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Abstract O. Henry is considered as the father of American short story and “The Gift of the Magi” is one of his most important works. His works are very popular among the world not only because of his humorous expression methods and special artistic features, but also because his works are unusual in the narrative strategy. This thesis briefly analyzes the narrative strategy in “The Gift of the Magi” from the following four aspects: narrative point of view and its transition, the control of narration speed, the humorous and concise narrative language and the readability and legibility of this short story, in the hope of providing the readers with a new angle to appreciate O. Henry’s short stories. 55661
Key words: O. Henry; narrative strategy; “The Gift of the Magi”
摘 要《麦琪的礼物》是美国短篇小说之父欧·亨利的重要的代表作之一。他的作品不仅有着幽默的表现手法和独特的艺术特色，他的叙事策略更有其独到之处。本文从《麦琪的礼物》的叙事角度及其转变、叙事速度的掌控、幽默简练的叙事语言以及小说的可读性和易读性这几个方面出发，浅析欧·亨利短篇小说的叙事策略，意在让读者从全新的角度来赏析欧·亨利的短篇小说。
毕业论文关键词：欧·亨利；叙事策略；《麦琪的礼物》
Contents
1. Introduction 1
2. Literature Review 2
3. Narrative Strategy in “The Gift of the Magi” 3
3.1 The narrative point of view 3
3.2 The narrative speed 5
3.3 The narrative language 7
3.4 The balance between legibility and readability 9
4. Conclusion 10
Works Cited 11
1. Introduction
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862- June 5, 1910), known as his pen name O. Henry, was a famous American writer. He lived in southern America when he was a child, and then he moved to western America when he grew up. His first wife’s encouragement made him began to write. He had bought a weekly journal and renamed it as The Rolling Stone (In other words, he created The Rolling Stone). However, the weekly journal failed at last. O. Henry was imprisoned for embezzlement from a bank in 1898. He worked full-time on his short stories for a living in prison. In his short stories, O. Henry portrayed different kinds of characters such as rich people, poor people, kind man, bad man and so on. There were also many descriptions of the lives of American middle and lower class people. Therefore, O. Henry’s short stories were called an encyclopedia of American lives.
O. Henry’s short stories could engender a feeling of freshness and a sense of poetic beauty. He was very good at catching the dramatic scenes of lives, describing characters with details, arranging reasonable plots and unexpected endings.
“The Gift of the Magi” is one of his very important works. It is a story about a young married couple who live in penury. Both of them want to buy a wonderful gift for each other when Christmas is coming, but they don’t have enough money. They get their ideal gifts at the expense of the possessions in which they take pride. The precious gifts become useless because of a strange combination of circumstances. However, they get love which is much more precious than any other things in the world.
O. Henry and his wife lived in sweet although they were very poorly off. Everything was unforgettable. However, he was not around his wife when she passed away which made O. Henry suffer deep pain from it. The guilty and pain promoted him to write “The Gift of the Magi” for her wife.