SHORT STORIES: THE GIFT OF O. HENRY
“The Gift of the Magi” is one of the memorable short stories which I have vaguely heard of in times past, but did not get to read its actual text. Towards the end of 2001, I read the entire story for the first time over the internet. Now, I know that its author is William Sidney Porter, who became famous under the pen name O. Henry.
In that story, a husband and wife, Mr. & Mrs. James Dillingham Young (a.k.a. Jim and Della) sought to buy a Christmas present for each other. Between them they had two precious possessions: Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s, and Della’s beautiful hair, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters which reach below her knees. Typical of an O. Henry short story, which comes with a surprising ending, Della sold her hair to buy her beloved Jim a platinum fob chain for his prized watch. Meanwhile, Jim had sold his watch to buy Della a set of beautiful combs made of pure tortoise shell with jeweled-rims. Without guise, O. Henry puts forth the moral punch of the story, which is that their sacrificing of personal treasures for each other makes them wise like the magi who brought gifts to the Babe in a manger.
Recently, I read “Mammon and the Archer”. In this story, which comes too with an unexpected ending, old Anthony Rockwall played Cupid to his son, Richard, and a certain Miss Lantry by deliberately arranging a traffic congestion to be staged so that the two youngsters eventually get hitched while stuck in the two-hour jam. The thrust of the story: Could money be put to good use when it comes to love? “The Last Leaf” is an intriguing story of how a frail artist, Mr. Behrman, gave of his life to create his masterpiece which sustained the life of a fellow artist. Read these stories and be enthralled by the ease and confidence of O. Henry’s writings as he unfolds the scenes before your very eyes.
The words as penned by O. Henry are terse and his prose is a far cry from being lyrical. His penchant lies not in the arena of artistic expression. No wonder his detractors have suggested unkindly that he wrote expanded anecdotes, and nothing more than a light-hearted, clever entertainment based on wit and surprise endings. His use of words may lack fluidity but serve admirably well in advancing his stories and building them up to a climax at the very end, giving a sense of completeness and satisfaction to the reader. He has a knack for bringing out the good intentions and foibles of human beings in a way that is neither vulgar nor offensive. He deals truthfully with the characters of his stories, and in so doing, has succeeded in moving readers both past and present. His stories are engaging and delightful, incredulous at times, but always plausible. In modern-speak, they are chicken soup for our souls.
A story is like a steered sailboat of ideas in the foreground, advancing through the waters and winds of background information and settings. O. Henry, without a doubt, triumphs in the former, but this observation does not in any way diminish the fact that his stories are both well-written and meaningful. Connectivity with the readers is attained when they appreciate what is at stake in a story -- is there something specific and vital at stake –not for the writer, but to one or more of the characters involved? And, if the writer succeeds in making his readers care for the characters concerned, a momentous story will be ours to behold.
The stories of O. Henry are enduring, and the stakes are crucial and steep for his protagonists. Further, his stories are able to draw the readers in, thereby making the stories full of relevance and impact. It has been said that stories like “Brickdust Row” and “An Unfinished Story” show O. Henry’s concern for the less fortunate and had prompted Theodore Roosevelt to say, “It was O. Henry who started me on the campaign for office girls.” As defined by Stephen Vincent Benet, a short story is ‘Something that can be read in an hour and remembered for a lifetime.’ To this end O. Henry had written many a truly great stories with a sociological and global impact to affect the hearts and minds of readers even in this present age.
The short short -- a form of short story containing less than two thousand words, according to Vera Henry, is a story stripped of peripheral words with ‘a beginning which lures the reader like a sideshow barker. It has a middle which develops the story and a conclusion that should not leave the reader feeling he has been cheated. It should have not only form, but content. It is not to be confused with an anecdote. An anecdote or vignette is the sort of things people tell at parties. It may be interesting enough, but it is incomplete. It is a fragment – the handle of a cup.’
With the stories of O. Henry, you get a whole cup that is filled close to the brim. Interested readers may like to help themselves to some cuppa at http://www.bibliomania.com .
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