The Writing Style of the Last Leaf free essay sample

He is good at portraying minor characters. The sense of humor is the biggest characteristic of his short stories. He tends to make the end beyond all expectations, and he focus on the minor characters’ living condition. The Last Leaf is one of his most famous short stories, and it best reflects his unique writing style. It is a story about living. It tells an impressive story among three poor and unsuccessful artists. It is a story about living. Old Behrman uses his life to save Johnsy’s life by drawing the last leaf of the ivy in a rain stormy night. During the first ten years after O’Henry’s death, there rose a surge about O’Henry study in America, and his prestige reached the peak. He is called â€Å"the new father of America literature†. Now O’Henry still attracts scholars home and aboard. Liu Wencui’s â€Å"A Study of O’Henry’s Writing Methods in his Short Story ‘The Gift of Magi’† explores O’Henry’s peculiar writing methods used in â€Å"The Gift of Magi† by addressing the distinctive title which combines metaphorical meaning, the living language with proper wording and the reasonable and surprising ending. We will write a custom essay sample on The Writing Style of the Last Leaf or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Liu Wencui, 2001) Then Wen Jiexia contrasts and compares O’Henry with Maupassant in â€Å"A Comparative Study between Maupassant and O’Henry in Short Story Layout†. Both O’Henry and Maupassant are skillful at short story writing and famous for their ingenious and exquisite layouts. Each of them has characteristic and style in plot, ending and narration. By doing so, Wen Jiexia shows the ingenious writing skills of O’Henry which comes from everyday life experiences. O’Henry writes ordinary scenes of life, but he can extract vivid and unique plots from common scenes. O’Henry tells his stories in an ordinary objective tone, with insertions of subjective comments, while Maupassant is objective, real and natural. O’Henry criticizes the social reality by displaying the macroscopic appearance with microscopic reflection. (Wen jiexia, 2002) Moreover, in â€Å"Narrative Analysis of O’Henry’s Writing Technique† Zhang Wenhua explains the theme on human virtues in O’Henry’s works with the binary opposition in the structural theory. The writer comments on the modes of the opening and ending with the theory of narrative modes. The typical surprising ending in O’Henry’s works is analyzed with the technique of defamiliarization. By doing so, Zhang Wenhua presents the unique characteristics of O’Henry’s works with regard to the narrative analysis. (Zhang Wenhua, 2007) O’Henry’s unique writing styles—vivid plots, frequent coincidences, humorous language, unexpected ending and which moveding theme impress readers deeply. In this thesis, the author try to account for O’Henry’s writing style reflected in The Last Leaf. By discussing the language, structure and characterization portrayal, this thesis shows the concise and lifesome language, the ingenious arrangement and lively characters of this short story of O’Henry. II. Language Features. O’Henry’s language has distinctive features: humor, simplicity, unique design, proper choice of words. In The Last Leaf, O’Henry chooses exact, laconic, vivid words and various sentences to describe the background and scene of this short story, to make a psychological portrayal of the characters to be vivid and charming. By doing this, O’Henry wants to make the readers enter the story,story; assumeing that readers share a prior knowledge of the incidents of the story with narrator. We can see these features clearly in his masterpiece The Last Leaf. A. The Accurate Choice of words At the beginning paragraph of The Last Leaf, O’Henry uses accurate words to make the readers know the environment where the story is happening. O’Henry uses â€Å"colony†, just one word, to let the readers realize that people who live there are poor and unsuccessful in their career. This also forms a strong contrast with the end of the story: people live in that place can have masterpiece as well. William Shakespeare has a wisdom, â€Å"Brevity is the soul of wit†, that is to use the least words to express a great amount of information, to use short and common but complex words, to leave out the redundant and vague words. In the sentence, â€Å"Then she swaggered into Johnsy’s room with her drawing board, whistling jazz. †, â€Å"swaggered† is more concise and to the point than â€Å"walk in a self-satisfactory†. And this behavior shows that Sue would not let Johnsy worry. B. The Rhetorical Devices To make the story more vivid and attractive, O’Henry uses a series of rhetorical devices. In November a cold, unseen stranger whom the doctors called Pneumonia, stalked about the colony, touching one here and there with his icy gingers. Over on the east side this ravager strode boldly, striking his victims by scores, but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown ‘places’. (O’ Henry: 15) O’Henry uses personification in these sentences, and the parts with lineation in the sentences compare exactly and lively. Pneumonia is a ruthless and cruel devil, who deprives of the life of the weak. â€Å"†¦, said Johnsy, closing her eyes and lying white and still as a fallen statue. † In this sentence, O’Henry uses simile. â€Å"a fallen statue† reflects Johnsy’s desperation for her recovery. And O’Henry choices The Last Leaf as the title of this short story to symbolize the end of Behrman’s life as well as to symbolize the regeneration of Johnsy. Thus the title highlights the theme of this short story. All in all, proper wording greatly increases O’Henry’s power of expression. C. The Variety of Sentences From the perspective of rhetoric,sentences not only call for correction in grammar, but also require change in the form, which will help to achieve the diversification of the forms of expression and enhance the effect of expression. To fit