欧亨利短篇小说的主题思想和语言特点-英文-
charactersinO.Henry’sshortstories论欧亨利短篇小说的特点
charactersinO.Henry’sshortstories论欧亨利短篇小说的特点AbstractO. Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. Some critics called him “the founder of American stories.” Exquisite plot, wry humor and twist ending dominate his works.A eulogy of humanity, the main stream of his works , together with his many classical works，is notable.This thesis mainly analyses the twist ending and the humanity of characters in O. Henry’s short stories. With his humorous, ironical and comic writing style, O. Henry reveals the humanity from the twist ending. Part One describes O. Henry and his works as a whole .O. Henry created many articles and had big influence on cultural history. Part Two is on his writing skills and the twist ending. O. Henry was good at char acters’ psychological portrayal. Also it mainly contains the writing background of ending which lights up the humanity of characters and the plot- making technique of twist ending. Some critics considered wry humor as “Smile with Tears,” or “Tears with Smi le.” This part elevates the charm of the theme. In a word, the twist ending directs readers to think about the humanity. Meanwhile, the humanity elevates the artistic twist ending. Part Three mainly describes the goodness and individualism reflected in O. Henry’ works.In a capitalist society, the specific characters are the special society. They also foretell the fate ending. Furthermore, the cultivation of the plot and the surprise ending gives us a new open sight. By giving examples, this part depicts the human nature reflected in his works.Key words: Twist ending; Humanity; Wry humor; Smile with tears摘要作为世界三大小说家之一,欧?亨利与契诃夫和莫泊桑齐名。
欧亨利短篇小说之——
• 1.And then Anthony Rockwall, who never cared for bells, went to the door of his library and shouted "Mike!"
• 官译：安东尼·罗克韦尔呼唤佣人历来不按铃。 他走到书房门口，叫道，“迈克！”
shoulder scarf
• 译文: 蓝色的羊毛披肩
• 最佳译文：很蓝很没用的羊毛披肩
片段六 • he was ill only two days • 官译：他只生了两天病 • 译文: 刚得上两天就死了
小节
• 这么多片段的分析与研究，我们得出官方翻译或 许生动精确或许又模糊不清漏洞百出。经过我们 反复推敲得出的最佳翻译，又是否更加恰当呢?
•
官译 :“用不着惊动警察老爷，”侍
者说，嗓音油腻得像奶油蛋糕，眼睛红得
像鸡尾酒里浸泡的樱桃，“喂，阿康！”
片段四
• He made eyes at her,was taken with sudden coughs and “hems,” smiled,smirked,and went brazenly through the impudent and contemptible litany of the “masher.”
• 译文: 他厚着面皮把小流氓该干的那一套恶心勾 当一段段表演下去。
《最后一片长青滕叶》 • 原文: cried a Japanese napkin to a
pulp
• 官译:哭得把一张日本餐巾揉成一团
• 最佳译文: 哭得几乎把一张日本纸餐 巾揉成纸浆
片段五 • very blue and very useless woolen
欧亨利短篇小说的主题思想和语言特点_英文_
大 众 文 艺大58day forward, Buck lived for that man. After being with this man for quite some time, Buck started to hear a call from far away. He started paying more and more attention to this call. He went out for days at a time searching for its source. This call was the call of the wild. He had a will to go off and be with other dogs. He felt the urge to be free from man and catch his own food. One day, Buck finally left for good. He was excepted by a pack of wolves who treated him like a wolf himself. And so the transformation was complete. Buck had changed from a dog, to a beast of nature.Bibliographies[1] London Jack. The Call of the Wild. [M]New York: Airmont Publishing Co. Inc, 1964.[2] Pizer, Donald. American Realism and Naturalism. [M]Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2000.[3]The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed.1993.[4]蒋承勇(主编). 欧美自然主义文学的现代阐释.[M]上海：复旦大学出版社,2002[5]柳鸣九.自然主义大师佐拉.[M]上海：上海文艺出版社,1989作者简介孙海晶（1983年-），女，满族，河北省遵化市人，北京第二外国语院，英语专业O’Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. His short stories are famous for its unexpected ending, as well as their exquisite conception. O’Henry’s sympathy for the poor social underdogs, his eulogy of human virtues and exposure of human evils are highlighted as the keynote of his works. Humanity endows his works with perpetual artistic charm. His short stories are typically American, portraying various types of people in the United States.1 The Main Theme of O’Henry’s Works1.1Human VirtuesIn his works, O’Henry presents the panorama of the American people to readers with ironic and humorous tone. O’Henry is sympathetic with the poor; he praises the human virtues and denounces human defeats. Humanity, as the eternal theme of O’Henry’s works, endows his works with perpetual artistic charm. Human being has many virtues from ancient times to the present. They are kind, brave, honest, hard-working, polite, thrifty, generous, and hospitable and so on. Some people pay a great deal in order to maintain these virtues, they sacrifice their own happiness even life for the 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.1.2 Human EvilsHuman beings have many defects, too. Sometimes they are lazy, rapacious, gluttonous, officious, vain, arrogant, shameless, cowardly, impetuous etc. They benefit themselves at the expense of others, they never show mercy and sympathy to the poor in order to make money, they realize their own aims by hook or by crook etc. Their evil deeds