Narrative Analysis Of O.Henry's Writing Technique

O. Henry, one of the three most famous short-story writers in the world, enjoys equal status with Chekhov and Maupassant. His short stories are famous for its unexpected ending, as well as their exquisite conception. Among those comments on O. Henry's works, so far, the monograph or paper on his works interpreted with the theory of narratology has been quite scarce, and the comments on the ending mainly base on the rough analysis of its structure.In this thesis, the theme on human virtues in O. Henry's works is explained with the binary oppositions in the structuralist theory, the modes of the opening and ending are commented on with the theory of narrative modes, the typical surprising ending in O. Henry's works is analyzed with the technique of defamiliarization, thus the unique characteristics of O. Henry's works with regard to the narrative analysis are presented to the readers.Chapter One is an analysis of 0. Henry's works with respect to the recurrent themes from the perspective of structuralist narratology. From the panorama of the American people as is presented by the author with irony and humor, O. Henry's sympathy for the poor social underdogs, his eulogy of human virtues and exposure of human defects are highlighted as the keynote of his works. Humanity endows his works with perpetual artistic charm.Chapter Two explores the four main narrative modes of the opening and ending in O. Henry's works with the theory of narratalogy. The typical openings and endings of O. Henry's stories are categorized. Deliberately plotted openings and endings are characterized by the narrative modes of description, report and speech, and smart comment, all of which enhance the importance of the plots, thus playing an effective role in the success of thearrangement of the whole structure.Focusing on narrative technique, Chapter Three elucidates the employment of the technique of defamiliarization, the key concept of Russian Formalism, in O. Henry's short stories. The technique of defamiliarization is achieved through plot, point of view and special use of language. The defamiliarization of the plot is realized by breaking the natural time order of events, and exceeding the readers' normal expectation to the arrangement. The defamiliarization of the point of view is made possible by the animal's point of view, thus exposing the ridiculous aspect to which people are accustomed. Deforming words, malapropism and peculiar use of punctuations endow the language of O. Henry's works with more connotations.Detailed analyses will be presented to function as proof that 0. Henry's short stories have a grand structure of their own and purposefully adopted repetition bespeaks the writer's mastery in story writing. The thesis intends to present with the theory of structuralism and narratology a different direction in O. Henry criticism, presents readers a new method to examine O. Henry's works, so that the artistic charm of O. Henry's works is fore grounded.