O.Henry and Twist EndingThe ending of an article has long been considered as a conclusion or just a summary of the whole passage. Many literacy masters have followed this principle. But when it comes to the latter times, many authors have tried another ways of composing the articles. They considered the ending as a way to elevate the artistic thought. O.Henry maybe the most famous one of them for his successful ending technique—the twist ending.The so-called the twist ending (or sometimes the O.Henry ending) means at the end of an article the mental status or the fate of the character has changed greatly, and also this change is based on certain reasons have mentioned in the previous article. But the whole passage is suddenly endowed with a great charm because of the sudden change and caused a long and deep consideration of the situation or problem the article has revealed. This kind of ending is often seen in the O.Henry articles and also the most successful ones are in O.Henry articles.If we want to know more about O.Henry’s articles, we may well know what happened in his life and why he wrote articles like that?O.Henry is the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter. He is a famous American writer of short stories. Born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, O. Henry attended school only until age 15, when he dropped out to work in his uncle’s drugstore. During his 20s he moved to Texas, where he worked for more than ten years as a clerk and a bank teller.In 1896 O. Henry was charged with embezzling funds from the First National Bank of Austin, Texas, where he had worked from 1891 to 1894. The amount of money was small and might have been an accounting error; however, he chose to flee to Honduras rather than stand trial. Learning that his wife was dying, he returned to Texas in 1897 and, after her death, turned himself in to authorities. He served three years of a five-year sentence at the federal penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio, where he first began to write short stories and use the pseudonym O. Henry. And only after releasing from prison, O. Henry moved to New York City and began writing full time.In his stories he made substantial use of his knowledge of Texas, Central America, and life in prison. He also became fascinated by New York street life, which provided a setting for many of his later stories. During the last ten years of his life, O. Henry became one of the most popular writers in America, publishing over 500 short stories in dozens of widely read periodicals.As his experience shows, the majority people meet in his daily life are those in the lower class of the society such as clerks, policemen, and waitresses. He opens The Four Million by observing that "Some one invented the assertion that there were only 'Four Hundred' people in New York City who were really worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimate of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of the 'Four Million.'" But just because his observation for the poor and the ordinary people made him the most famous author in his times and this is why his twist ending can gain the sympathy and the tears of so many readers. They are the stories of four million people, but not the stories of four hundred people.His most famous story, "The Gift of the Magi" concerns a young couple who are short of money but desperately want to buy each other Christmas gifts. Unbeknownst to Jim, Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch; unbeknownst to Della, Jim sells his most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jeweled combs for Della's hair. The author arranged the entire plot just to get the readers to wait, to cause an suspense, the pleasurable excitement and anticipation of the outcome. From the beginning, the readers keep guessing what the Jim and Della will buy for each other, and the coincidence of their gifts is the greatest suspense the author put in his article. And then the author give the answer to the question, here is the ending:Here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.The author’s answer was that their will be none of the gift in the world more valuable than love. Speaking of foolish, maybe just in the eyes of those who are always after the greedy of creature comfort. Love is the supremacy, and this is the theme of the article.And another example for his twist ending, The Cop And The Anthem. This is a really funny story, the main character was prepared for the coming winter—to get into the prison, when every trial failed and he was moved by the anthem of the church. He decided to make a man of himself again and to conquer the evil that had taken possession of him. But not until the anthem was finished, this time he was ‘hopefully’ arrested for doing nothing. When Soapy has realized how foolish he is and decided to live a new life the fact deprive him the right, the ending keep us thinking about the whole society and Soapy. What made the story so successful was the ending, the sudden twist not only give the readers a sudden fall, but also let us think a lot.O.Henry has always been my favorite in the American literature, his twist ending give a lively revelation of the American society that time. And my understanding of the ending is that it is far more than an ending, it shows an elaborate conception and a precise control over the whole passage, it can only done by certain master just as O.Henry has done for us.
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