make the world vicious. By exposing the human defects and the dark sides of the world, O’Henry wants to awaken people’s conscience and deepest desire for all good things, so thatpeople can use their efforts to save and cleanse the whole world.2 Features of Language of O’Henry’s Works2.1 Figure of Speech 2.1.1 MetaphorIn O’Henry’s writings, metaphor is another feature which is worth mention. “A symbol differs from a metaphor in that its application is left open as an unstated suggestion, whereas the metaphor ties a concrete image to an identifiable abstract quality.” The image in metaphor represents specific meaning. But the symbolic image remains indeterminate in its possible meanings; it is usually a substantial image in its own right, around which further significances may gather according to differing interpretations.The metaphor under discussion here does not mean that as a rhetorical device or figure of speech, though the metaphorical sentences as wonderful as the one “Manhattan, the night-blooming cereus, was beginning to unfold its dead-white, heavy-odored petals” teem in O’Henry’s short stories. What is to be probed is the metaphor exploited as a skill in story-writing.In the third branch of Roads of Destiny, the hero David Mig not is a shepherd, but he is too indulged in writing poems to take enough care of his sheep. The flock steadily grows smaller and his wife keeps on complaining. Then one of his friends introduces him to a learned man called Georges Bril, David asks Monsieur Bril to read his poems, because he wants to know if he shall write more or give his attention to his sheep. When Monsieur Bril has read all the verses, he concludes that David has no talent for poem-writing. In order to tell the harsh truth in a mild way, he asks David to look at the crow in the tree. Instead of commenting on the poems directly, Monsleur Bril praises the crow that is content with his lot. In this metaphorical way he advises David tactfully not to try to write poems any more. David sees the point and feels discouraged. He goes back home and thrusts his poems into the stove. Hearing the rustle of the欧亨利短篇小说的主题思想和语言特点张明洋1 刘映雪2（1.长安大学 人文学院 西安 710064 2.沈阳师范大学 旅游管理学院 沈阳 110034）【摘 要】欧亨利是美国二十世纪初期最著名的短篇小说家之一。
欧亨利短篇小说简评
欧亨利短篇小说述评学生姓名:指导教师:摘要:作为世界三大小说家之一，欧亨利与契诃夫和莫泊桑齐名。
他的作品因奇巧的艺术构思，出其不意的结尾而著称。
其中歌颂人性的小说是欧亨利文学创作的主流，并且许多作品已经成为了脍炙人口的名篇佳作。
同时也涌现了许多感人至深的经典人物。
表现了欧亨利对人性理想的执着追求。
本文主要分析了欧亨利的写作手法，包括精巧的情节设计，出人意料但符合逻辑的结局和幽默智慧的语言三方面，并在这基础上深刻探讨了欧亨利作品中表现出来的人性的善与恶。
关键词: 写作技巧；善；恶；人性A Brief Comment on O’ Henry’s Short StoriesUndergraduate:Supervisor:Abstract: O. Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. Exquisite plot, wry humor and twist ending dominate his works. The main stream of his works is eulogy of humanity and his many classical works are notable. This thesis mainly analyses O. Henry’s writing style including technique plot making, surprising but logical ending and humorous and witty tone, then deeply analyses the human virtues and defects reflected in O. Henry’s works.Key Words: artistic styles; virtues; defects; human characterContents1. Introduction (1)2. Unique artistic style (1)2.1 Technique plot making (1)2.2 Surprising but logical ending (3)2.3 Humorous and witty tone (4)3. The humanity of character (4)4. Conclusion (7)Bibliography (9)Acknowledgment (10)1. IntroductionO. Henry, originally named William Sydney Porter, is a distinguished American storywriter. He wrote more than 300 short stories in his life. His stories are full of colorful characters. He creates an original, typically American democratic form of short stories with, at its best, a valuable critical awareness of life and society tellingly expressed through humor. Therefore, some critics c all him “the founder of American stories”. Being gifted with humor and a keen awareness of details, he objectively shows us what America looks like. All his stories putting together constitute a true panorama of American life.This thesis mainly emphasizes O. Henry’s unique artistic styles and the human characters. It includes two main aspects. Part one is on the unique artistic styles. O. Henry is a good plot maker, he shows readers the real life of American people by giving people a surprising but logical ending through a plausible plot making using humor and witty tone which gives readers a new open sight. Part two stresses on the human nature that contains the virtues and defects sides. In a capitalist society, the specific characters are the special society. O. Henry shows people clearly in his works.2. Unique artistic styleO. Henry's trademark is the surprising ending that each of his stories contains. He sets a story moving in one direction, and just when the reader is convinced of the general direction of the narrative, the story will be completely reversed. And if we look back to the total story, the ending seems logical and plausible. As a “plot-maker”, and designer of incident, he is an amazing genius. No one can do