O.Henry and short srory

1、vO Henry and short storyIntroduction vWilliam Sidney Porter (威廉 錫德尼 波特）v North Carolinan:,krlain美國(guó)北卡羅來(lái)納州vThe Greatest Short story writervwithout much schooling and virtually orphan worked in his uncles drugstore, learning much of human nature. vHe spent all of his free time reading books, and by the

2、 time he was 20, he was still small, weighing less than a hundred pound, gradually retreating into a shy, poverty-stricken world of fantasyvHe followed several occupations, being a bookkeeper(商人的)記賬人, a drugstore clerk, and a Texas Ranger（護(hù)林者）. During this time, he developed talents for cartooning a

3、nd singing. vIn 1887 he met Athol Esta with whom he became fascinated, but her family was opposed to the marriage. As a result, the two eloped. In 1894, he founded The Rolling Stone, a comic magazine which soon failed. v1896, accused for bribery,1898,jut into jail, sentenced 5 years in jailv 1900 se

4、t freevO. Henry got to know New YorkvAfter gathering material on every aspect of New York life, O. Henry became a salaried writer and soon emerged as a central figure in the peak period of the American magazine short story. vFrom that time on he was a wealthy man, living luxuriously and drinking hea

5、vily.v In 1907 he married his second wife Sara Lindsay Coleman. vHe was never a strong man physically and his exciting life eventually wore him out before his time. vHe died in drunkenness.Main worksThe Four Million 四百萬(wàn)The Trimmed Lamp修剪過(guò)的燈The Voice of the City 城市之聲Heart of the West西部之心The Gentle Gr

6、after溫雅的貪污者Options選擇Strictly Business僅是公事The Cop and the Anthem警察與贊美詩(shī)The Gift of Magi麥琪的禮物或圣賢的禮物The features of his worksvfull of humor, his stories are amusing, flippant(言語(yǔ)尖刻的), flat, biting and are filled with irony, sentiment, and pathos vdirectly from his experience with many odd jobs, he combin

7、ed realism with a world of his own, reflecting a fatalistic(宿命論的)view of life. vThere is no great concern with unchanging human problems, and he had no firm moral messages.v His work is typically American, and he gives us a good idea of various types of people in the United States. his style vThe th

8、eme of his stories is often based on some self-sacrificing member of a family who is undergoing hardship to help a close relative. vHe also addresses questions of loneliness, of desolate people, of grotesque underlings(下屬).vdirect, pared of all unnecessary verbiage(v:bi:d,冗詞), except for occasional

9、use of exaggeration or polysyllables. vHis use of dialect is completely authentic, in classic realist fashion.v He uses slang to gain force and humor.v vHighly skilled in the use of Southern dialect, he was never identified with the local color movement, for he drew from too many sources to be ident

10、ified with any one. vHe is the master of surprise, though occasionally he falls into cheapness just as his characters taken to the extreme become caricatures(,krkt, -t漫畫; 夸張的描述或模仿.)vthe twist ending (or sometimes the O.Henry ending) means at the end of an article the mental status or the fate of the

11、 character has changed greatly, considered the ending as a way to elevate the artistic thought vCharacters: poor and helpless, but struggle hard to survive and finally they would get joy out of hardshipAnalysis of The Cop and the AnthemvThe story adopted one section of wanderer Soapys life to explor

12、e the social life of American society and attack the darkness of its social system. vThrough this section of life, the author described the poor destiny of low people. The author adopted a light and humorous tone to tell the story.The humorous style vFirst, the social position and the plot :a wander

13、er Soapy, didnt lose his own dignity. two ways : the charity, shameful; the prison for three months. v2nd, the humorous character:the man like soapy did not have the chance to be corrected.v3rd,its language:The whole tone of the story is light, humorous. A dead leaf was called Jack Frosts card; his

14、door is North wind, to create the light atmosphere. the reverse of speaking. He exaggerates the thing which is not good. The praise to Prison shows the poor peoples living condition and satire towards American reality. The Gift of the Magi vDella Young德拉德拉 : Pretty young woman who cuts off her beaut

15、iful long hair and sells it to buy a Christmas gift for her husband. James Dillingham Young詹姆斯詹姆斯迪林厄姆迪林厄姆楊楊 : Husband of Della. He sells his gold watch to buy a gift for Della. v Madame Sofronie索弗羅妮夫人索弗羅妮夫人 : Shop owner who buys Dellas hair. . Climax vThe climax occurs when Della and Jim open their

16、gifts. Magi (magus)vthree wise men from the east who traveled to Bethlehembelihem伯利恒, following a bright star, to present gifts to the infant Jesus. they offered him giftsgold, frankincense, and myrrh.“黃金，乳香，沒藥 vThese offerings, though valuable, were not as important as the recognition, respect, and

17、 love they gave the Christ child. vThe three wise men have been identified in western tradition as Balthasar, (巴爾薩澤 ) king of Arabiareibj阿拉伯半島; Melchior melki: , (梅爾基奧) king of Persiap:; and Gaspar, (加斯帕)king of India. Three: A Magic Number vthree characters: Della, Jim, and Madame Sophronie. vDella

18、 counts her money three times (Paragraph 1). vThe narrator says that Life is made up of sobs, sniffles抽噎, and smiles (Paragraph 2). vThe story mentions the Queen of Sheba, who gave three types of gifts to King Solomon: spices, gold, and jewels. vA sentence in Paragraph 5 says, She stood by the windo

19、w and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard.” vJim tells Della, I dont think theres anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. vThe narrator alliteratively describes Della as speaking with sudden serious sweetness. vThe were t