CHỦ NGHĨA NHÂN đạo TRONG TRUYỆN NGẮN món QUÀ của các đạo sĩ BUỒNG TẦNG THƯỢNG CHIẾC lá CUỐI CÙNG của o HENRY

i
ABSTRACT
Besides part I (Introduction) and part III (Conclusion), in the graduation
paper there are three chapters in part II (Main content) which mainly focuses upon
Humanism in three short stories The skylight room, The gift of the magi and The last
leaf by O. Henry.
In Chapter 1, it gives a brief review on Literary theory which covers the
conception and functions of Literature, the definition of Humanism and characteristics
of Humanism. Notably, the three characteristics of Humanism referred to in part 2.2,
listed as compassion, reality and love with life, are related to Humanism in the three
stories analysed in the graduation paper.
Chapter 2 provides general background knowledge of America’s setting
and literature in the late 19
th
century and the early 20
th
century, O. Henry’s important
events in his life and his writing style. The summaries of the three stories are also
included in this chapter.
The last and the main one, chapter 3 deals with three major features of
Humanism in the three short stories, respectively as sympathy for the characters’ poor
life and their destiny, praise of characters’ moral virtues and their good qualities, and
hope for a better life. Then, a small part quickly pointing out some features on O.
Henry’s writing style is added.
As a whole, this graduation paper is my response to O. Henry’s great
works whose humanity regarded as its beauty.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Acknowledgement i
Abstract ii

I. Introduction
1. Rationale for the study
2. Aims and objectives
3. Scope of the study
4. Methodology
1
1
1
2
2
II. Content
Chapter 1: Literary theory
1. Theory on Literature
1.1. Definitions of Literature?
1.2. Functions of Literature
2. Theory on Humanism
2.1. What is Humanism?
2.2. Characteristics of Humanism
Chapter 2: O. Henry’s life and works
1. Historical background in America in the late 19
th
century and the
early 20
th
century
2. American literature in the late 19
th
century and the early 20
th
century

3. O. Henry’s life and works
3.1. Life and main events
3.2. Writing style
3.3. General introductions and summaries of the three short
stories The last leaf, The skylight room and The gift of the
magi
Chapter 3: Humanism in the three short stories The last leaf, The
3
3
3
3
4
6
6
7
9
9
10
12
12
14
15
17
17
24
31
35
iii
skylight room and The gift of the magi
1. Sympathy for the characters’ poor life and their destiny

2. Praise of the characters’ moral virtues and their good qualities
3. Hope for a better life
4. A glimpse at O. Henry’s writing style in the three stories
III. Conclusion 37
IV. Reference 39
iv
I. Introduction
1. Rationale for the study
Among many American reputable authors during the late 19
th
century
and the early 20
th
century as Mark Twain, Jack London or Walt Whitman, Oliver
Henry also gets his name remembered in readers’ mind so deeply that whenever it
comes to American realist literature, his name can hardly be neglected and he is
considered as a great monument in American literature. His stories have been
“widely read throughout the world, and even though in the eyes of some they may
not be considered first-rate literature, they have become a significant part of the
short story genre” (Wilton Eckley, 1994). Commenting on O. Henry’s writing
style, outstanding features represented in his works are not figuratively literary
sentences but a massive number of his short stories written in a short time, closely
connected storyline and particularly his great humanity. The author has achieved
reputation on the success of his famous works in which there are three stories
analyzed in this graduation paper, namely The gift of the magi, The skylight room
and The last leaf which were voted as some of the author’s best stories by
Kessinger Publishing in 1899.
2. Aims and objectives
Humanism is a remarkable characteristic in O. Henry’s works. Studying
his works, the author’s concept of life and humans, ideology and writing style can