better than him to holds the reader in “suspense”. More than that, the reader scarcely knows that he is suspended until the very close of the story. Just as turns on the lights and the whole tale is revealed in its entirety. He uses this device of dramatic and humorous effect in the short story collection The Four Million which including “The Ransom of Red Chief ”, “The Gift of the Magi ”, and“The Cop and the Anthem”, “the Service of Love”, “The last Leaf.” He uses compact and vivid language to set a plot and portray the plot through humorous and witty tone.2.1 Technique plot makingThe 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 cult ivation of the genre. As a “plot maker”, 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 atthe 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. Hen ry’s stories is a twist of plot. 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 m ay 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 which e xceed reader’s normal expectation to the arrangement of those events in his works, make the ending unpredictable and strange. 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. Ho w 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 p ast 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.The comp act 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 wit hout 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 t hrough 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.2.2 Surprising but logical endingThe 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. The author has your nerves all a quiver until the last sentence. The surprise comes quickly and the story is finished. O. Henry is such a master of the unexpected ending that one must admire his skills.In the story The Cop and the Anthem, Soapy, a homeless tramp, deciding to be sent to the prison on the Island which he called his winter quarter against the rigor and the hunger, attempted to practice several illegal activities for the purpose of “wooing capture”;(O, Henry 2004: 09) but the cop, who stood nearby when Soapy was trying to attract his attention by his anti-law behavior, paid no special attention to Soapy every time, even “seemed to regard him as a king who could do no wrong”. (O, Henry 2004: 09) Developing up here, the story must give the reader the conclusion that Soapy had to go back disappointedly to his home—a park bench. On his way, the sweet music of anthem from the church played by the organist and the beautiful moonlight scenery “wrought a sudden and wonderful change in his soul”, (O, Henry 2004: 10) he made up his mind to “pull himself out of the mire”(O, Henry 2004: 10)and “make a man of himself again”. (O, Henry 2004: 10) Moving like this, the plot is not completely understandable at once. When the reader is puzzled about the use and meaning of growing plot, and just while Soapy was planning his tomorrow’s action for being “somebody in the world”, (O, Henry 2004: 11) an unforeseen plot, and just while abruptly: he was arrested because a policeman thought him doubtful, and the next day he was sentence to “three months on the Island”. (O, Henry 2004: 11) The story stops here suddenly in spite of the reader’s not immediate understanding. But after a moment of consideration, the reader’s surprise turns into admiration for hisastonishing contrivance of tricky ending which reveals rigorously the real facts of reversal between truth and falsehood in capitalist society which confuses right and wrong.2.3 Humorous and witty toneO. 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. 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, which is regarded as the law of the jungle universally. Right and wrong are confused, good and evil are disordered; Materialism and individualism dominate people’s mind. This writing technique makes his work enjoy the fame of “Smile with Tears”.The humorous paragraph describes the congested conditions of a room where the hero and heroin live in the “The Service of Love”, the story tells of an earnest young pair of art students, the Lattabees, who prop up each other’s courage when their funds run out by pretending to have lucked into a steady income from their professional skill in painting and music. But it turns out that Delia’s service has been ironing shirts in a laundry while Joe has been firing the furnace in the same building. Readers are not surprised to find out how precious their genuine love for each other is. Monetarily they were poor, but they are mentally wealthy. We may laugh with tears after finishing reading the story. O. Henry carries an abundant good humor with hum and sees the bright and amusing side of things. O. Henry is not the comic wit that explodes the reader into a huge guffaw of laughter and vanishes. His humor and twist ending are of that deep quality that smiles at life itself and mingles our amusement with our tears.Such examples can be found throughout the story. These sentences