1、AcknowledgementsI would like to avail myself of this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all those who have offered me help in my thesis writing. First of all, my thanks are particularly extended to my supervisor, Lecturer, Wang Hao, whose inspiring insights, generous encouragements, and ent
2、husiastic instructions have facilitated me much throughout my thesis writing. Her penetrating and insightful comments afford me with inspiring source. She has been in constant concern about my paper, spared no pains to entertain my thesis draft. She also teaches me the format of the thesis. She has
3、walked me through all the stages of the writing of this thesis. Without her consistent and illuminating instruction, this thesis could not have reached its present form. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to the Foreign Language Department of Handan College as well as all my teachers. Tha
4、nks to their instructive guidance and comprehensive education during the four years schooling, I can acquire the opportunity to further study English. And I want to thank my parents. It is them who brought me up and give me financial support through my college life. Finally, my great gratitude also
5、goes to all my friends, especially my roommates who gave me their help and time in listening to me and helping me work out my problems during the difficult course of the thesis. AbstractOHenry is one of the most famous American short story writers in the early 20th century. In his legendary life, he
6、 offers the innumerable artistic stories for the readers by his uniquely “OHenry technique”. “OHenry technique” is a big magic weapon by which this artistic master makes his great success, also leaves the readers a huge wealth. The Last Leaf is one of the masterpieces of OHenry. This short story tel
7、ls a story about three poor artists. The bittersweet story involves Johnsy, a young artist who is suffering from a severe case of pneumonia and has lost her will to live, though Sue gives her close care. However, Behrman provides the ultimate gift to Johnsy, and in doing so, saves her life, but lose
8、s his own life.This thesis analyzes the writing styles of this short story through three levels: language, structure and characterization. Chapter One studies the language features, showing OHenry is a master of language. Chapter Two analyzes the structure features from two parts: the unexpected end
9、ing and “plot blank”. Chapter Three discusses the characterization features from the psychological portrayal, behavior portrayal, language portrayal and appearance portrayal. By doing this, this thesis shows OHenrys unique role in the literary world. Key Words: style language structure characterizat
10、ion 摘 要欧亨利是20世纪初美国最著名的短篇小说家之一。在他传奇的一生中，欧亨利运用他独特的“欧亨利手法”为读者奉献了无数的力作。而“欧亨利手法”则是这位艺术大师赖以成功的一大法宝，也是他为读者留下的一笔巨大财富。最后一片叶子是欧亨利众多名作之一，这篇小说讲述的是三个艺术家之间的故事。忧喜参半的乔是一个年轻的画家，她不幸患上肺炎，尽管苏竭力照料她，但她仍丧失了生的意志。 然而贝尔曼给了她一份最后的礼物，贝尔曼用自己的生命救了乔的生命。本文从语言，结构和人物刻画三个方面分析了这篇小说的创作风格。第一部分研究它的语言特色展示了欧亨利语言大师的风采，第二部分从出人意料的结尾和情节空白两部分分析了
11、它的结构特色，第三部分研究它人物刻画的特色，包括心理描写，行为描写，语言描写和外貌描写。文章就是从这三方面展现欧亨利在世界文坛中的独特地位的。关键词：风格 语言 结构 人物刻画iiiContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstractiiAbstract (Chinese)iiiIntroduction1Chapter One Language Features41.1 Clever Choice of Words41.2 The Variety of Sentences5Chapter Two Structure Features62.1 OHenry Ending62.2 P
12、lot Blank8Chapter Three Characterization Features93.1 Psychological Portrayal and Behavior Portrayal93.2 Language Portrayal and Appearance Portrayal10Conclusion11Notes12Bibliography13IntroductionOHenry, one of the greatest writers in the short story world, who ranks with Chekhov and Maupassant, was
13、born on September 11, 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. As the initiator of contemporary short novelists, OHenry plays an extremely important role in the literary world especially in America. In his legendary life, OHenry occupied himself with many different jobs, including work in a drug store, a
14、s a ranch hand in Texas, as a licensed pharmacist, as a draftsman, and as a columnist. He has been to most parts of America, from village to big cities, and nearly experiences all the joy and the misery of the world, witnessing common peoples living condition at various social levels, and he extreme
15、ly pays attention to the little citizens living condition. It is obvious that these life circumstances have embodied OHenrys characters and spirits as a writer. Characterization portrayal and the artistic image in his stories fill with the contradiction and complication.The Last Leaf is one of OHenr
