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1、AbstractO. Henry is one of the most famous writers in the early 20th century, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. Regarded as the founder of American modern stories, he played an important role in American literature. O. Henrys stories are famous for their surprise endings; such an endi
2、ng is often referred to as an O. Henry ending. Most of O. Henrys stories are set in his own time, the early years of the 20th century. Many take place in New York City and deal for the most part with ordinary people. As a keen observer of American social life, He is good at digging out the inner hum
3、an nature from common life in the lower class and makes readers think deeply about good and evil in the common life. Humanity became the dominated theme in his short stories. This thesis mainly analysis the humanity of characters revealed in O. Henrys short stories by analyzing the representative st
4、ories selected from his works. It will mainly include three parts: the praise of human virtue; the criticism of human weakness; the cause analysis about the humanity theme. I use two major research strategies: literature search and case studies. Data have been collected from archives, periodicals, a
5、nd published books, through case analysis to carry my points.This thesis will give people a better understanding about O. Henrys works and his attitude towards humanity.Key Words：O. Henry; short stories; humanity 摘要欧亨利是20世纪最著名的作家之一，和莫泊桑、契诃夫其名，称为世界三位短篇小说巨匠。欧亨利被称为美国现代小说的奠基人，在美国文学中扮演着重要的角色。欧亨利的短篇小说以出其不
6、意的结尾而享誉世界文坛，通常被称为“欧亨利式结尾”。欧亨利的作品大多以20世纪的美国社会为背景，描写小人物的喜怒哀乐。他善于从小人物的生活中挖掘人物内心的性格特征，让读者对人性的真善美和人性的丑陋有了更深的了解，人性是其小说中永恒的主题。这篇论文主要从三个方面探讨和分析欧亨利短篇小说中的人性意识。即对人性美德的赞美,对人性弱点的批判以及其短篇小说以人性作为主题的根源。我主要采用了两种研究策略：文献查找和案例分析。通过查找相关的文献和期刊阅读，以及对欧亨利具有代表性的短篇小说的分析来达到论文写作的目的。通过此论文，人们会对欧亨利的小说有更深刻的理解，更重要的是对人性有一个更深层次的感悟。关键词：
7、欧亨利； 短篇小说；人性On Humanity in O. Henrys Short Stories1. IntroductionO. Henry is one of the greatest American short story writers in the 20th century, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant, and he is regarded as “the founder of American modern short stories”. Many people think that O. Henry is
8、 famous for his unique endings, which is known as the “O. Henry-style ending”. Actually, the charm of his works also lies in the humanity theme, which revealed in his short stories. The critic William Peden once said, “O. Henry brought verve, excitement, and humor to the genre. Enormously interested
9、 in people, he is capable of swift and compassionate insights into the average person, and his sympathy for the underdog, the little man or woman dwarfed in the maze of contemporary life, to a degree accounted for his enormous popularity”. (Jim Kamp, 1994) In O. Henrys works, he presents the panoram
10、a of the American people to readers through depicting the life of ordinary people of his own time. O. Henry has a deep insight into human destiny and human nature; he observes the world from his own point of view on the basis of his personal experience. He praises the beauty of human nature on one h
11、and, and criticizes the darkness of the capitalists on the other hand. Thus, humanity proves to be the eternal theme in his stories.This thesis is set out to analyze humanity in O. Henrys short stories from two aspects: glorify human virtues and criticize human weaknesses. Through these two points w
12、e will have a better understanding about O. Henrys works and his clear attitudes towards humanity.2. O. Henrys life and literary careerO. Henry was the pen name of the American short story writer William Sydney Porter, who was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862. His father, Algernon Sidney P
13、orter, was a physician. When William was three, his mother died, and he was raised by his aunt. William was very interested in reading, but at the age of fifteen, he went to work in an uncles drugstore. In 1882, he went to Texas, where he first worked as a druggist, later as a draftsman and finally
14、as a teller in the First National Bank. He married in 1887 and his wife gave birth to a daughter in 1889.In 1894, Porter founded The Rolling Stone, a comic weekly magazine. In that year, he was charged with embezzlement when Porter worked as a bank teller in the First National Bank. In order to avoi
15、d the trial, Porter fled to Honduras .In 1897, after hearing of his wifes serious illness, Henry returned to Austin. His wife died that year, and in March of 1898 he was sentenced to five years in the federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. While in prison, Porter started to write short stories to e
16、arn money to support his daughter Margaret, and he began to use O. Henry as his pseudonyms. After his release, he went to New York City, where he worked as a journalist. In 1907, O. Henry remarried, but the marriage was not happy, and they separated a year later. In his last years, O. Henry was addi
17、cted to alcoholism, suffered from ill health, and financial problems. He died of tuberculosis, complicated by alcoholism and diabetes, in 1910.During his life time, O. Henry published more than 300 pieces of short stories, among which, the best known stories are the Gift of the Magi, the Cop and the
18、 Anthem, the last leaf, etc. 13 collections including The Cabbages and Kings(1904) The Four Million (1906) The Trimmed Lamp (1907) and The Voice of the City (1908). The Four Million is generally considered as O. Henrys best single collection of short stories. It is intended to explore the lives of t
