摘 要

美国著名现实主义作家欧・亨利，被称为“世界三大著名短篇小说家”之一，同时也被誉为美国短篇小说之父和曼哈顿桂冠散文作家。其小说对美国短篇小说的发展起到了重要的推动作用。他一生笔耕不辍，共出版和发表了近300篇短篇小说。欧・亨利出人意料的结尾方式的运用是他的文学作品深受读者喜爱的一个重要原因。在他的短篇小说中充分运用了这一写作技巧。本文在借鉴国内外学者研究成果的基础上，尝试将符合作者在欧亨利短篇小说创作中的小说结局所采用的具体手法分为四类。本文试图探讨每一类的艺术特色，以及这些结局对于主题的视角、读者的反应和作者的创作动机的独特魅力和效果。

关键词：出乎意料的结尾；类别；独特作用

Contents

1. Introduction ....................................................................................................1

2. Demonstration ................................................................................................2

2.1 The Types of Endings ...................................................................................2

2.1.1 Implied Ending ..........................................................................................3

2.1.2 Contrary Ending ........................................................................................4

2.1.3 Puzzle-solved Ending ................................................................................5

2.1.4 Ironic Ending .............................................................................................6

2.2 The Unique Effects of O. Henry’s Endings ..................................................7

2.2.1 The Effect on Theme .................................................................................7

2.2.2 The Effect on Readers’ Response ..............................................................8

2.2.3 The Effect on the Author’s Creative Motive .............................................9

3. Conclusion ....................................................................................................10

Works Cited ......................................................................................................11

Bibliography .....................................................................................................12

The Artistic Charm of Endings of O’ Henry’s Short Stories

1. Introduction

On September 11, 1862, O. Henry, one of the most famous short stories writers in America, was born in a small town in North Carolina. He was born in a physician family in Greensboro Town, North Carolina. His father was a doctor. When he was 15 years old, he apprenticed in his uncle's pharmacy. Five years later, he went to a ranch in Texas. After 1884, he worked as an accountant, a land bureau clerk and a bank teller. In 1896, the bank found that a small sum of money was lost, and O. Henry was allegedly summoned. He took refuge in Latin America by way of New Orleans. In 1897, he was arrested and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for visiting his wife. In jail, he was as a pharmacist and began to write short stories with the pen name of O. Henry. His works were published in the magazine of Mclure. In 1901, because of “good behavior”, he was able to be released early to go to New York for writing. O. Henry has written more than three hundred works. His representative works include novel collections such as Cabbage and King (1904), 4 Millions (1906), The Heart of the West (1907), and The Road of Destiny and so on. Some of these masterpieces such as “A Service of Love,” “The Cop and The Anthem,” “The Furnished Room,” “The Gift of The Magi” and “The Last Leaf” all make him gain world-renowned reputation.

O. Henry’s stories are famous for the unexpected endings. The unique writing style that characterizes O. Henry’s short stories brings to the writer a name called “the endings of O. Henry’s style”. “Unexpected but Reasonable” is the major feature of this kind of endings. The surprise and shock that endings special to O. Henry’s short stories contribute a lot to readers’ further meditation on the themes of the stories, which is helpful to their understanding of the writer’s criticism of social evils or praise for noble humanity which are the major creative impulse that motivates most of O. Henry’s short stories.

Overseas and domestic scholars have studied O. Henry’s short stories from the following aspects: firstly, the narrative structure of his stories, like his unique endings; secondly, his writing skills and style, like the lines of humor and irony in his works; thirdly, the practically social significance of his works. Compared to the studies of foreign scholars, domestic scholars are more inclined to explore his writing style and skills in a single or a small number of stories. Although the unexpected endings of O. Henry’s short stories have been studied by either foreign or domestic scholars, few studies work on it as their focus. Most of them are not thorough enough or in lack systematic analysis, which would be the focus of this paper.

This paper is divided into 2 parts. The first part is about the categorization of the endings of O. Henry’s style, which can be put into four categories in line with the specific techniques the writer used, namely, implied ending, contrary ending, puzzle-solved ending, and ironic Ending. The second part analyzes the unique effects of these ending in relation to the themes of, readers’ responses to and the writer creative motive for short stories with unexpected endings.

2.Demonstration