seem to be talked about very casually to make the story appear to be a comedy. But meanwhile, we can also feel the sadness and helplessness of the hero Soapy. Readers are seduced by humor language and stories plots step by step, but finally cannot help laughing, but with pitiful tears.3. The humanity of characterAmong 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 willdisplay 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.3.1 The human virtuesHuman 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 cam paign for office girls.” There is no denying that the narratives of humanity by O. Henry have everlasting influence. Although they are poor, le ading the life “made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles pre dominating”,they still think, “If a home is happy i t 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 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 author arranges the entire plot just to get the readers to wait, to cause suspense, the pleasurable excitement and anticipation of the outcome. From the beginning, the readers keep guessing what Jim and Della will buy for each other, and the coincidence of their gift is the great suspense the author put in his article. And then he gives the answer to the question. Here is the ending: “Here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children ina flat who most unwisely scarified for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in the last word to the wise of these days let it be said tha t of all who give gifts.” (O, Henry 2004: 35) However, the story end comes when Jim reveals that he has sold his watch to buy Dalla her present, from where the poor couple’s love is show. Therefore, O. Henry ends the story artfully, and with deft touches he elicits the reader’s admiration and sympathy for his young couple shows love for each other more than compensates for their lack of money and material possessions. Though confronted with cruel reality and dull daily routine, Della and Jim can never change their eagerness toward love. To them the most valuable material possession is so slight and insignificant before the spiritual possession of love romance. That is sparkling with fragrant charm.There is another story about sacrifi cial theme entitled “The Last Leaf”, a warm and tragic tale describing how a dying artist proves as resilient as the last leaf on the wall outside. Sue, a poor painter, attacked by Pneumonia, wanted to turn loose her hold on everything, and go sailing down, just like one of those poor tires leave. But after beating rain and fierce gusts of wind, an ivy leaf still stands against the brick wall, which gives her the hope of living, mak ing her realize that: “It is a sin to want to die”. The ending reveals that Mr. Behrman, a kind old artist dies at previous night by pneumonia, painting the leave on an outdoor vine in the storming night ----in his effort to restore Sue’s will to live. Though the touching ending makes us absorbed in sadness, the readers can still find gleams of hope and desire out of despair. It not only enlightens the girl’s courage for better life but also moves every reader to tears. Those glittering human virtues however counterpoint to the capitalist industrial bourgeoisies’ human defeats, telling us that life is supreme and thus upgrading the theme.By and large, through the portrayal the panorama of a throng of people either of upper class or lower class, O. Henry’s eulogize the specious and precious human virtues.3.2 The human defectsOn the other hand, human beings have many defects, too. They benefit themselves at the expense of others. In order to make money they never show mercy and sympathy to the poor. They realize their own aims by hook or by crook. Their evil deeds make the world vicious. By exposing the human defects and the dark side of the world, O. Henry wants to awaken people’s conscience and their deepest desire for all good things, so that people can make their efforts to save and clean the whole world. Some people love money than anything else. In “Mammon and the Archer”, Anthony Fuckwell, a retired manufacturer and proprietor of Rockwall’ Soap, has the greatest esteem for the value of money. “I bet my money on money every time, I’ve been through the encyclopedia down to Y loo king for something you can’t buy with it, andI expect to have to take to the appendix next week, I’m for money against the field. Tell me something money won’t buy. ” (O, Henry 2004: 113) His son wants to ask for a girl’s hand but there is too little time left. Surprisingly, a fortunately traffic tie-up offers enough time for the son. But the ending discloses that it is the father who makes the accident in order to help his son to win the girl’s heart. The theme of the story come out: confronted with the Mammon even Archer has to be bent his head down. To Anthony and his peers, the only thing worthy of their thought is money. With the ironic