be inferred. This may give readers an overall outlook on O. Henry’s humanity
clearly evoked by the three famous stories The gift of the magi, The skylight room
and The last leaf.
3. Scope of the study
The graduation paper works on three of O. Henry’s short famous stories
The last leaf, The skylight room and The gift of the magi but does not cover all
1
their aspects. It is humanism that gets focused on only. However, not only the
content but also the author’s writing style is referred to.
4. Methodology
In this graduation paper, some methods are used such as analysis,
comparison and synthesis. To be more detailed, ideas, theories on Literature and
Humanism including their definitions, functions and characteristics, are collected
and chosen to be suitable with the aims and the scope of the graduation paper.
Some famous sayings are also used as quoted. The foremost part is Analysis, which
not only requires thorough analysis but compares the three stories with other works
by O. Henry and some other authors. There are mutual comparisons and contrasts
among the characters to find out their common features and their different ones as
well.
II. Content
*Chapter 1: Literature theory*
2
1. Theory on Literature
1.1. Definitions of Literature?
The term Literature has been used for a long time but many people may
not know what it exactly is. The definitions of Literature are varied and changeable at
different times, in different places, and based on different background knowledge,
culture, social context, and so on.
It is common knowledge that Literature may be a written and printed text
in form of stories, poems, novels, or even speeches or on-line texts. It may bring about

great, moral and meaningful messages or lessons or contain useful information about
the world’s facts and events. Some people may insist that Literature must be literal,
ornate and flowery works. However, literature may be diaries and proses which almost
simply tell events and express feelings as well.
According to the website Dictionary.com, Literature is “expression and
form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interests”, which mainly
deals with the aspect of topics and ideas in a literal work. The content of a literature
work must refer to popular, interesting or helpful affairs that are concerned about by
readers. The content may be various, ranging from relationship between family
members, lovers or friends to social, economic, environment or politics affairs.
Another definition comes from linguists. Ezra Pound (1885-1972), an
American expatriate said that “Literature is simply language charged with meaning to
the utmost possible degree” and Terry Eagleton, an English literary theorist also said
that Literature “transforms and intensifies ordinary language”. In my own words,
Literature can be defined as the creation by meaning through form. These definitions
highlight the aspects of form and linguistic behaviors. It means that Literature is words
3
that are transferred into written, spoken or signed form. It is not simply a chaotic mix
of words but has its sense that makes the beauty of the works.
Above all, I would like to offer the third definition, also the foremost
largely acknowledged one by M. Gorki (1868-1936): “Literature is Anthropology”. In
a brief explanation, Literature is written by and for humans. It is derived from life and
tells about anything related to life. It may be a real event in the past or at present, a
fiction imagined by the writer, a line of thought coming into mind or anything else. It
is considered as a mirror of human life and a key to human soul. Thanks to Literature,
readers cannot only know more about life but also understand more about both writers
and themselves.
Whatever literature is, it cannot be denied that Literature plays an
important role in human life. It serves as an ample source of delicious dishes for
humans’ mental life and enriches tough souls with its beauty.

1.2. Functions of Literature
As it comes to the functions of Literature, they mainly focus on the
purposes of writing literal works. Literature is a mental activity undertaken by both
creators and receivers. To adopt the viewpoint of Nguyen Hung in Functions of
Literature (2011), the main functions of Literature are clarified as Cognition,
Education and Art. Other functions can be listed as Communication or Interaction,
Entertainment and Struggle.
First of all, in the position of recipients, thanks to Literature readers can
“cognize”, “self-cognize” and “reform”. Reading literary works may draw great
inspirations and create exists for readers to take an honest and overall look on
themselves. Studying one’s works, readers may discover his soul’s deep corners and
his personalities shown by the ways he uses words and gives his opinions toward
others. Readers may understand or sympathize with writers’ mood swings. In other
4
words, with one’s writings, readers can build a relatively all-sided portrait of the
writer.
Another important function of Literature is education. Readers can
perceive ambient environment and gain a large amount of knowledge contained in
literary works. Literary works as “course books about life” reflect many aspects of
real life as culture, language, history, biology, geography, politics and economics.
Authentic materials collected from the real life and contained in literary works can fit
gaps in people’s knowledge. In addition, as devoted guides, literary works can help
readers learn by themselves how to choose and use words, how to organize ideas into a
logical set or what methods of meaning transference are. Educative feature is retained
in works’ content as well. It is related to a famous saying by Zhu Xi (1130-1200), a
well-known Chinese Confucian, “Literal works always bring its morality”. Moral
lessons, norms and rules, hopes, encouragements, pieces of advice and ideology that
writers expect to be perceived by their readers may be expressed directly or indirectly.
In many cases, big writers have to play their role as teachers or consultants to orient
readers towards right ideology and sound life style.

