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O. Henry's multitude of short stories are still read and enjoyed almost as much today as when they were first published. While he had done some writing before, it was during his three-year incarceration in the Columbus, Ohio Penitentiary for fraud that he began to write seriously. (O. Henry vi) O. Henry was an observer of human nature "who liked to walk about the city at night, studying faces and inventing stories about them." (x) Many of this prolific writer's short stories are marked by a surprise ending and tend to focus on human emotions that most readers can identify with. Both "The gift of the Magi" and "The ransom of red chief" illustrate his penchant for the "twist ending", his ability to portray the vast array of our human emotions including our ties to money and what they cause us to do. "He wrote of real people, with real problems" and brought "tender understanding to his portraits of life" (Toni Shiffman p.4) "The Gift of the Magi" is an example of his insight into what one couple does for love in the face of financial destitution. Henry describes the little money they do have as "Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer... until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputa
When the young husband comes home and sees his wife's shorn head, he doesn't know what to think. He decides to sell the only thing he holds of value to buy his young wife a Christmas gift: a gold watch that has been handed down in his family for generations. " We are filled with mirthful laughter over the kidnappers having to pay to return their victim. You bring Johnny home and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, and I agree to take him off your hands. Della decides to sell her precious hair to buy her husband Jim a Christmas gift. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet. " (1) Most readers are able to identify with her situation having been there themselves at one time or another. One of the criminals is so afraid of the kid that he begs his partner not to leave him alone very long with him when his partner leaves to deliver the ransom note demanding the desired two thousand dollars from the rich father. The female character, Della, has not a thing of value but her below knee length, beautiful hair. (195) This feeling of trepidation is universal to all that have had to deal with a difficult child. tion of parsimony that such close dealing implied. " (190) Throughout his stay with the kidnappers, the boy terrorizes them to the point that the reader begins to feel sorry for them.
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Acceptance Essays