16、ys most successful short stories. It tells an impressive story among three poor and unsuccessful artists. It is a story about living. Old Behrman uses his life to save Johnsys life by drawing the last leaf of the ivy in a rainstormy night.During the first ten years after OHenry passed away, there ra
17、ises a surge about OHenry in America, his prestige getting the peak. He is called “the new father of America literature”. And now OHenry still attracts scholars home and aboard. Liu Wencuis “A Study of OHenrys Writing Methods in his Short Story The Gift of Magi” published in Dong Jiang Journal in 20
18、01, explores OHenrys peculiar writing methods used in “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. Then Wen Jiexia contrasts and compares OHenry with Maupassant in “A Comp
19、arative Study between Maupassant and OHenry in Short Story Layout”, which is published in Journal of Zhao Qing University. Both OHenry and Maupassant are skillful at short story writing and famous for their ingenious and exquisite layouts. While each of them has his characteristic and style in plot,
20、 ending and narration. By doing so, Wen Jiexia shows the ingenious writing skills of OHenry which comes from everyday life experiences. OHenry writes ordinary scenes of life, but he can extract vivid and unique plots from common scenes. OHenry tells his stories in ordinary way, with an objective ton
21、e and always inserts into some subjective comments, while Maupassant is objective, real and natural. OHenry criticizes the social reality by displaying the macroscopic appearance with microscopic reflection. Moreover, in “Narrative Analysis of OHenrys Writing Technique” Zhang Wenhua explains the the
22、me on human virtues in OHenrys works with the binary opposition in the structuralize theory. The writer comments on the modes of the opening and ending with the theory of narrative modes. The typical surprising ending in OHenrys works is analyzed with the technique of defamiliarization. By doing so,
23、 Zhang Wenhua presents the unique characteristics of OHenrys works with regard to the narrative analysis. Firstly, the author gives an analysis of OHenrys stories from the perspective of structuralized narratalogy. Secondly, he explores the four main narrative modes of the opening and ending in OHen
24、rys works with the theory of narratalogy. Thirdly, focusing on narrative technique, he elucidates that the employment of the technique of defamiliarization.In addition, in J. Xian Univ. of Arch. & Tech. (Social Science Edition) Fan Lin makes some comments on OHenrys artistic characteristics in “Inge
25、nious Contrast and Frightening ShocksOn the Artistic Characteristics of OHenrys Short Novels”. Through the analysis of contrasts, it discloses the great artistic effects. Firstly, through writing little citizens and ordinary cases, OHenrys stories display important current affairs in America. Second
26、ly, OHenry shows his sympathy for the social underdogs, his eulogy of human virtues and exposure of human defects are highlighted as the keynotes. Then, OHenry uses light tone to elucidate serious tragedy. Finally, though the story has no political color, it is full of criticism to police.Furthermor
27、e, in “Modernistic Elements in OHenrys Short Stories”, Han Rong explains why OHenry exploits modernistic elements in his writings. On one hand, OHenry has the same outlook on the world and life with that of the modernists, so he exploits unconsciously modernistic elements in his works. On the other
28、hand, OHenry intends to use modernistic elements in his writing in order to please editors and publishers. This thesis illustrates with a lot of examples the modernistic elements in OHenrys works in eight aspects， which are surrealism, impressionism, the absurd, avant-gardism, magic realism, black h
29、umor, symbolism and other modernistic techniques such as metaphor and blank memory. With all these elements, the author proves that OHenry is qualified to be ranked as a pioneering modernistic writer. The domestic scholars have studied OHenry stories quite comprehensively, but the research to the op
30、ening of his story is very few. So Hu Changyu promotes “the opening” in “An Initial Approach to the Writing Methods in OHenrys Novels”. In this thesis, Hu Changyu introduces OHenrys extremely diverse kinds of openings, which occupy the extremely important position in his works. Certainly, OHenrys sk
31、ill to deal with the ending is already very well. And the author points out that it is necessary to look at the whole, because the success of his ending is based on the whole text. Then he addresses the language features. At last, he puts OHenry, Chekhov and Maupassant together to make a comparison.
