in most of O. Henry’s stories, the motives that cause them to act are mostly concerned with money, the hunger for money or the possession of money.
In the “Gilded Time” in 1890s America, materialism prevailed to become the center of American life. The social value changed: The more money a person gains, the more successful he is. No matter how he has got the money. So the characters described in his works, no matter kind or evil, are to some extend linked purely with money. Compared with Shakespeare’s work, O. Henry’ works has seemingly less grandeur, for they may seldom relate to feud, patriotism, and national zeal. Compared with Allen Poe, the scene in the story is less thrilling; compared with Mark Twain, the stories are often less endowed with critic argument, rarely shaking the fundamental capitalism directly. The tone of the writing is mild, ironic with humor; the plots are rarely complex; endings are mostly referred to a variety of “happy ending”. So in many people’s opinion, characters depicted by O. Henry are not fully depicted, most of the personalities of the characters are easily understood. It seems that O. Henry focus on a narrow range of plots. Meanwhile, the twist endings make O. Henry a writer who stresses on plot-making technique too much but neglects human being inner-mind description.
But for my part, O. Henry does not even set out false tricks as is commonly done in mystery stories, but operate with the help of ambiguities, half-statement or barely noticeable details which turn out at the end to have been highly significant. Walter Pater speaks that O. Henry’s best stories are perfect illustration----of “that architectural conception of the work which perceives the end in the beginning and never lose sight of it, and in every part is conscious of all the rest, till the last sentence does but, with undiminished vigor, unfold and justify the first.”[21] Actually, there is neither splendid scenes of social upheavals nor complicated intercourse of theme in the stories. But only the totally reversed ending in the seemingly insignificant people’s story. But that is the most important part that touches the tenderness of humanity. We often ask ourselves some questions like “What is the true friendship?” “What’s true love in our misery?” Their inspiration from the story changes our view on life and society. The human virtues or human defects spark the essence of humanity, or reflect the attainment of character, make the humanity fully depicted.
⒉ Twist Ending Combined with Wry Humor to Create “Smile with Tears”
O. 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”. [22](P61) 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上一页 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] 下一页
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