O Henry short novel

The Light of Humanity in the Poor Life
Reading after the short stories by O. Henry

As one of the most prominent short story giants in the history of literature, O. Henry’s works possess comprehensive readers. Recently, I have finished some of his short stories. I prefer to talk about some of his short stories which are well known.
O. Henry’s ending is the symbol of his short story, which is famous for its unexpected but also in the way that was expected. Once the readers get into the ending, the plot usually become different from the climax part and this always make an effect to give readers plenty of food for thought, and it is the unexpected part. We say it is expected mainly because foreshadowing in the beginning or the climax gives the entire requirements to the special ending. The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf are all belonging to this kind of novels and win great reputations.
At the beginning of The Gift of the Magi, O. Henry has described the embarrassing living condition of the two main characters.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’ cheek burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas….While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at eight dollars per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the look-out for the mendicancy squad.
They lived a poor life, but Della still wanted to give his husband Jim a surprise, so she cut her amazing long hair which she really pound of and sold it to get twenty dollars to buy a watch chain in order to suit Jim’s golden watch. Jim also wanted to give his wife a surprise. He sold his patrimonial golden watch, and bought the beautiful comb which attracted Della so much before. To show the true love to their lovers, both of them lost their treasure property, in the return, they got the watch chain which has no golden watch to suit and a beautiful comb which have no long hair to match. The result made them pay a exorbitant price, yielding to a hardly material life. Although in the contradiction of love and property, they choose to abandon the property, but finally they got the most treasure things in the world, that is love. At last, O. Henry left some pregnant sentences But 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 the magi. O. Henry haven’t described some crimes that money do harm for the love, but wrote the true love in the dull life, he praised the love between Della and Jim, this is not a writing by common people. The story gives the readers a lovely world rather than a dull and dim world, in order to guide the readers into a pure and exalted boundary.
The Last Leaf has focus on more comprehensive love between people and people rather than the personal tendresse. O. Henry also made a contradiction between the characters’ kind personality and the living conditions. It has a more colorful skills and a more open view.
The first contradiction is the poor living environment with the sincere friendship.
In the poor, Old Behrman regarded Sue and Johnsy as real friends. Also, Sue was also the one who got praised from the novel, when her friend nearly died, she still made an effort to let her friend stay hopeful and looked after the hope very carefully. In the poor, all of them use the treasure friendship to care the sensitive life.
The second contradiction is Old Behrman himself. He lived a really poor life and had an aspiration but without a single success. He painted for 40 years but just painted some little ads, even he just been a model for the poor young painters to get few moneys. But it was him, used his life to finish the outstanding painting, the leave, to keep the hope of Johnsy. The last leaf, was a piece of light in the dark poor world, was the crystal of Old Behrman’s spirit. It has comforted the nearly dead person and warmed everyone’s heart. The soul of Old Behrman, the light of humanity has all leaved in the last leaf.
Most of the main characters in O. Henry’s novels are mere ciphers, they lived a poor life, but are the representative of kind and love. The characters in The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf are in the underclass, they are weak and pitiful, having little food to eat, but the light of humanity shining from their personalities has moved the readers so much.
The greatest written firstly based on the understanding of humanity from the writers. In O. Henry’s short stories. The warmth is more attractive than the writing skills.