rhetoric method, O. Henry ends the story with a fat boy without any clothes on shooting arrow around with a bow. That is pictured Cupid, in a new, unexpected way, thus bringing readers a new sense to the topic “Mammon and the Archer”. This usage of the twist ending adds artistic effect to the person’s character described.In a capitalist society, many people even do evil things against their conscience, so as to earn money. In “The Furnished Room”, the housekeeper, Mrs. Purdy, cheats a young man who is seeking his lover, in order to let him rent the room. Then the young man commits suicide out of despair. At the end, after the young man dies, we find the man’s lover commit suicide at the same rented room. Mrs.Purdy talks about it with another housekeeper in an indifferent tone as if it were only a trifle that could be the topic for gossip over dinner. The society is so doomed by an atmosphere of gloom and indifference that it makes people treat others or even friends without sympathy, equaling to committing murder.In “The Romance of a Busy Broker”, the businessman Maxwell is so crazy about his golden eternal business- make big money against the clock. More than that he even forgets he has married or not. And in a tumult of a preparation out of his work, he asks his wife to marry again. Those twist ending exploses the whole theme of the article. Are the readers to deride the broker or to show sympathy for the broker’s tender wife?The author uses pungent rhetoric methods not only to show us the humanity vividly, but also to enhance the theme: the gluttonous and cruel side of those bourgeoisies.4. ConclusionO. Henry focuses on the poverty-stricken life and spiritual depression of common people. He takes great sympathy on them, with dissatisfaction with the greediness of the rich and the noble. O. Henry is adept at seizing and grasping the typical scenes in life, in which each episode of the life of the characters that had been in dilemma and confronted fatal decision was presented. Through this, he not only chiefly portrays the hero’s mentality but also fully reveals the inner contradiction of life. Finally, the human virtues and defects emerge from the twist ending. That notonly arouses readers ponder about the humanity but also earns O. Henry’s story fame of “smile with tears”. Henry not only widens the experience of his readers, he also restates the verities that exist wherever people continue to strive for truth and beauty in life. The humanity reflected from the twist ending makes his stories at their best an influence for the furthering of those ideals that still tend to command the allegiance of civilized men. O. Henry is the “founder of American stories”. His works are like a mirror of American society at that time. A multiple of reflections are rippling through the years passing by. The plots in O. Henry’s works appear to be nothing special at first glance. Nevertheless, read those to the ending and you will find something unusual out of what seems to be too ordinary. His works are full of depth in portraying an unfathomable humanity of character.In a nutshell, O. Henry’s artistic charms will everlast and be vie wed as a perpetual encyclopedia of American life.Bibliography[1] Medrick, Fred. An introduction to American literature[M]. Henan University Press,1985[2] Hudson, Long. O Henry The Man and His Work[C]. New York:Russell and Russell,1969[3] O, Henry, Heart of the West[M]. New York: McClure, 1907[4] O, Henry, The Four Million[M]. New York: Dobleday, Doran and Company. 1906 P68[5] O, Henry, 欧亨利短篇小说[M].青海：青海出版社，2004[6] 李国宁. 欧亨利式结尾的艺术魅力[M]. 北京：清华大学出版社，2003[7] 李遇溪. 外国文学名著赏析词典[M]. 杭州：浙江文艺出版社，1988[8] 欧亨利. 四百万[M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1988[9] 荣四才. 欧亨利与欧亨利奖[J]. 外国文学. 1993(6):34-35[10] 吴伟仁. 美国文学史及选读[M]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社，1990[11] 魏春艺. 欧亨利小说人性世界面面观[J]. 丹东师专学报，2003，P28[12] 赵书颖. “含泪的笑”与“含笑的泪”浅析欧·亨利的主题[J].黑龙江教育学院学报, 2004〈3〉. P66[13] 赵丽，黄春妮. 欧亨利作品导读[M]. 武汉: 武汉大学出版社 2003 P3AcknowledgmentAt the point of finishing this paper, I’d like to express my sincere thanks to all those who have given me hands in the course of my writing this paper. First of all, I'd like to take this opportunity to show my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Wang Xiaoyun, who has given me so much useful advices on my writing, and has tried her best to improve my paper. Secondly, I’d like to express my gratitude to my classmates who offered me references and information on time. Last but not least, I’d like to thank those leaders, teachers and working staff in Mianyang Normal University and especially those in the School of Foreign Languages. Without their help, it would be much harder for me to finish my study this paper.。
the gift of the Magi欧亨利短篇小说分析
• When Jim comes home, he reveals that he has sold his watch to buy lovely combs for Della's hair.
• The two are overcome with love as they realize they have each sacrificed their most prized possession for one another.
