O Henry's life is bumpy, hard and unfortunate. At the age of three, he lost his mother, 15 went into society. He used to be a shepherd boy, a pharmacist and so on. Clerks, clerks, cartographers, cashiers and other occupations. 1889, he and Luo Qi eloped and got married despite their parents' opposition, and with the encouragement of their young wife, they embarked on the creative road, founded Rolling Stone magazine and published humorous sketches. Later, he was sentenced to five years in prison for misappropriating bank funds. After he was released from prison, he moved to new york to specialize in writing and provided a short story for Le Monde every week. However, due to the misfortune of his second marriage and alcoholism, he finally 19 10 died in new york on June 5th.
19 from the 1980s to the early 20th century, with the development of capitalism to monopoly, various social contradictions became increasingly prominent in the United States. O Henry lived in the lower class for a long time, and various social phenomena made him feel these contradictions. With his tortuous life, rich experience, unique perspective and keen observation, he can't help but vividly summarize various social phenomena in his works, such as poverty and hardship of the working people at the lower level, hypocritical upper-level swindlers, financial oligarchs who exploit loopholes, unscrupulous trading of official titles, the lives of thieves, robbers and tramps, unemployment and crime. He was full of sympathy for the poor, criticized and exposed the bourgeois exploiters from different angles, and expressed the angry resistance and desire of the lower working people against exploitation and oppression.
O Henry wrote more than 270 short stories and a novel, as well as some poems. O Henry's poetry creation reflects his attitude towards the social contradictions faced by nature and life. He wrote about birds and ancient villages, eulogized vagrants, eulogized "The Boy Singing a Lullaby" in a gloomy style, and criticized unreasonable social phenomena. However, due to the small number and small achievements, the impact is very small. On the contrary, many of his letters are wonderful essays. He talked with the editor about life and creation, expressing the author's attitude towards life and creative thoughts. O Henry's representative works include The Gift of the Maggie, The Police, Hymns and The Last Leaf. His famous novels include Yellow Bird Behind, Municipal Report, Furnished Room, Double Liar and so on. His true and accurate details and vivid and concise language make a series of vivid artistic images present to readers, which also makes him occupy an important position in the history of short stories in the world. Someone once compared him to "Mo Bosang of America", which makes sense.
Humor is one of American literary traditions. Since washington irving, many writers have been good at writing interesting and meaningful stories. Owen's humor contains a trace of irony in his well-meaning teasing; Mark Twain's humor reveals the truth in life with his slang-filled spoken language, witty description and extremely exaggerated image. Irwin shaw's humor focuses on describing the humor of the characters. O Henry inherited this tradition and was influenced by contemporary writers. The rough life experience made his unique humor unique-full of bitter laughter, and contained depression and sadness in exaggerated, ironic, humorous and humorous humor. Reading "The Gift of the Magi" makes people smile bitterly, while reading "The Police and Hymns" makes people sad and bitter. This "tearful smile" deepens the social significance of the work and has long-term artistic charm.
The handling of the ending of the novel is O Henry's most creative contribution, which also makes him famous in the history of American and world literature. He is good at dramatically designing plots, paving the way, sketching contradictions, and finally there is an unexpected ending at the end, which makes readers feel suddenly enlightened, unexpected and reasonable, and can't help but marvel. However, due to the author's fast and numerous writing speed, this technique is overused, which inevitably makes people feel obvious similarities and formulaic disadvantages.
O Henry's works are widely read in our country. The Complete Works of O Henry published this time retranslated all works, including poems. I hope to provide all readers who like O 'Henry with the latest and most comprehensive version, so as to have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of O 'Henry's life, thoughts and works, as well as the American society at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century. (Guo Junfeng) In North Carolina, not far from Washington, there is a small town called Green Sboro. In September 1862, 1 1, a frustrated doctor in a small town and his beautiful and delicate wife gave birth to a child with big eyes and not strong. Unexpectedly, at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, this child entered the literary world under the pseudonym of O. Henry, and became a great novelist deeply loved by readers in the United States and even the world, and still maintained a long-term influence and charm after a hundred years.