19、he multitude of New Yorkers, “who jostle each other with their comedies and tragedies mingling against the glittering, beautiful ignoble, crowed, lonely city.”(左金梅，216)O. Henry wrote with realistic detail based on his first hand experiences both in Texas and in New York City. Most of the stories wer
20、e set in his time, the early years of the 20th century, and wrote the life of ordinary people. His short stories are characteristically marked by a twist of plot which turns on an ironic and coincidental circumstance. It is often refers to the “O. Henry-style ending”. Critics have singled out O. Hen
21、ry as one of the greatest American short story writers-describing him as a writers writer who also possesses universal appeal.In 1918, to honor his great contribution to American Literature, the American Literary Circles set up O. Henry Memorial Award, which is given annually to the best magazine st
22、ories, the winners and leading contenders to be published in an annual volume.3. on humanity in O. Henrys worksThe basic theme of O. Henrys short stories are concerned with pretense and reversal of fortune, discovery and initiation through adventure, the city as playground for the imagination and th
23、e basic yearning of all humanity. Whether simple or complex, the mystery and variety of human motives is exposed. There are good and evil elements in human nature, for the two are often mixed with each other more or less. When the good elements in human nature occupy the most part, man will maintain
24、 his virtues such as kindness, generosity, self-sacrifice for love and friendship, helping others without asking for rewards. While the evil things dominate in human nature, man will show his weakness or ugliness in nature, such as greedy, selfishness, rapacious, impetuous, etc. Human beings are eas
25、ily susceptible in this material world. When tempted by money, people will do evil things for their own sake regardless of other peoples interests; however, when moved by noble people or touching things, they will do good deeds to make the world more humane. In O. Henrys short stories, he portrayed
26、these two kinds of humanity vividly. 3.1 The praise of human virtuesO. Henry has a great understanding of the hardships of the lower class, he frequently depicts the lives of ordinary people of early 20th century America sympathetically. Most of O. Henrys stories show that the humble insignificant p
27、eople of New York are admirable and respectable and their lives are worthy of attention. O. Henry acts as the mouthpiece of the lower people, telling their ups and downs, digging out and praising the human virtue from their common life. O. Henry demonstrates the reality and describes human virtues t
28、o make readers feel warm in that cold industrial society.3.1.1 The pure love between loversIn The Gift of the Magi”, O. Henry speaks highly of the true love between a young couple. Young married couple Della and Jim were very much in love with each other but quiet poor due to their very bad economic
29、 situation. When Christmas came near, Della wanted to buy Jim a chain for his watch, which was Jims the most valuable possession. In order to raise the money, Della had her long, beautiful hair cut off and sold it. Meanwhile, Jim decided to sell his watch to buy Della a beautiful set of combs for he
30、r lovely, knee-length brown hair. In the end, both of their gifts turned out to be useless, for Della cut off her beautiful hair and Jim sold his valuable watch. But each of them was pleased with the gift they received, because they felt the strong love for one another from the gift. The story ends
31、with the narrator comparing the pairs mutually sacrificial gifts of love with those of theBiblical Magi:“The magi, as you know, were wise men wonderfully wise men who brought gifts to the new-bornKing of the Jewsin the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gif
32、ts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. In a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are
33、 the Magi.” （徐翰林，2004:7）Therefore, O. Henry ends the story artfully, and with deft touches he arouses the readers admiration and sympathy for this young couple. Although they can not afford to buy each other Christmas gift, they both sacrifice their most valuable possessions they have for buying the
34、 most meaningful present they thought for each other, which shows love for each other more than compensates for their lack of money and material possessions. Della and Jim can never change their eagerness toward love.To them the material possession is so slight and insignificant before the spiritual
35、 possession of love romance. They prove that the unselfish love is greater than possessions, which is sparkling with fragrant charm.3.1.2 True friendship and self-sacrificeIn O. Henrys “The Last Leaf”, we can feel the power of friendship and self-sacrifice. It was a moving story about three poor but
36、 kind-hearted artists. Johnsy, a girl painter, suffered from pneumonia in a cold winter and would die soon. One day, she looked at the ivy leaf outside the window and told to her friend Sue who took good care of her that she would die when the last ivy leaf fell. Sue was very worried about her and t
37、old Johnsys fancy to an old painter Behrman, who was unsuccessful through his life. In order to help Johnsy go through the hard time and give her hope to life, the old painter drew an ivy leaf at a raining night. The last leaf encouraged Johnsy to live and thought that “it is a sin to want to die.”