the language characteristics of the characters in the work, there are more simple sentences than complex sentences, more phrase than long sentences in The Last Leaf. But to enhance the effect of the expression, the author still manages to achieve the diversity of sentences by arranging sentences with different forms and sentences of varying lengths reasonably and cleverly. Take the second paragraph of this story for example: â€Å"so the artists soon came prowling to quaint old Greenwich Village hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Then it becomes a colony. † These sentences are more vivid and smooth and have a sense of rhythm in reading. But if there are all simple sentences, the story may become tedious. In addition, in the sentence â€Å"What was there to count? † the author uses rhetorical interrogative as emphasis to avoid speaking in a dull, flat style. By doing this, O’Henry not only highlights the following parts of the story, but also arouses interests of the readers. This story has four dialogues, in which the phrases are too numerous to mention. It mainly performs as the elliptical sentence: â€Å"Paint? ——bosh! † â€Å"Twelve eleven. † â€Å"Five what, dear? † â€Å"Leaves, on the ivy vine. † These sentences, short and powerful, highlighting key information, simplifying the expression procedures, enhancing the language effects, are shortcut of language communication. Meanwhile, the story has inserted a number of long sentences, including both natural and simple loose sentences, and some periodic sentences which are end-loaded, playing a role of emphasizing. â€Å"As Sue was sketching a pair of elegant riding trousers and a monocle on the figure of the hero, an Idaho cowboy, she heard a low sound, repeated several times. † This long sentence is a periodic sentence. O’Henry places the main part of the sentence at the end, to stress this part and to attract readers to read on. Another example is a passage in which Johnsy says: â€Å"Tell me as soon as you have finished because 1 want to see the last one fall, I’m tired of waiting. I’m tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor tired leaves. † The first sentence is loose sentence, with a clause to show reasons; the last sentence is also a loose sentence. â€Å"Down†, â€Å"just like leaves† these added modifiers vividly describe Johnsy’s despair. O’Henry inserts short sentences in long sentences skillfully to make the story rhythmic, and full of appeal. Distinctive â€Å"O. Henry technique† is able to touch the hearts of the readers largely because of its unique art of language. O’Henry uses easy understanding, lifesome and concise language to portray characters and develops layouts. It can be said that language is the tool of the â€Å"O. Henry technique† and plays an important role. Structure Features Clever stylistic rules and layout can make the fiction achieve unexpected artistic effect. The fiction has its own unique structure features, and the most basic elements are the background, characters, events and outcomes. O’Henry lets these elements intersperse and completes each other to serve the main plot. In The Last Leaf, O. Henry uses apparent and shade clues: Johnsy’s hopelessness of life is the apparent clue, and Behrman in wet and windy night painting that piece of leaf on the wall is the shade clue. The use of two clues constitute plot blank to make the reader recreate the story plots, and the end of the story has a surprising and unexpected effect. We can see these features clearly in his masterpiece The Last Leaf. A. O’ Henry’s ending The ending is O. Henry’s champion, which shows that O. Henry is the master of artistic skills. The ending holds primary importance in the â€Å"O. Henry technique†, and has become a symbol and a mark. When people mention O. Henry’s stories, their first thought may be the unexpected ending. It can be said that â€Å"O. Henry ending† has become a salient literary phenomenon in the world’s literature and has swept across the literary world. Ancient and modern literary masters all think the ending is important and most of them stress on the function of the ending. Chekhov says whoever invents the new ending, opens up a new era. O. Henry’s ending has a finishing touch function on story, and capable of making the whole works suddenly fly out into the highest level of art. Throughout O’Henry’s works, the attractive plots like mountain spring water, whether it meets stone block, or in the flat, ups and downs, it can all flow freely, surging ahead. When the readers are brought by this spring to the destination, the spring turns rapidly in different direction, changing to a sudden turning, giving the readers an unexpected end. Faced with this unexpected outcome, the readers tend to be puzzled. But after the shock, the readers can immediately realize what has happened and find that this unexpected ending is real and reasonable. The Last Leaf is a typical work and can be serve as a good illustration. At the beginning, when the doctor said Johnsy only has 10% possibility to recover, the readers cannot help hating the disease, while showing sympathy for the poor girl. Later, the readers’ attention may turn to the pieces of falling leaves outside the window. They are holding the hope for Johnsy to live. The readers as well as Johnsy know that the last leaf will be falling, but they all hope it will not fall. But they are surprised by the result. The next morning it is still swaying in the wind, bringing Johnsy hope and giving readers comfort. The dialogue of the last paragraph pushes the story to a climax and the unknown Behrman leaves his first and last famous work. But the pneumonia deprives him of his life. So the readers are happy for Johnsy, and at the same time surprised that why the last leaf stays so long in the wind and cannot help feeling sorry for losing such a great and caring artist. The ending of the story is unexpected yet rational. The author does not give a positive description of the