As one of the greatest short-story novelists in the world, O. Henry is a critical realistic author, also one of the world’s three major short masters, together with Chekov and Maupassant. His writing style is appreciated by numerous readers, especially for the twist plot and the surprising ending with the feature of “smile with tears”. In language, O. Henry uses many rhetoric tactics to achieve the effect of making the stories more vivid and humorous, such as exaggeration, metaphor, and simile and so on. His writing materials are from his own life experiences, that each story is a reflection of the society then, and he always sympathizes with the poor, criticizes and satirizes the capitalists even the common insignificants who have the valuable humanity. Through the analysis of O. Henry’s representative novels, it has expounded the humanistic spirit and optimistic expectation of human kindness contained in his works, which also shows love and kindness are the ultimate belief and the eternal chapter praised by all human beings. Therefore, it has become a major stylistic feature of O. Henry’s novels to show the characters’ psychology by depicting the emotional motivation, which is also the main line and key to our analysis of his works. Moreover, his unique writing styles influence following authors in the field of literature, therefore, his story is known as the “encyclopedia of American life”.
| Published in | English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 6, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11 |
| Page(s) | 44-49 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group |
O. Henry, Short Stories, Writing Skills
| [1] | Dong Lin. An Analysis of the Writing Techniques of O. Henry’s Short Stories [J]. Youth Literator, 2020 (29): 103-104. |
| [2] | Fu Jingchuan. A History of 20th century American Literature [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1998. |
| [3] | Fan Jingrong. Analysis of Narrative Perspective of O. Henry’s Short Stories [J]. Northern Literature, 2019 (26): 77-78. |
| [4] | Huang Chunni, Zhao Li. A Guide to the Works of O. Henry [M]. Wuhan: Wuhan University Press, 2003. |
| [5] | Liu Xinzhu. An Analysis of Human Contradictions in O. Henry’s Novels [J]. Youth Literator, 2021 (6): 126-127. |
| [6] | Liu Xinyi. On the Linguistic Features of The Gift of the Magi [J]. Journal of Jinan University, 2003 (5): 24-27. |
| [7] | Medrick Fred. An Introduction to American literature [M]. Henan: Henan University Press, 1985. |
| [8] | Tian Yan. Selected Short Stories of O. Henry [M]. Dalian: Dalian University of Technology Press, 2005. |
| [9] | Walter B. Pitkin. The Art and Business of Story Writing [M]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980. |
| [10] | Wang Zhongnian, Zhu Wen. O. Henry’s Appreciation of Famous Works [M]. Beijing: China Peace Publishing House, 2007. |
| [11] | Wang Na. On the Combination of Artistry and Humanity in O. Henry’s Short Stories [J]. Writers’ World, 2019 (24): 11-12. |
| [12] | Wu Weiren. The History of American Literature and Selected Readings [M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2006. |
| [13] | Zhang Xin. On the Artistic Conception of O. Henry’s Short Stories [J]. Journal of Baoji College of Arts and Sciences, 2005 (4): 15-18. |
| [14] | Zhang Zhenmei. On the Artistic Approach of O. Henry [J]. Journal of Huaibei Coal Normal University, 2011 (8): 53-54. |
| [15] | Zhang Yiting. An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Room for Rent with Furniture from the Perspective of Metaphor and Symbolic Rhetoric [J]. Journal of Hebei University of Engineering, 2019 (2): 65-67. |
APA Style
Ning Li. (2021). “Smile with Tears”—— An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Short Stories. English Language, Literature & Culture, 6(3), 44-49. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11
ACS Style
Ning Li. “Smile with Tears”—— An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Short Stories. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2021, 6(3), 44-49. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11
AMA Style
Ning Li. “Smile with Tears”—— An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Short Stories. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2021;6(3):44-49. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11,
author = {Ning Li},
title = {“Smile with Tears”—— An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Short Stories},
journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
volume = {6},
number = {3},
pages = {44-49},
doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20210603.11},
abstract = {As one of the greatest short-story novelists in the world, O. Henry is a critical realistic author, also one of the world’s three major short masters, together with Chekov and Maupassant. His writing style is appreciated by numerous readers, especially for the twist plot and the surprising ending with the feature of “smile with tears”. In language, O. Henry uses many rhetoric tactics to achieve the effect of making the stories more vivid and humorous, such as exaggeration, metaphor, and simile and so on. His writing materials are from his own life experiences, that each story is a reflection of the society then, and he always sympathizes with the poor, criticizes and satirizes the capitalists even the common insignificants who have the valuable humanity. Through the analysis of O. Henry’s representative novels, it has expounded the humanistic spirit and optimistic expectation of human kindness contained in his works, which also shows love and kindness are the ultimate belief and the eternal chapter praised by all human beings. Therefore, it has become a major stylistic feature of O. Henry’s novels to show the characters’ psychology by depicting the emotional motivation, which is also the main line and key to our analysis of his works. Moreover, his unique writing styles influence following authors in the field of literature, therefore, his story is known as the “encyclopedia of American life”.},
year = {2021}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - “Smile with Tears”—— An Interpretation of O. Henry’s Short Stories AU - Ning Li Y1 - 2021/07/16 PY - 2021 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11 T2 - English Language, Literature & Culture JF - English Language, Literature & Culture JO - English Language, Literature & Culture SP - 44 EP - 49 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-2413 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20210603.11 AB - As one of the greatest short-story novelists in the world, O. Henry is a critical realistic author, also one of the world’s three major short masters, together with Chekov and Maupassant. His writing style is appreciated by numerous readers, especially for the twist plot and the surprising ending with the feature of “smile with tears”. In language, O. Henry uses many rhetoric tactics to achieve the effect of making the stories more vivid and humorous, such as exaggeration, metaphor, and simile and so on. His writing materials are from his own life experiences, that each story is a reflection of the society then, and he always sympathizes with the poor, criticizes and satirizes the capitalists even the common insignificants who have the valuable humanity. Through the analysis of O. Henry’s representative novels, it has expounded the humanistic spirit and optimistic expectation of human kindness contained in his works, which also shows love and kindness are the ultimate belief and the eternal chapter praised by all human beings. Therefore, it has become a major stylistic feature of O. Henry’s novels to show the characters’ psychology by depicting the emotional motivation, which is also the main line and key to our analysis of his works. Moreover, his unique writing styles influence following authors in the field of literature, therefore, his story is known as the “encyclopedia of American life”. VL - 6 IS - 3 ER -
Information
Email: