ABSTRACT

O. Henry, who is known as Father of Modern American Short Story, is one of the three masters of short stories in the world literature. He wrote over three hundred popular short stories during his life. His distinctive short fiction is characterized by witty narration, twists of plot and surprise endings to the point that such an ending is often referred to as an “O. Henry’s surprise ending”. Readers share joy and sorrow with characters in “The Gift of the Magi”, feel sad because of the end of a friendship in “After Twenty Years”, rethink the meaning of life after reading “The Last Leaf”. O. Henry eulogizes the beauty of humanity by his surprise endings. 

O. Henry’s view on humanity is closely related with his life experiences. After a hell of a childhood, he worked as a pharmacist, later he went to jail for embezzlement while working in a bank. In his twilight years, he had to write frantically to make a living. These hardships honed his optimism which found expression in his positive thoughts between the lines in his short stories. At the same time, owing to these bitter experiences, he discerned as well the ugliness of capitalism and humanity. However, his optimism made him conceive a Utopian perfect society which would never come true in the dark period of capitalist accumulation, herein lies the limitation of O. Henry’s views on humanity.

Key words: O. Henry; surprise endings; views on humanity

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

摘要

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 Brief Introduction to O. Henry-1

1.2 Comments on O. Henry’s Main Achievement-2

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW-4

2.1 A Brief History of Past Studies-4

2.2 Critical Inadequacy of Past Studies-5

2.3 Significance of the Present Study-5

CHAPTER THREE O. HENRY’S SURPRISE ENDINGS-7

  3.1 Explicit Ending-7

3.2 Implicit Ending-8

CHAPTER FOUR O. HENRY’S VIEWS ON HUMANITY AS REVEALED IN HIS SURPRISE ENDINGS-10

4.1 Beauty of Human Nature in Ordinary People-10

4.1.1 Love-10

4.1.2 Friendship-11

4.1.3 Self-esteem-11

4.1.4 Pursuit of goodness-12

4.2 Ugliness of Capitalism and Darkness of Society-12

CHAPTER FIVE ARTISTIC TECHNIQUES EMPLOYED TO ENHANCE THE THEMES ON HUMANITY-14

5.1 Irony-14

5.2 Pun-15

5.3 Metaphor-16

5.4 Exaggeration-16

5.5 Description of Environment and Characters-17

CHAPTER SIX FORMATION OF AND DEFECT IN O. HENRY’S VIEWS ON HUMANITY-19

6.1 Causes of O. Henry’s Views on Humanity-19

6.1.1 Historical background-19

6.1.2 His life experiemces-20

6.2 Defect in O. Henry’s Views on Humanity-21

CHAPTER SEVEN  CONCLUSION-23

WORKS CITED -24