On September 11, 1862, there was a small town named Greensboro in North Carolina, not far from Washington State. A frustrated doctor in a small town and his beautiful, delicate wife gave birth to a child with big eyes and not much strength. No one would have thought that at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, this child would enter the literary world under the pen name O. Henry and become a great novelist loved by readers in the United States and around the world. He would still maintain long-lasting influence and charm a hundred years later. .
O. Henry’s life path was rugged, difficult and unfortunate. He lost his mother when he was three years old. He entered the society at the age of 15 and worked as a shepherd boy, pharmacist, clerk, clerk, draftsman, and cashier. and many other occupations. In 1889, he and Luo Qi eloped and got married, despite her parents' objections. Encouraged by his young wife, he embarked on the creative path, founded "Rolling Stone" magazine, and published humorous sketches. He was later sentenced to five years in prison for embezzling bank funds. After being released from prison, he moved to New York to specialize in writing, providing a short story every week for Le Monde. However, due to the misfortune of his second marriage and excessive drinking, he finally died of illness in New York on June 5, 1910.
In the United States from the 1880s to the early 20th century, as capitalism gradually developed towards monopoly, various social contradictions became increasingly prominent. O. Henry has lived in the lower class for a long time, and various social phenomena have made him feel these contradictions. His tortuous life, rich experiences, unique perspective and keen observation made him unable to help but vividly summarize various social phenomena in his works, such as the poverty and hardship of the lower-class working people, the sanctimonious upper-class swindlers, and the clever plundering. The financial oligarchs, the unscrupulous buying and selling of officials, the lives of thieves, robbers, vagrants, unemployment, crime, etc. He was full of sympathy for the poor, criticized and exposed the bourgeois exploiters from different angles, and expressed the angry resistance and aspirations of the lower class working people against exploitation and oppression.
O. Henry wrote more than 270 short stories and a novel in his life, as well as a small number of poems. O. Henry's poetry creation reflects his attitude towards nature and the social contradictions faced by life. He writes about birds and ancient villages, praises wanderers, sings about "the boy who sang the lullaby" in a gloomy tone, and criticizes the "boy who sang the lullaby". reasonable social phenomenon. However, due to the small number and modest achievements, the impact is very small. On the contrary, many of his letters are wonderful essays. He talks about life and creation with his editor, expressing the author's attitude towards life and creative thoughts. O. Henry's representative works are "The Gift of the Magi", "The Policeman and the Hymn" and "The Last Leaf". His famous novels include "The Yellow Bird Behind", "Municipal Report", "The Furnished Guest Room", "The Two Liars", etc. The true and accurate description of details and the vivid and concise language make a series of vivid artistic images appear in the novel. In front of readers, he also occupies an important position in the history of short stories in the world. Someone once compared him to "the American Maupassant", which makes sense.
Humor is one of the literary traditions of the United States. Starting from Washington Irving, many writers are good at writing funny and meaningful stories. Irving's humor contains a touch of irony in the good-natured teasing; Mark Twain's humor reveals the truth in life with slang-filled colloquialisms, funny, playful descriptions and extremely exaggerated images; Irving Shaw's humor It focuses on describing the humor and humor of the characters. O. Henry inherited this tradition, was influenced by his contemporary writers, and experienced ups and downs in his life, which made his unique humor unique - full of bitter laughter, exaggerated, sarcastic, funny, witty and witty humor. contains feelings of depression and sadness. Reading "The Gift of the Magi" makes people smile bitterly, while reading "The Police and the Hymn" makes people sad and bitter. This "tearful smile" deepens the social significance of the work and has long-lasting artistic charm.
Handling the ending of the novel is O. Henry's most creative contribution, and it also makes him famous in the history of American and world literature. He is good at designing plots dramatically, laying down foreshadowing, foreshadowing, and outlining contradictions. Finally, there is an unexpected ending at the end, which makes readers feel suddenly enlightened, both unexpected and reasonable, and they can't help but take action. Amazing. However, due to the fast and frequent writing speed of the author, this technique is used too much and excessively, which inevitably makes people feel that there are obvious disadvantages of similarity and formulaic writing. The endings of his novels are often surprising; and because they describe many characters and are full of interest in life, they are known as "the humorous encyclopedia of American life."
O. Henry deserves to be regarded as one of the "three major short story writers in the world". His superb writing skills have given his novels the title of "O. Henry style".