Abstract  O·Henry, one of the three masters of short stories in the world, is the founder of American modern short stories。 His stories mostly reflect the real life of people at the bottom of society in America in the early 20th century。 O·Henry is good at observing details of daily life and capturing the typical scenes in order to portray the characters’ minds and sometimes even show inherent contradictions of life。 The thesis starts with O·Henry’s short stories and his background and combines with O·Henry’s specific works to discuss O·Henry’s writing styles。 The thesis emphasizes his styles in writing stories and it concretely analyzes three aspects, including humor, conciseness and irony。 It also illustrates the factors of forming these styles, that is artistic techniques。 It aims to explore its literary value。92349

Keywords:  O·Henry; writing styles; language; artistic techniques

摘要欧亨利是世界短篇小说三大师之一，美国现当代短篇小说的创始人。他的作品大多数反映了20世纪初期美国社会底层人物的现实生活。欧亨利善于观察生活中的细节和捕捉典型场面，来刻画人物心理和展示生活固有的矛盾。本文主要从欧亨利的短篇小说和他的时代背景入手，结合欧亨利具体的小说来探讨他独特的写作风格。本论文的重点是欧亨利小说的风格，将从语言的幽默，简洁和反讽三个方面具体分析。还将阐述形成这种风格的主要因素，就是他的艺术手法。本文旨在探索欧亨利短篇小说的文学价值。源F于K优B尔C论V文N网WwW.youeRw.com 原文+QQ752^018766

毕业论文关键词：欧亨利；写作风格；语言；艺术手法

Contents

1。 Introduction 1

1。1 The life of O·Henry 1

1。2 O·Henry’s works 1

1。3 O·Henry’s themes 2

2。 Literature Review 4

3。 Writing Styles of O·Henry’s Short Stories 5

3。1 Humor 5

3。2 Conciseness 7

3。3 Irony 8

4。 The Factors to Writing Styles 9

4。1 The surprising ending 9

4。2 The dual-clue structure 10

5。Conclusion 12

Works Cited 13

1。 Introduction 

1。1 The life of O·Henry来自优O尔P论R文T网WWw.YoueRw.com 加QQ7520`18766

The true name of O·Henry is William Sydney Porter and he is a American short story writer, who writes about the life of ordinary people in New York City。 William Sydney Porter was born in Greensboro, North Carolina。 His father was a renowned physician, and his mother was a high graduate and she liked to write poetry and drew paintings。 Unfortunately his mother died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty when O·Henry was three years old。 Shortly afterwards, his father and he moved into the hometown of his paternal grandmother。 As a child, O·Henry became obsessed with reading books。 However, he had little education。 At the age of fifteen, he worked in his uncle’s drugstore and on a Texas ranch。 He had a lot of jobs in Houston, including accountant, bank clerk and reporter。 After four years, he got a pharmacist license。 In 1884, regarding to his fitness at the age of eighteen, he moved to Texas and settled down in Austin。 O·Henry married with his wife Athol in 1887 and then they had a daughter and a son who died after birth。 With a steady income, O·Henry was now able to concentrate on his writing。 In 1891 he began to work as a bank teller in the First National Bank。 In 1894 he started The Rolling Stone which is a humorous weekly。 When The Rolling Stone failed，he worked as a reporter and columnist in The Houston Post。 Then he went to Honduras to avoid trial because of missing money in the bank where he worked。 After hearing the news that his wife was dying, he came back to Austin。 In 1897 he was put into prison because of some financial dealings。 When in prison, he started to write short stories to support his daughter。 After being released from the prison for three years in 1901, O·Henry moved to New York City in 1902 and then he began his real writing career。 O·Henry’s last years were shadowed by alcoholism, ill health and financial problems。 Finally, O·Henry died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 5, 1910, in New York。