32、 And Zhang Xiujuan analyzes OHenrys three masterpieces, i.e. The Furnishes Room, While the Auto Waits, and The Cop and the Anthem in her Master degree paper “A Functional Stylistic Analysis of OHenry”. Firstly, this thesis analyzes the three meanings of context of situation, providing a general unde
33、rstanding of the content and background of each story. Then it makes a detailed analysis from the following aspects: cohesion system, transitivity system, and mood system. The author discovers that OHenry is especially concerned about the “little citizens”. OHenrys stories are nearly all narrated fr
34、om the third-person perspective. Further, OHenry tends to use the definite article “the” to instead the indefinite article “a” in the titles. By doing so, OHenry wants to put readers inside, as one is assumed to have had the same knowledge of the matter of the story with the narrator.The aboard scho
35、lars also have great interests in OHenry. Among those scholars, Henry James Forman has great respect for OHenry. According to him, OHenry has brought new life into the short stories and Forman points out that OHenry is gifted with a flashing wit, abundant humor, and quick observation. In Formans opi
36、nion, OHenry treated his materials with the skill of Maupassant, and a humor Maupassant never dreamed of.In “OHenry: Some Thoughts on the Urban OHenry Romanticist”, Jesse F. Knight presents his views on OHenry with regard to the romantic legacy, the myth of the hack, the issue of craftsmanship, form
37、 and content, appearance and reality, the spirit of America, the romantic ethos and the city.OHenrys unique writing styles-vivid plots, frequent coincidences, humorous language, unexpected ending and moving theme impress readers deeply. In this thesis, the author try to account for OHenrys writing s
38、tyle 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 OHenry.Chapter One Language FeaturesOHenrys language has distinctive feat
39、ures that are humor, popular and easy-to-understand, and OHenry expresses his unique design and shows his talent in story writing by using proper wording. In The Last Leaf, OHenry chooses exact, laconic, vivid words and various sentences to describe the background and scene of this short story, to m
40、ake a psychological portrayal of the characters to be vivid and charming. By doing this, OHenry wants to put the readers inside, as one is assumed to have shared a common prior knowledge of the matter of the story with narrator. 1.1 Clever Choice of WordsAt the beginning paragraph of The Last Leaf,
41、OHenry uses some material and exact words to attract the readers to a maze where the characters live and where the story happen. “angles” “curves” “cross”all these words outstand the complex of the terrain of this area. OHenry uses “colony”, just one word, to let the readers realize that people who
42、live there are unwealthy and unsuccessful in their career. This applies contrast with the end: people live in that place can also have masterpiece!William Shakespeare has a wisdom, “Brevity is the soul of wit”, that is to use the least words to express a great amount of information, to use short and
43、 common but complex words, to leave out the redundant and vague words. In the sentence, “Then she swaggered into Johnsys room with her drawing board, whistling jazz.” 1, “swaggered” is more concise and to the point than “walk in a self-satisfactory”. And this behavior shows that Sue would not let Jo
44、hnsy worry. To make the story more vivid and attractive, OHenry uses a series of rhetoric. 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
45、 victims by scores, but his feet trod slowly through the maze of the narrow and moss-grown places. 2 OHenry 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
46、. “, said Johnsy, closing her eyes and lying white and still as a fallen statue.” 3 In this sentence, OHenry uses simile. “a fallen statue” reflects Johnsys desperation for her recovery. And OHenry choices The Last Leaf as the title of this short story to symbolize the end of Behrmans life as well a
47、s to symbolize the regeneration of Johnsy. Thus the title highlights the theme of this short story. All in all, proper wording greatly increases OHenrys expression. 1.2 The Variety of SentencesFrom the perspective of rhetoriy，sentences not only call for correction in grammar, but also require change
48、 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.
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