O Henry's life is bumpy, hard and unfortunate. At the age of three, he lost his mother, 15 went into society. He used to be a shepherd boy, a pharmacist and so on. Clerks, clerks, cartographers, cashiers and other occupations. 1889, he and Luo Qi eloped and got married despite their parents' opposition, and with the encouragement of their young wife, they embarked on the creative road, founded Rolling Stone magazine and published humorous sketches. Later, he was sentenced to five years in prison for misappropriating bank funds. After he was released from prison, he moved to new york to specialize in writing and provided a short story for Le Monde every week. However, due to the misfortune of his second marriage and alcoholism, he finally 19 10 died in new york on June 5th.
19 from the 1980s to the early 20th century, with the development of capitalism to monopoly, various social contradictions became increasingly prominent in the United States. O Henry lived in the lower class for a long time, and various social phenomena made him feel these contradictions. With his tortuous life, rich experience, unique perspective and keen observation, he can't help but vividly summarize various social phenomena in his works, such as poverty and hardship of the working people at the lower level, hypocritical upper-level swindlers, financial oligarchs who exploit loopholes, unscrupulous trading of official titles, the lives of thieves, robbers and tramps, unemployment and crime. He was full of sympathy for the poor, criticized and exposed the bourgeois exploiters from different angles, and expressed the angry resistance and desire of the lower working people against exploitation and oppression.
O Henry wrote more than 270 short stories and a novel, as well as some poems. O Henry's poetry creation reflects his attitude towards the social contradictions faced by nature and life. He wrote about birds and ancient villages, eulogized vagrants, eulogized "The Boy Singing a Lullaby" in a gloomy style, and criticized unreasonable social phenomena. However, due to the small number and small achievements, the impact is very small. On the contrary, many of his letters are wonderful essays. He talked with the editor about life and creation, expressing the author's attitude towards life and creative thoughts. O Henry's representative works include The Gift of the Maggie, The Police, Hymns and The Last Leaf. His famous novels include Yellow Bird Behind, Municipal Report, Furnished Room, Double Liar and so on. His true and accurate details and vivid and concise language make a series of vivid artistic images present to readers, which also makes him occupy an important position in the history of short stories in the world. Someone once compared him to "Mo Bosang of America", which makes sense.
Humor is one of American literary traditions. Since washington irving, many writers have been good at writing interesting and meaningful stories. Owen's humor contains a trace of irony in his well-meaning teasing; Mark Twain's humor reveals the truth in life with his slang-filled spoken language, witty description and extremely exaggerated image. Irwin shaw's humor focuses on describing the humor of the characters. O Henry inherited this tradition and was influenced by contemporary writers. The rough life experience made his unique humor unique-full of bitter laughter, and contained depression and sadness in exaggerated, ironic, humorous and humorous humor. Reading "The Gift of the Magi" makes people smile bitterly, while reading "The Police and Hymns" makes people sad and bitter. This "tearful smile" deepens the social significance of the work and has long-term artistic charm.
The handling of the ending of the novel is O Henry's most creative contribution, which also makes him famous in the history of American and world literature. He is good at dramatically designing plots, paving the way, sketching contradictions, and finally there is an unexpected ending at the end, which makes readers feel suddenly enlightened, unexpected and reasonable, and can't help but marvel. However, due to the author's fast and numerous writing speed, this technique is overused, which inevitably makes people feel obvious similarities and formulaic disadvantages.
O Henry's works are widely read in our country. The Complete Works of O Henry published this time retranslated all works, including poems. I hope to provide all readers who like O 'Henry with the latest and most comprehensive version, so as to have a more comprehensive and profound understanding of O 'Henry's life, thoughts and works, as well as the American society at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century.