摘选
• There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
The Gift of the Magi
《麦琪的礼物》欧亨利短篇小说分析
作者与小说风格
• 作为短篇小说大师的欧·亨利，最善于捕捉和把握生活中的典型场面，善于在典型的环 境和场面中塑造人物的性格特征，他在短篇小说的艺术处理上最大特点就是“小说的意 外结局”。出乎意料，又在情理之中。读者眼看着情节似乎明明朝着一个方向发展，但 结局往往来了个出其不意。然而这意外的结局一般来说又是令人宽慰的，正是所谓“含 泪的微笑”。在他的小说中，幽默的语言是贯穿始终的，特别是意外的结局令小说产生 出令人啼笑皆非的幽默效果，也是其短篇小说的重要特点之一。
主要ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ容
• 圣诞节的前一天,住在公寓里的贫穷的黛拉想给丈夫吉姆一个惊喜,可是她只有一元八角 七,她知道这点钱根本不够买一件像样的的礼物,于是她把引以自豪的褐色瀑布似的秀发 剪下来,卖了,换来了20美元。找遍了大大小小的商店,她花去21美元,终于买到一条朴素的 白金表链,这可以配上吉姆的那块金表。而吉姆也想给老婆一个惊喜,他同样卖掉了祖传 的一块金表，吉姆卖掉了他的金表为德拉买了一套“纯玳瑁做的，边上镶着珠宝”的梳子； 黛拉卖掉了自己的长发为吉姆买了一条白金表链。他们都为对方舍弃了自己最宝贵的东 西，而换来的礼物却因此变得毫无作用了。
《欧亨利短篇小说集》简介
《欧亨利短篇小说集》简介《欧亨利短篇小说集》是美国作家欧亨利的作品集，收录了他创作的多篇精彩短篇小说。
欧亨利以幽默、巧妙和哲理著称，他的作品以风趣的语言和意想不到的结局而闻名于世。
这本小说集给予读者丰富的想象空间和深入思考的机会，以独特的方式展现了人性的复杂性和生活的不可预测性。
全书由一系列独立的故事组成，每个故事都是一个精心构建的世界，带领读者进入欧亨利的想象力和创造力的奇妙旅程。
小说集中的故事情节多样，涵盖了各种主题和情感，包括爱情、友谊、欺骗、抱负、人性的善恶等。
其中一篇著名的小说是《礼仪之乡》。
故事发生在一个迷宫般的小镇上，这里的居民都非常守礼仪，凡事必须遵循一定的规矩和仪式。
主人公作为一个外地人，来到这座小镇，经历了一系列荒谬的事件。
通过对比和讽刺，欧亨利揭示了礼仪背后的虚伪和愚蠢，使人们反思传统和规矩对个体自由的限制。
另一篇著名的小说是《赛跑》。
故事以在纽约的一个小餐馆为背景，讲述了一个被世人遗忘的老人回忆过去的经历。
这位老人曾是一位赛马名将，但却在影响和财富消失后面临困境。
通过老人和年轻服务生之间的对话，欧亨利揭示了成功与失败之间的微妙平衡，让人思考生活中真正重要的是什么。
除了这些，还有许多其他精彩的短篇小说。
无论是描述城市生活中的冒险与激情，还是乡村中的善良和热情，欧亨利都以敏锐的洞察力和丰富的想象力刻画了各种人物和场景。
《欧亨利短篇小说集》以其独特的风格和精细的观察力吸引了无数读者。
欧亨利的作品以简洁而优雅的语言风格，以及妙趣横生的情节和意想不到的结局，深深地打动了读者的心弦。
他通过小说中的人物和情节，揭示了人性的复杂性和社会的种种问题，让读者在思考的同时也享受阅读的乐趣。
无论是对欧亨利的作品感兴趣，还是对短篇小说的爱好者，这本《欧亨利短篇小说集》都能够让人发现其中的乐趣和智慧。
无论是欢笑，还是感动，读者都会从这些故事中找到共鸣，并深受启发。
总之，《欧亨利短篇小说集》是一本令人难以忘怀的作品，它以独特的风格和思考方式，让读者思考生活的价值、伦理和人性的面貌。
欧亨利小说英文读后感
欧亨利小说英文读后感本文是关于读后感的，仅供参考，如果觉得很不错，欢迎点评和分享。
欧亨利小说英文读后感Henry was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. His father, Algemon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his parental grandmother and paternal aunt. William was an avid reader, but at the age of fifteen he left school and then worked in a drug store and on a Texas ranch. He continued to Houston, where he had a number of jobs, including that of bank clerk. After moving in 1882 to Texas, he worked on a ranch in LaSalle County for two years. In 1887 he married Athol Estes Roach; they had one daughter and one son., he died in New York on June 5th 1910.In this novel, there are many short ficition,every of them are worth reading,but The Gift of the Magi left me a deep impression is, I think this is a good article I have ever read, it is meaningful.In this article, O.Henry used his style of writing narrated a winding and simple story with humorous and a light sad, in western literary area this theme of presenting the gift in theChristmas eve is so ordinary, some of them is wonderful, but I think The Gift of the Magi is the best one.First, let’s looked from the content. the en tire article took one pair of poorly love husbands and wives in American presenting the Christmas gift as a middle line, The family housewife in order to save each coin, she count each one. Even though, entire family only left one dollar and eighty-seven cents on Christmas Eve. The author did not describe much about the poor family, he used one dollar and eighty-seven cents to draw the whole novel, the housewife Della who loves her husband deeply count the money three times, she cried sadly for she could not buy her husband an satisfactory gift. O.Henry was good at using little words to make the sketch and build atmosphere, then the reader will lost in the article, tasting and pondering the character's destiny. The gloomy atmosphere which was built by one dollar and eighty-seven cents through the whole novel, even when the couples saw gifts, it still contained a little pain. The author had written a poor husband's and wife's pain, also enlightens for the people let them obtain beautiful influencing and lead t he reader’s interest to a deep boundary when he was describe the character’s thought disposition and plot. This is the truevalue of The Gift of the Magi.In order to give her husband an exquisite watch chain, Della sold her beautiful hair though his husband James loved it. James realized that Della had worshipped long for the set of combs, side and back, in Broadway window, he also sold his valuable watch which belonged his grandparents. Della’s hair and James’ gold watch is the most precious property wh ich in this poor family. In order to expresses the deep sincere love to the spouse, all of them had lost these two at the Christmas eve. Happiness in a twinkling had paid the expensive price, but following is the deep pain. after consider the true life ,O Henry had screened the main plot carefully, made this ordinary theme bright again, gold watch and beautiful hair are the great wealth for the poor family which gain 20 dollar per week, This regret brought astringent feeling, caused each reader’s heart to tremble. This is condensing the real contradiction which the social real life is unable to solve multiplies really because of the writer deep style of writing, cause