The literal analyses of the short stories of O. Henry

Language is so great potential, that one can be surprised by its functions and acts. Language is never simple, yet thereis a widening gulf between the everyday language that we are in on daily basis and the language of literature whose function is worlds apart from those which are used for its own sake as a communication. Language of literature is quite unique and enigmatic, figurative, many-edged sword that can be used for different actions.And for these reasons the literature has always attracted people and thrived through this. Apart from this living nurture of literature, the creator of it also does loads to make its own literature blossom and become prevalent in many dimensions of culture. Among this kind of creators short story writer O. Henry occupies deeply-rooted tree, as we can refer to elaborate actuality of the writer metaphorically. English literature followers are highly influenced by the works of the writer and they choose hardly country and culture. No physical border can hamper readers to comprehend the direct or indirect messages that the writer was going to let out. The English literature stands at the crucial turn in terms of the amount of the contribution to the development of the genre of short story. The genre has seen stylistic revolution of the devices by the stories of O. Henry making the short story turn to mature, fully elaborated genre.

The figurative language used in the short stories of O. Henry

The works of William Sydney Porter (O.Henry) is hardlymind-numbing. By comprehending the figurative language, the readers can never be puzzled, in complete contrast their mindset will be as thankful as their stomach, as the messages behind the short stories of O. Henry are food for thought. Here it should be mentioned that the more they are read, the more nurture the explorer can discover and consume. No other short -story writer can compare to O.Henry in terms of the abundance of the social, culturaland moral messages. He mainly wrote about reversal of fate, findings of adventures and outings, chronic yearnings of mankind. The lexicon of O. Henry is so straightforward, however arranged fantastically in due course and in due order. His words are conventionally well-established even though the writer tried at his optimum to use common vocabulary but relevant combinations of them enable to hide colossal potential. At most cases they are hardly in harmony with our conceptualizations about how we use these words in daily lifestyle. There is no word used in vain, every word is used for special purpose. O. Henry’s style is often described as “smile with tears “ (oxymoron-literal style which refers to the combinations of words that have opposite, incongruous or very different meanings) it refers to the puns and cunning occurances and maltreatment of the words and twisted method of his devices. The devices like these can occur in Uzbek literature as well, in particular in short stories by A.Qahhor (in stories namely, “Thief”, “The patient”) and Said Ahmad

(in stories like “ Qorako’zmajnun ” this refers to a utterances devoted to a dog and “Qochoq”) The constant readers of this writer are lucky to be presented with variety of unprecedented and unexpected and unheard endings. The endings are typical of his writing. Here it would be fair to mention the endings of the short stories such as“ The gift of the Magi” and “The Last leaf” .They end with sudden churning and upheaval of events. The following offers analyses of the ending of this type. The main male and female characters of“ The gift of the Magi” Jim and Della, recently married couples are troubled not to have enough money to buy gifts to their significant other, without any choices they have to sell their own most precious possessions for presents for their soul mates selflessly. Jim sold his valuable gold watch to buy comb for his sweetheart, while Della sold her beloved hair to buy gold chain for his valentine. This plot and attractive title maintain the interest and delight of the reader till the last line of the story. Furthermore, “ The last leaf “ also drags the attention of readers with not only the mind-blowing ending but also the thorough development of the plot. The story called “The last leaf” deals with a young woman Johnsy suffering from pneumonia who has lost her hope for the future feeling herself as nobody in the middle of the nothing. She firmly believes she is likely to die when the ivy vine outside her window loses its last leaf. The story puts every reader in hesitation whether the tree is helping by holding its last leaf resistently. It is not revealed that the last leaf was Behrman’s great masterpiece-he painted the last leaf before the night it felluntil the last line. Hither to the ending the attention is kept undividedly and anxiously. These two are the one aspect of his literature, yet there are many factors that prove the uniqueness of his literature. They are the figurative and stylistic devices used abundantly

The figurative devices of several stories O. Henry

Pleonasm refers to using more words than necessary to denote mere sense (From Latin word pleonasmus– to be excessive) redundancy; Simile refers to the skill of comparison of something or somebody unlike by using words like or as (f.e cheeks like roses);Hyperbola is the device that exaggerates the elements of the descriptions beyond belief (f.e her face was yellow as gold); Repetition is a kind of device to emphasize the tension which includes the repetition of words more than once in a sentence or in a single utterance; Euphemism refers to a mild or pleasant phrase that is used instead ofone that is unpleasant or offensive (From Latin word euphemos-sounding good); Personification refers to the practice of representing a thing or idea as a person in literature. Here in the following you are presented with bunch of these devices in writings O.Henry.

Her eyes were shining brightly, but her face had lost its color. (The gift of the Magi) Personification. Actually, she has lost brightness of her face but in the sentence the face is taken as the action performer.

If a queen had lived in the rooms near theirs, Delia would washed her hair there the queen could see it. Delia knew her hair was more beautiful than any queen’s jewel and gifts. (The gift of the Magi) Hyperbola. Here the physical beauty is exaggerated by words jewel and gift and say explicitly that the queen even could have been envious of her hair.

Jim knew that no king had anything so valuable.(The gift of The Magi) Hyperbola. Here hyperbola deals with the same function as the previous example. The value of the item in Jim’s possession is even more expensive than any other king’s.

So now Delia’s beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a falling stream of brown water. It reached below her knee. it almost made itself into a dress for her. The gift of the Magi) Here the personification is really expressive along with the metaphor used (hair-dress), the writer allows the hair shine and act like stream of water.

Oh, the next two hours seemed to fly. (The gift of the Magi) Here the personification is used to personify certain amount of time (two hours) to fly as living creature.

With her short hair, she looked like a schoolboy.(The gift of the Magi) Here the hero is said to be alike to schoolboy. Similes can be based the quality, amount, the action. This simile is based on the quality (short) I look like a girl who sings and dances for money (The gift of the Magi)In this sentence the lyric hero says to be alike to a girl on the base of the performance that she does (sings and dances).

Then she heard his step in the hall and her face lost color for a moment. (The gift of the Magi) personification is used to personify the faceof girl.

He was as quite as a hunting dog when it is near a bird. (The gift of the Magi) Thewriter here uses simile based on quality (quiteness). The usage of the hunting dog serves to highlight the level of quality.

It was not anger, nor surprise, nor anything she had been ready for. (The gift of the Magi) Repetition as a stylistic device has a crucial role to emphasize the whole meanings of the sentence. Here the words not, nor, nor accounts for repetition.

You don’t know what anice – what abeautiful nice gift I got for you (The gift of the Magi) Repetition here happens with usage of the word what twice. It serves as the device that reveals the great delight of the hero.

Maybe the hairs of my head could be counted, but no one could ever count my love for you. (The gift of the Magi)Hyperbola can be explained with this very salient example. As all we know counting hair is hard to belief. One can never count his hair in reality. The infiniteness of the love of the hero is compared with the number of hair, even the amount of hair is overtaken by the rate of love he has. The gold seemed to shine softly as if with her own warm and loving spirit. (The gift of the Magi)Here we can analyze several examples of personification. Gold is item that can shine. But the qualities of shining processare like humans’. Warmness and love and spirit are characteristics of human transferred to the qualities of objects here.

His light green eyes looked out from a gray face on which there was still a little food. (Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen). Here the writer created a good example of personification. The write could have written as he looked out of …yet, he wrote as His green eyes looked… If he had written simply and directly the expressiveness would had been lost. And the writing wouldhad been of little value.

It seemed to him that his dinner had included all the turkey and all the other food in the whole world. (Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen) it is the utmost example of hyperbola. The action of sentence is far from reality, it can only be imagined. Here hyperbola gives a hint about the abundance of the dinner table. That was a thing that old gentlemen was trying to make into a tradition. (Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen) Here we can find pleonasm (Using more words than expected). The beginning of the sentence that was a thing is pleonasm. The function of pleonasm here to highlight the part of the sentence.

In order to build a tradition, we must do the same thing again and again for a long time. (Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen). Here Repetition with the word again servesto show the quantityof the action and the complaint about therepetition of the performance of the verb do.

If you will come with me, my man, I will give you a dinner that will surely make your body as thankful as your mind. (Two thanksgiving day gentlemen).Here can be analyzed examples of two differentstylistic devices: Personification and simile. That the body is said to be identical to mind is simile. And Personification is built on the word thankful. Thankfulness is related to emotions of human .

His face was getting older every year, but his clothes were very clean and fresh. (Two Thanksgiving day gentlemen) Here the writer tried to soften the message by using softer words. It is called in literature as euphemism.

Suppose a painter had some painting materials for which he had not paid. Suppose he had no money. Suppose a man came to get the money. (The last leaf).Repetition of the verb suppose is never redundant. It carries special purpose of multiplying the reaction.

They discovered the same kind of art, the same kind of food, the same kind of clothes. (The last leaf). Repetition here emphasizes the monotonousness of items.

The cold breath of window had already touched it. (The last leaf).Here the stylistic device personification occurs relevantly. Personifications here are based on the words breath and touched. Taking breath is something typical of animated things, however the window have possessed the breath seemingly.

She said that she was afraid that Johnsy would indeed sail down, down like the leaf. (The last leaf). That fading of a person is expressed with the falling of leaf is simile. The repletion of the word down is for stress boom.

The most lonely thing in the world is soul when it is preparing to go on its far journey. The ties thatheld her to friendship and to earth were breaking, one by one.(The last leaf) It seems from this sentence the soul can head for travel leaving its shelter-body. Here it is personification carefully chosen.

His shoes and his clothes were wet and cold as cold as ice (The last leaf).It is easy tofind element of simile. The words like as, like, as though are the elements of simile.

But there was the red light of a fire, and a noise as if Cupid might be making his arrows.(Hearts and crosses) Here we can face very inherent way of building simile. It is the usage of obvious to all word Cupid (the angel of love) in an appopriate way. His action is inserted to express the case of the sky.

All above -mentioned devices proves that O. Henry is an expert at using more than one techniques simultaneously. This can only belong to few writers on the island of literature. Furthermore, he uses all the expressions to readers’ surprise, unexpectedly. And for those who are learning the foreign language through literature the collections O.Henry serve as an exciting way. An extra bonus in learning a language is that stories are rooted in culture.(Judith Kay) These writings will always be the role-model writings for the upcoming new trends in literature.