scene of Behrman drawing the ivy leaf with life, only relays through Sue’s mouth at the end of the story. As the mystery is unveiled, the story achieves its climax, but the climax is the end of the story at the same time. The story stops suddenly. The author always tells the story in a flat tone, neither the ups and downs nor twists and turns, and the plots advance slowly and are rational. But the end lets readers wonder. In the above discussion, readers do not see any clues of the old artist painting the last leaf to save Johnsy, but the ending reveals a miracle of life. The potential artistic charm of the work shines out miraculously. The artistic charm of O’Henry ending is just like this. Rereading the whole short story, the old Behrman is the protagonist of the story, the spirit of the whole short story. B. Plot Blank The skill O’Henry uses when he designs his unexpected ending is structure overlapping of apparent and shadow clues. The light clue hides the dark clue, and in progress of the plot some details have always been hidden, and the most important secret is conserved, and this is the use of â€Å"plot blank†. The â€Å"plot blank† is in the process of the continuous plots, purposely skips and it does not show a link and goes into the third event straightly from the first one. The skipping of this plot is the â€Å"plot blank†. The plots of short story are showing materials selected strictly by the author through eliminating the false and retaining the true, deserting the dross and remaining the essence. They shoulder the important mission of expressing the themes and conveying the writer’s emotion, showing the personality and psychology of the characters. Therefore the narrators of the short stories are always careful in plot selection and typical refining, they also apply the most expressive characters act as the plot and make trade-offs. The discarded plots can be unnecessary or insignificant part of the story. But he value situation is to deliberately give up the plots which are closely related to the theme, make plot blank and leave room for the readers to stir up imagination, giving the readers re-creation pleasure and aesthetic enjoyment. O’Henry uses â€Å"plot blank† skillfully in The Last Leaf. He avoids talking anything about Behrman, and only shows that Behrman is an unsuccessful artist in the eyes of other people. This makes a tremendous contrast with the artist who paints a leaf that can be confused as real one in the following part of the short story. Is this artist really as bad as others say? The readers can judge it. The action that Behrman paints the leaf should be the key plot of the work, but the author eliminates the process that old Behrman climbs a ladder to light a hope for the Johnsy in the cold rainy night. Only at the end of the story Sue simply reveals the fact, Behrman died because he painted the vine leaf, making people suddenly realize the fact and at the same time it gets a huge shock on the soul. In the former part of the story, the readers does not see any clues that the old painter would save Johnsy , but at the end of the story it reveals a miracle of life, thus the internal artistic feature of the work shines out miraculously. From the view of receptive esthetics, the readers needs to finish the creation and addition of the plot. When the readers look back the story carefully, it is easy to imagine that in the rainstorm the old painter is dragging his faltering footsteps, strenuously climbing up the ladder and the rain wets his clothes and blurs his eyes, but he paints firmly. Because he knows that this is not an ordinary leaf and this is Johnsy’s only hope of life. He is helping Johnsy as well as realizing his artistic dream. Thus the surface plots of the story gradually are weakened while the internal circumstances are highlighted. The convergence of the surface events turns to the rational development of psychological feelings. The reasonable explanation of the whole work not merely relies on external circumstances, but on the emotional circumstances. Ingenious conception and clever structure is O’Henry’s distinctive features. In The Last Leaf, O’Henry uses two clues of the apparent and shadow alternately, forming â€Å"plot blank† to make the end of the story unexpected. The structure feature is the most dazzling jewel of the â€Å"O. Henry technique†. VI. Conclusion Short stories are wonderful flowers in the garden of the world literature, and O’Henry is one of the most successful gardeners. He has had a vast influence on an entire generation of writers attempting to see the society clearly and write the unexpected ending smartly. He puts his artist’s eyes and ears on the sights and sounds of the American society, and he takes ordinary events and incidents from everyday life, but he designs the plots skillfully. O’Henry is a productive writer and he is known by the world for his â€Å"O’Henry technique†. The Last Leaf tells a moving story which is familiar to lots of readers. And this short story has many similarities with O’Henry’s other stories but it has its special aspects. The present thesis has studied O’Henry’s writing style shown in The Last Leaf. The first part of this thesis probes this short story’s language feature, which is exact, vivid, easy-understanding and changeable. Language is a weapon of O’Henry, useful and helpful to his creation. Chapter two has discussed the structure of The Last Leaf: â€Å"plot blank† and unexpected ending. O’Henry uses â€Å"plot blank† smartly, leaving out some key information, resulting in an unexpected ending. This makes the story attractive, and gives the readers a room to imagine. O’Henry has been one of the most popular and widely read American short story writers and people are familiar with his creations. O’Henry’s stories are storehouse of human wisdom closely related not only to his own time and people but also those of the whole world. In conclusion, O’Henry is a rare creative artist with a unique vision.