reader's pitying with the sympathy, and lead them to a more profound ponder. For a while sentimental impulse Della and James had extremely sacrificed most precious thing for each other. In those only money all-powerful societies, their gift can notregard as wisdom, they lost wealth, but they deepened the precious sincere love. In love and in wealth contradiction they have sacrificed the latter.The novel revelation society reality does not depend on preaching, but depend on the development of character’s emotion. Inspires the reader to touch, feels the character who have the tragedy color. In this society which money can buy love, psychology and sentiment appear the distortion, the sincere deep love between James and Della has filled with writer’s idealism. O.Hery oes not write the money to ruin love in this society, but wrote the artistic flavor in this gloomy lens, admired the intelligence of James and Della, This is certainly unusual manpower pen, Therefore, the work gives us is not depression and gloomy, But is the beautiful pursue and the attachment, Thus lead the reader to the noble boundary.Processing novel ending, Is O Henry’s most creative contribution, also causes him enjoys the great reputation in American and in the world history of literature. He is good at designing plot theatrically, lays down the foreshadowing, finally appears a beyond expectation result in the ending which makes the reader to feel suddenly sees the light, joy after sorrow, also beside anticipation and in reason, strike thetable and shout bravo.Henry is worth the world famous novelist, his excellent writing technique enabled his novel to have the title of O.Henry.I have read many kinds of article, before reading O.Henry’s article, I liked detective book, but after reading this book, I knew short fiction is better, Henry’s humors gave me a deep impression, it will never feel boring no matter how many times you have read.感谢阅读，希望能帮助您！。
欧亨利简介及评价 (中英双语)
欧·亨利与法国的莫泊桑、俄国的契诃夫并称为世界三大短篇小说巨匠。
近百年来，欧·亨利的小说在全世界一版再版，始终拥有大量的读者，足见其作品的生命力。
1918年，美国设立一年一度的“欧·亨利纪念奖”，专门奖励短篇小说的成就。
欧·亨利的名字早已和短篇小说的创作，和小人物的悲喜连在了一起。
他是一位高产的作家，一生中留下了一部长篇小说和近三百篇的短篇小说。
他的短篇小说构思精巧，风格独特，以表现美国中下层人民的生活、语言幽默、结局出人意料（即“欧·亨利式结尾”）而闻名于世。
正面欧·亨利的成功主要在于他善于捕捉和把握生活中的典型场面，在一个个生活的片断里，处于两难中的主人公必须面对抉择，这时不仅能集中刻画人物心理，也能充分展示生活中固有的矛盾。
再加上欧·亨利具有把情节剪裁得恰到好处的本领，因而能在很短的篇幅内达到一种思想与艺术相结合的完美效果，给人以强烈的印象，而这也正是短篇小说成功的关键。
反面有的外国评论家曾说过：“（欧·亨利的小说）不要真实性，没有道德意识，没有人生哲理。
”——不过这种说法被多数评论家所否定。
当时有人批评他的“欧·亨利式结尾”读多了就没意思。
——不过这种说法也被多数评论家所否定。
有人认为他的小说写的浅薄。
有人说：“在欧·亨利的所有小说中，找不出一个写得真实的人物。
”欧·亨利对自己的小说也不满意，一次他在给一位朋友的信中说过：“我是个失败的人。
我的小说究竟如何呢？老实说，我并不满意。
我就害怕人们说我是什么‘名作家’。
”O.Henry, with Maupassant and Chekhov['tʃekɔf], were honored as the three masters of short stories in the world. Again and again, his works were published all over the world, and were enjoyed by many readers, which showed its strong vitality [vaɪ'tælɪtɪ].O.Henry was a high-producing writer who left a novel and nearly three hundreds short stories. Writing at the rate of more than one story per week, O. Henry published ten collections of stories. In 1919 the O. Henry Memorial Awards for the best American short stories published each year were founded by the Society of Arts and Sciences.William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 –June 5, 1910), known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American writer. O. Henry's short stories are known for their wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and surprise endings.When you read his book, you will find the ending is always unexpected. For example, in the book The Cop[kɒp] and the Anthemf['ænθəm]，the hero Souby wanted to live in the prison for a settled life, so he caused some troubles, entertaining the intention of drawing the policeman’s attention. But unfortunately, things didn’t happen as he had wished. Later, Souby read an anthem by chance and decided to be a good guy. When readers, even Souby himself, believed that he would start a new life from then on, a policeman, who had once been longing for by Souby, was appeared and took Souby into the curt.The ending is out of blue, but you will find it is also resonable. It was this unique character made O.Henry’s works distinctive.O.Henry designed the ending as the soul of the whole book. He was good at writing the story dramatically and preparing the hints hidden in the unromantic and humor narration.As to O.Henry’s writing style, there exist two different sides. Some people give positivecomments about his works: O.Henry succeed by his perspective. He was able to catch a typical scene of everyday life and wrote it vividly in a short story, which achieved an artistic charm.However, there are also some critics hold an opposite view, for they think that his works was a little shallow—even O.Henry himself agreed that. He once said to one of his friends:”I am not satisfied with my works, and I’m afraid about being named as a ‘famous writer’.”Although the critic is reasonable to a certain degree, it can not be denied that O.Henry was a greatful writer. His works satirized the unfairness in that age powerfully and still have an influence.。
