There are full of colorful characters in O。 Henry’s stories, and most of whom are derived from his inclination to wander streets and parks, and to talk to people of every kind and condition。 The endings of his stories are always contrary to readers’ expectations, which are ingeniously conceived。 Though his stories’ endings are always surprising, yet it is reasonable that his stories endings are always surprising, for both ways conform well to the logic of life。 He creates an original, typically American democratic form of short stories。 And he expressed his critical awareness of life and society through humor。 Hence, some critics call him “the founder of American stories”。 With his humor and a keen awareness of details, he objectively shows us what America looks like。 Through his experience we can see that in his daily life, the majority people he met are in the social bottom, such as policemen and waitresses。 By putting all his stories together, we can see that he constitutes a true panorama of American life, or as someone said, “the encyclopedia of American life” (Eichenbaum 59)。论文网

O。 Henry was an American writer whose short stories are known for wit, wordplay and clever twist endings。 He wrote nearly 600 stories about life in America。 While in prison he began writing short stories in order to support his young daughter Margaret。 The Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking (1899) was the first published story of him。 He used a pseudonym, Olivier Henry, only once and changed his pen name to O。 Henry, not wanting his readers to know he was in jail。 He published 12 stories while in prison。 After serving 3 years of the five-year sentence, he was released for good behavior。 In 1902, he moved to New York City and wrote a story a week for the New York World, and also for other publishers。 His first collection of stories was Cabbages and Kings (1904)。 The next collection, The Four Million (1906), included his famous stories The Gift of the Magi, the Skylight Room and The Green Door。 One of his last stories, The Ransom of Red Chief (1910), is perhaps the best known of his works。 

Through humor, grim or ironic, he expressed the effect of coincidence on character in his stories, which often had surprise endings, a device that became identified with his name and cost him critical favor when its vogue had passed。 

O。 Henry’s work is wide-ranging, and by roaming the cattle-lands of Texas, exploring the art of the con-man, or investigating the tensions of class and wealth in turn-of-the-century New York, his characters can be easily found。 O。 Henry had an inimitable hand for isolating some element of society and describing it with an incredible economy and grace of language。 Some of his best and least-known work is contained in Cabbages and Kings, a series of stories each of which explores some inpidual aspect of life in a sleepy Central American town, while advancing some aspect of the larger plot and relating back one to another。

A widely read and published writer, O。 Henry’s short stories influenced not only the development of magazine fiction as a popular form but also the evolution of modern narrative。 Indeed, even very perse European and South American writers adopt the devices O。 Henry perfected。 This phenomenon is no accident: His short stories have been widely reprinted and translated, especially in Russia and France, and have been adapted for radio, stage, and television performances。

II。Definition and Formats of Humor

O。 Henry was, especially popular in the United States。 Extremely humorous, clever, and entertaining, he also managed to capture all that was recognizably and uniquely American—the variegated language, attitudes, spirit, geographical locations, social environments, and, most important, the inclination to identify with the downtrodden, the underdog。 

2。1 Concept of Humor