OHenry

A detailed Summary of OHenry

O. Henry's multitude of short stories are still read and enjoyed almost as much today as when they were first published. While he had done some writing before, it was during his three-year incarceration in the Columbus, Ohio Penitentiary for fraud that he began to write seriously. (O. Henry vi) O. Henry was an observer of human nature "who liked to walk about the city at night, studying faces and inventing stories about

them." (x) Many of this prolific writer's short stories are marked by a surprise ending and tend to focus on human emotions that most readers can identify with.

Both "The gift of the Magi" and "The ransom of red chief" illustrate his penchant for the "twist ending", his ability to portray the vast array of our human emotions including our ties to money and what they cause us to do. "He wrote of real people, with real problems" and brought "tender understanding to his portraits of life" (Toni Shiffman p.4)

"The Gift of the Magi" is an example of his insight into what one couple does for love in the face of financial destitution. Henry describes the little money they do have as "Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer... until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputa

tion of parsimony that such close dealing implied." emphasizing the shame-filled scraping it took to get what little money they did have, which is something many new couples throughout time have struggled with. (O. Henry 1) He reinforces her desperation when he writes, "Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas." (1) Most readers are able to identify with her situation having been there themselves at one time or another.

that she had been yearning for. Moreover, what was Della's gift for Jim? A chain for the gold watch in which he took so much pride. O. Henry manages in this simple story to touch our hearts as well as give us a surprise ending.

In the "Ransom of Red Chief", O. Henry again sheds the light on human nature, and our binding tie to money, but in a completely different way. Using his "humorous, energetic style" (Kirjasto p. 6) in this story, Two bumbling bandits are in need of two thousand dollars in order to pull off a fraudulent scheme, which will net them a large amount of money. They put their heads together and come up with a plan to kidnap the ten-year-old son of a rich, prominent citizen. The author quickly shows us the nature of this child when the boy pegs one of the bandits in the eye with a piece of brick in answer to "Hey, little boy!.....Would you like to have a bag of candy and a nice ride?" He also clarifies the criminals' nature when the bandit who was on the receiving end of the brick responds with "That will cost the old man an extra five hundred dollars". (O. Henry 189)

Throughout his stay with the kidnappers, the boy terrorizes them to the point that the reader begins to feel sorry for them. One of the criminals is so afraid of the kid that he begs his partner not to leave him alone very long with him when his partner leaves to deliver the ransom note demanding the desired t

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Approximate Word count = 1274
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English