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
大众文艺58day forward, Buck lived for that man. After being with this man for quite some time, Buck started to hear a call from far away. He started paying more and more attention to this call. He went out for days at a time searching for its source. This call was the call of the wild. He had a will to go off and be with other dogs .He felt the urge to be freeform man and catch his own food. One day, Buck finally left for good. He was excepted by a pack of wolves who treated him like a wolf himself. And so the transformation was complete. Buck had changed from a dog, to a beast of nature. Bibliographies [1]London Jack. The Call of the Wild.[M]New Y ork: Airmont PublishingCo.Inc,1964.[2]Pizer,Donald.American Realism and Naturalism.[M]Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press,2000.[3]The New Encyclopaedia Britannica,15th ed.1993.[4]蒋承勇(主编).欧美自然主义文学的现代阐释.[M]上海：复旦大学出版社,2002[5]柳鸣九.自然主义大师佐拉.[M]上海：上海文艺出版社,1989作者简介孙海晶（1983年-），女，满族，河北省遵化市人，北京第二外国语院，英语专业O’Henry, one of the three most famous short-storywriters in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. His short stories are famous for its unexpected ending, as well as their exquisite conception. O’Henry’s sympathy for the poor social underdogs, his eulogy of human virtues.es and exposure of human evils are highlighted as the keynote of his works. Humanity endows his works with perpetual artistic charm. His short stories are typicallyAmerican, portraying various types of people in the UnitedStates.1 The Main Theme of O’Henry’s Works1.1Human Virtues In his works, O’Henry presents the panorama of the American people to readers with ironic and humorous tone. O’Henry is sympathetic with the poor; he praises the human virtues and denounces human defeats. Humanity, as the eternal theme of O’Henry’s w orks, endows his works with perpetual artistic charm. Human being has many virtues from ancient times to the present. They are kind, brave, honest, hard-working, polite, thrifty, generous, and hospitable and so on. Some people pay a great deal in order to maintain these virtues, they sacrifice their own happiness even life for the 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.1.2 Human Evils Human beings have many defects, too. Sometimes they are lazy, rapacious, gluttonous, officious, vain, arrogant, shameless, cowardly, impetuous etc. They benefit themselves at the expense of others, they never show mercy and sympathy to the poor in order to make money, they realize their own aims by hook or by crook etc. Their evil deeds make the world vicious. By exposing the human defects and the dark sides of the world, O’Henry wants to awaken people’s conscience and deepest desire for all good things, so that people can use their efforts to save and cleanse the wholeworld.2 Features of Language of O’Henry’s Works2.1 Figure of Speech2.1.1 MetaphorIn O’Henry’s writings, metaphor is another feature which is worth mention.” A symbol differs from a metaphor in that its application is left open as an unstated suggestion, whereas the metaphor ties a concrete image to an identifiable abstract quality. ”The ima ge in metaphor represents specific meaning. But the symbolic imageremains indeterminate in its possible meanings; it is usually a substantial image in its own right, around which further significances may gather according to differing interpretations. The metaphor under discussion here does not mean that as a rhetorical device or figure of speech, though the metaphorical sentences as wonderful as the one “Manhattan,the night-blooming cereus, was beginning to unfold its dead-white, heavy-odored petals ”tee m in O’Henry’s short stories. What is to be probed is the metaphor exploited as a skill in story-writing. In the third branch of Roads of Destiny, the hero David Mig not is a shepherd, but he is too indulged in writing poems to take enough care of his sheep. The flock steadily grows smaller and his wife keeps on complaining. Then one of his friends introduces him to a learned man called Georges Bril, David asks Monsieur Bril to read his poems, because he wants to know if he shall write more or give his attention to his sheep. When Monsieur Bril has read all the verses, he concludes that David has no talent for poem-writing. Inorder to tell the harsh truth in a mild way,he asks Davidto look at the crow in the tree. Instead of commenting on the poems directly, Monsleur Bril praises the crow that is content with his lot. In this metaphorical way he advises David tactfully not to try to write poems any more. David sees the point and feels discouraged. He goes back home and thrusts his poems into the stove. Hearing the rustle of the欧亨利短篇小说的主题思想和语言特点张明洋1刘映雪2（1.长安大学人文学院西安710064 2.沈阳师范大学旅游管理学院沈阳110034）【摘要】欧亨利是美国二十世纪初期最著名的短篇小说家之一。