O._Henry

O. Henry All readers enjoy a book that not only interests them, but surprises them. O. Henry offers surprises in all of his writings. He sets up his readers to believe one thing is coming, but then he completely changes the outcome of the story. He is a talented writer who knows how to get the attention of his readers. O. Henry successfully develops his plot and his characters by using coincidence, humor, and irony. O. Henry has coincidence in his stories. He makes sure that the endings happen seemingly by chance. So he will not bore his readers, he puts his characters in surprise circumstances that keeps readers wanting more. O. Henry makes his short stories humorous in order to define his characters. His humor allows his readers to connect with the characters and understand why they do what they do in the story. He also expressed his humor through the action and dialogue of the characters. Not only does he use humor with his characters, but also with his plot. He plans out the way the story will go so that in the end readers will be shocked by the outcome and want to read the story again. When readers take a minute and analyze O. Henry’s characters, they will notice that they never stay the same. The personalities of his characters are always dynamic, always changing by the end of the story. He makes sure the “people who are characterized as one thing, often are the complete opposite” (Winborne). Besides his characters changing, the direction of the story changes as well. He ends his stories in an unexpected way in order to add surprise. He “begins a story in one direction and just when the reader thinks they can predict the ending, he sends it in a totally different direction” (Winborne). One way he surprises his readers is by adding a “twist of fate” (“Porter”). One prime example of O. Henry’s style is his story “The Ransom of Red Chief.” In this story O. Henry changes the ending in an interesting way. The story is about two men who kidnap a small boy in order to get a large sum of ransom money. The kidnappers come to find that the boy is not worth kidnapping because he is annoying. In the end, instead of the boy’s father paying the ransom fee, the kidnappers pay the father to take his child back (Henry). The story does not have the expected ending. The father, not the kidnappers, collected the ransom. O. Henry is a great writer with his own distinctive style. He not only intrigues his readers, but he also allows them to put themselves into the story. When people read his stories, they can actually see what is taking place in their minds. The element of surprise he adds in all of his stories makes people want to keep reading. When people read his stories, they must always remember to expect the unexpected. Works Cited Henry, O. The Best Short Stories of O. Henry. New York: The Modern Library, 1994. "O. Henry." American Writers: Supplement II. 1981 Ed. "O. Henry." Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American Writers. 2001 Ed. "O. Henry." Modern American Literature. 1999 Ed. Payne, Tom. " O. Henry." Encyclopedia of Great Writers. 1997 Ed. "Porter, William Sydney." Encyclopedia of American Literature, Volume II: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1815-1914. 2002 Ed. Winborne, Jennifer. “William Sydney Porter (O.Henry), 1862-1910.” Postbellum America, 1866-1913. University of North Carolina at Pembroke. 11 December 2007 http://www.uncp.edu/hom e/canada/work/allam/18661913/lit/porter.htm>.