38、In the end, Johnsy was recovered to health, but unfortunately, Behrman died of pneumonia because he was frozen at the night when he drew the leaf! Reading the story, we can find that O. Henry shows us a beautiful soul common people possess. Firstly, we feel the beauty of friendship between Sue and J
39、ohnsy. They are two intimated friends, who share the same “tastes in art, chicory a salad and bishop sleeve so congenial that the joint studio resulted.”（徐翰林，2004:47） When Johnsy was ill, Sue looked after her carefully, and encouraged Johnsy to fight against pneumonia with courage. At that shivering
40、 cold November, the sparks of friendship drive away the coldness and make readers sense the warmth of humanity. Secondly, we are moved by the self-sacrifice spirit. Behrman, an unsuccessful old painter, sacrifices his life to save a young girl. His masterpiece, the last leaf, gives Johnsy hope to li
41、ve. It is through self-sacrifice that Behrman created his masterpiece and succeeded. There is no reason but the beauty of humanity, which makes a common people do such a great sacrifice. The story reminds us no matter how hard our lives will be, we should never lose hope, the goodness of humanity wi
42、ll give us strength to move on and pursue a better tomorrow.3.1.3 The praiseworthy integrity“Two Thanksgiving Day Gentlemen”, actually is a story about an old gentleman and a poor. Stuffy Pete was a homeless man. Every Thanksgiving for the last nine years, he had a tradition of meeting an old gentle
43、man at a certain park bench, and the old gentleman would take him to a restaurant and treat him with a huge holiday dinner. This year, however, as Stuffy was making his way to his park bench, “two old ladies of ancient family” stopped him, invited him into their home, and served him a meal even more
44、 sumptuous than his traditional fare. By the time he reached his old familiar bench and the old gentleman showed up. Although Stuffy Pete was stuffed, he didnt want to disappoint the kindly old gentleman, so he enjoyed the second huge dinner in their traditional restaurant. The old gentleman was ver
45、y contended to watch Stuffy finish the dinner. Later that day, Stuffy was sent to hospital due to eating too much. Soon after, the old gentleman was also brought to the same hospital because he hadnt eaten anything in three days. Through this story, we can perceive the charm of humanity revealed fro
46、m the two American gentlemen. As for Stuffy, though poor and ignorant, in order to fulfill the old gentlemans kindly offer, he eats the whole dinner without waste. In fact he could tell the old gentleman that he had been stuffed already, but he doesnt do that. As for the old gentleman who is thought
47、 to be wealthy treats a homeless man with a huge dinner every thanksgiving. But at the end we find that he is not wealthy after all; he would rather stave himself buying food for his homeless friend than break his promise. While facing money and integrity, he chose the latter. In todays material wor
48、ld, we should all think about it. 3.2 Exposing and criticism of the human weaknessIn addition to highly praises for goodness and virtues in humanity, O. Henry also exposed the ugliness of human in the capitalist society. In many of his works, O. Henry boldly disclosed and criticized peoples money wo
49、rship, greedy, distortions of humanity, and lost in chase fame and fortune. They benefit themselves at the expense of others. In order to make money they never show mercy and sympathy to the poor. Their evil deeds make the world vicious. By exposing the human defects and the dark side of the world, O. Henry wants to awaken peoples conscience and their deepest desire for all good things, so that people can make their efforts to save and cle