Oh? The protagonists in Henry's novels are often the lower classes of society, such as bossy shop assistants, poor painters, poor shop assistants, helpless doctors, desperate thieves and so on. The last leaf, a well-known novel, describes the sufferings and emotional stories of several poor painters, and shapes the moving image of Berman, an old painter who sacrificed himself for others.
If Berman is the loose and broken brick wall, then Josie is like a vine attached to it; If Berman is a very old ivy, then Josie is a leaf on the vine.
Josie's young life is eroded bit by bit in the stormy night, and the light of life is fading bit by bit. Sadness in the heart is greater than death. Josie, who has no hope in this bleak world, regards this last rattan leaf as a sign of her life, as the last weak connection with this world, and as a reason to give up her life. She even waited anxiously, trying to "float down like a dead leaf" and drift to the unknown nothingness and eternal darkness.
Berman is the soul of the whole novel, but he rarely appears in short novels. A few words about his words and deeds. It can be seen from several conversations that this is an old man with a bad temper and a straightforward personality. "A pair of red eyes kept crying." However, it was he who became the patron saint of Josie and Huey. The masterpiece he bought with his life has realized his long-cherished wish. The last leaf of the vine, with its serrated edge, is yellow, and it "hangs tenaciously on a branch twenty feet above the ground". This is not just a vine leaf, it is the crystallization of old Berman's immortal life, Josie's connection with the world and friendship, and the warmth among the poor in this miserable world. It has comforted the loneliest and saddest person in the world, "the soul of a person who is about to embark on the road of death", and it has experienced the howling north wind and pouring rain. "Josie lying in bed watching for a long time", she has no reason to escape, there is no reason to let her young and vibrant life decline, "I don't know how the tie is broken, the piece of elymus can't fall, which shows that I am in a bad mood. It is a sin to want to die. "
So, Berman is not dead. His soul, his hope and the light of his life are all tied to this leaf. This last leaf, the leaf in the bitter wind and rain, is also the last highlight of Berman's turbulent life.
The ending of the novel is sudden, but it is also reasonable. The author didn't describe the scene where Berman painted rattan leaves with life, but told it with Huey's mouth at the end. As soon as the mystery was revealed, the novel reached its climax, but the climax was the ending, and the novel came to an abrupt end. The author always speaks in a plain way, such as telling a story about his family, without ups and downs and twists and turns. Everything goes on slowly in reason, quietly telling the reader a story. However, the ending is a heavy stroke, revealing the organ, which makes people suddenly realize and marvel. Because in the previous article, we didn't see any clues that the old painter painted leaves to save people, but at the end, he revealed a miracle of life. The potential artistic brilliance of the work miraculously shines out, causing waves in calm and turning the tide. Oh? This is the charm of Henry's ending. Looking back on the whole article, old Berman is the protagonist of the novel and the spirit of the whole article.
Another notable feature of The Last Leaf is the use of "plot blank". Old Berman's action of "painting leaves" should have been the key to the work, but the author didn't actually write it. Only at the end, Huey simply revealed to readers the fact that Berman died because of painting rattan leaves, but said nothing about his specific behavior, thus leaving a big blank in the plot structure of the whole novel, which seems to lack a complete impression of the causal chain of the whole novel-the author did not tell the "middle part" of the story-and this is precisely the most important part. In this way, from the perspective of reception aesthetics, the creation and supplement of the plot need the readers of the text to continue to complete. For stormy nights, readers can imagine and recreate them with their own hearts. In this way, the surface plot of the novel gradually fades, retreats and internalizes, and transforms the connection of surface events into the rational development of psychological feelings. The reasonable explanation of the whole work lies not in the external simple plot, but in the internal emotional plot, which makes the plot of the novel richer and more idealistic.
The unexpected thrilling ending and the use of "plot blank" are the artistic ingenuity of The Last Leaf.