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欧·亨利短篇小说的艺术结尾与人性体现(1)学(2)

2013-10-16 01:17 In addition, there is another story about the human nature’s complex or we can say comprehension and meddle with different humanity. In “A Double-Dyed Deceiver”, Llano Kid is a young fellow with cruel character. He once kills a card-player in Old Justo waldo’ gambling house because of fierce wrangle, then he flees away. When he flees, he steals a horse. After three days he reachs Buena’s Tierras by sailing. Then Thacker, the United States consuls, discusses with him to defraud a rich old couple of their money and belonging by pretending to be their long-absent son and he agreeds. But when he learns that the son of the old couple he is coincidentally the young man he has killed, he changs his ideas. He is deeply touched by the old mother’s love and tears. He does not want to hurt the sad mother again. So he decides to be their son to comfort them. He once is a gambler, a killer, a deceiver and a thief. He finally chooses to be a gentle son to compensate the old couple for his wrong doings. The return of the prodigal son brings happiness to the couple and calmness to Kid’s heart. Finally, the good overcomes the evil and he turns a new leaf to begin his life. That is just the great reward on him. And the unexpected endings also surprise all of the readers and find a gleam of warmth. After all, in the world of O. Henry, American society still has flicker of hope and kindness in their nature.
There is no exactly distinction between the kind and the evil in O. Henry’s stories. Most of the time, characters in O. Henry’s stories are always endowed with both good and ill will, the characters change according to the conditions. In the end of “The Cop and the Anthem”, Soapy, who prepares for the coming winter----trying his best to be arrested into the prison, is finally moved by the anthem of the church. And he decides to make a man of him again and to conquer the evil that has taken possession of him. Humanity is complex thing that combines no absolute right or wrong, no absolute good or bad. But those human virtues displayed in O. Henry’s works show the fine side of the world, which encourage people and make them cherish life and hope. After all, in the world of O. Henry, American society still has charm, and has not yet become totally vicious. And the deep root of humanity is always adorable and kind, which may inspire instantly the wicked person wherever he is. 您可以访问中国科教评价网（www.NsEac.com）查看更多相关的文章。
O. Henry’s twist ending not only lies in the ending, but in every scene of the story. In “The Cop and The Anthem”, the “modest and pleasing, refined and elegant” lady finally turned out to be streetwalker. [13](P17) The well-dressed man finally turns out to be a thief. The so-called well-dressed “gentleman” exists everywhere in the world, but most of their dirty behaviors are disguised just under the noble veil. We see from here that a person always doing thing to cover his or her attainment. As commentary on the follies, frailties, ambitious, and attainments of human nature, they can hardly be called trenchant, but their exposure in such a variety of forms is another testament of O. Henry’s artistry.
In a word, under the turbulent circumstance of America at that time, all kinds of human being are pictured vividly and profoundly in accordance with human nature.

Ⅲ. Twist Ending Writing Devices on the Humanity of Characters
⒈ Social Background.
Most of O. Henry’s stories are set in contemporary present, the early years of the 20th century. At that period of time in America, the bourgeoisie was getting the upper hand and the capitalist economy was booming to its top. Many aspects like working industry and agriculture industry, technology development, prosperity of metropolitan, scale of transportation, bank capital all took the leading position in the world. Bourgeoisie bribed the government and corrupted the functioned department in government.  The gap between the rich and the poor was deeper. The number of lower class poor people rocketed .The whole society were undergoing a profound change. The development of consumption culture and subsequent problems of morality consisted of many contradictions in people’s social behaviors. Such characters as Sacrifice, Diligence, Model are stressed in the end of 19th century, while Personalities like Purchase, Vanity, Personal Success were stressed in the beginning of 20th century. [14](P62) Many of O. Henry stories take place in New York, the capital where the contradiction sharply exists. O. Henry has an obvious affection for the city. His stories deal for the most part with ordinary people: clerks, policemen, and waitresses. He opens "The Four Million” by observing "Some one invented the assertion that there were only 'Four Hundred' people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million'.” [15](P25) The characters of the story are mainly the lower class who struggle to make a living in sadness, impoverished, crucial and unjust society. Whether good or bad, provide for its people, some people corrupted, some still stood at the very first place, keeping pure hearted and self-sacrificed. Different changes found expression in different character behaviors. 您可以访问中国科教评价网（www.NsEac.com）查看更多相关的文章。
In “The Gift of Magi”, we readers are not only touched by the supreme of valuable love, but at the same time we get clues of how the consumption culture exert its impact on people’s attitude toward the change of the society in that period. Concepts of social status are hidden behind the behaviors of consumption, thus creating a utopia that “everyone is equal before commodity”. It seems that people could reestablish his or her social statues through consuming behaviors. Gift, sending to close friends or relatives to strengthen the bonds of relationship at the first place, then becomes a commodity that goes far beyond its real significance. Both Jim and Della’s gifts are completely beyond their purchasing power. That would reflect people’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. 内容来自www.nseac.com
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.

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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 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)

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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.

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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, 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”. However, to illustrate humanity, O. Henry perfectly combines wry humor and twist ending. In “The Cop and the Anthem”, Soapy unfortunately trieds every means to make trouble in order to be arrested by the police to be sent to “the island”. He fails to cause the attention of the policemen because “they seemed to regard him as a king who could not do wrong.” [23](P66)

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On his bench in Madison Square, Soapy moves uneasily, when wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husband. When Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park, you may know that winter is near at hand. [24](P21)
Such examples can be found throughout the story. These sentences seem to be talked about very delightly and 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.
Another example:
But if home be the other kind, let it be wide and long—enter you at the Golden Gate, hang your hat on Hatteras, your cape on Cape Horn and go out by the Labrador. [25](P42)
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.

Ⅴ.Conclusion
O. 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 not only 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. I would like to say, 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 viewed as a perpetual encyclopedia of American life. His works are the best urn of humanity as well as the reflection of society from the twist ending.

Bibliography
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[2] Stephen Leacock.  The Literary Structure of an O. Henry Short[A].
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http://blog.hjenglish.com/zymi2001/archive/2005/02/16/14366.aspx 
[13]  欧·亨利. 欧·亨利短篇小说精选 [M].北京：人民文学出版社, 2003. P17
[14]  毛德信.美国小说史纲 [M]. 北京：北京出版社1988.P62
[15]  陈华，何晓曦译注. 四百万 [C]. 上海：外国教学与研究出版社, 1988. P25
[16]同[5]：P145
[17]同[1]：P42
[18]同[7]：P78
[19]同[5]：P173
[20]  Votterler, Thomas (ed.) Short Story Criticism (volume 5)[M].  Gale Research Inc.1990. P28
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[24]同[5]：P21
[25]同[5]：P42

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