Thirdly, Literature is a form of art which brings its sense of beauty and
entertainment, and “assesses readers’ artistic abilities”. At the beginning, literature
helps relax and brings joy and peace to readers. Then, after deeply thinking,
experiencing, cognizing and judging, readers can perceive the beauty of the works
shown in ways of creating characters, skillfully mastered language, explicit or implicit
messages, beautiful souls of the writers, and so on.
Besides, the process of reading and feeling is the process of
communicating while literary works are bridges between writers and readers. At first,
readers may know more about writers’ life such as family background, relationships,
language, main events happening in and affecting their life. Then, it is Literature that
works as a helpful device for writers to express their thoughts, feelings, concept, hope
5
and dreams. Readers are recipients who get the messages signaled or coded in form of
letters or speeches. Without messages from writers, literary works are just stretch of
mindless words and letters, which causes communication breakdown.
Finally, literature serves as “a tool for struggle”. Writers may play the
role of the representatives for humans, or more exactly, human needs, wants and
rights. They may contribute their works to making a better life by debating and
fighting for the poor’s rights, appealing for mutual sharing, agreeing with the rights
and opposing the wrongs. Especially in times of wars or depression, writers may
become soldiers with their works as powerful weapons.
All those features above are just striking ones which contribute to values
of literal works. Actually, they are combined together with other “materials” to form a
complete set and sometimes it is hard and confusing to clarify into discrete parts.
2. Theory on Humanism
2.1. What is Humanism?
Like literature, there are a number of meanings of the term “humanism”
debated by theorists, humanists, writers and scientists. Authors and speakers may not
use the word with lack of absolute clarity. In the speech What is Humanism (1989),
Fred Edwords, an American humanist, tried to give the most concise definitions of

Humanism, which can help writers to avoid confusion.
In his work, Fred Edwords divided Humanism into many branches but
in this graduation paper, Literary Humanism and Secular Humanism are focused on
due to their suitability with the three literary works The last leaf, The skylight room
and The gift of the magi written by O. Henry in the period from the late 19
th
century to
the early 20
th
century.
6
In a nut shell, according to Fred Edwords, Secular Humanism is an
outgrowth of 18
th
century enlightenment rationalism and 19
th
century free thought.
Many secular group such as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, the
American Rationalist Federation and many otherwise unaffiliated academic
philosophers and scientists, advocate this philosophy. Then, Literary Humanism is a
devotion to the humanities or literary culture.
2.2. Characteristics of Humanism
In regards to Humanism’s characteristics, there are four main features
summarized as follows according to Fred Edwords in What is Humanism (1989).
Firstly, “Humanism is a philosophy focused upon human means for
comprehending reality”. Humanists do not lead people to beliefs in supernatural
influence and transcendent knowledge. Instead, reality, which is regarded as the origin
of everything and the inspiration for Literature in general and Humanism in specific, is
highlighted.
Secondly, “Humanism is a philosophy of compassion”. It sympathizes

with miserable fates and is concerned with “meeting human needs and answering
human problems”. Humanism cares and fights for all the human necessity, both
material and mental matters.
Thirdly, Humanism concerns about not only the present but the future as
well by devoting to the getting better of the reality so that the future may have a stable
basis to develop. To make this happen, the most drastic and effective solution is
morally ideological formation and re-education.
Finally, “Humanism is a philosophy for those in love with life”. Humans
take responsibility for their own lives with the spirit “do – it – yourself” and offer
mutual help to people in need.
7
Those theories above seem to be fairly formal, complex, and hard to
understand. In a more straight and simple way, Tony Davies, in Humanism (1997)
indicated some major points to consider whether a work has humanity values or not.
Firstly, it can “reveal constant and universal truths about human nature because
human nature itself is constant and unchanging”. Secondly, it can “speak to the inner
truths” of humans because human individuality, “self” and identification is unique and
different from any other, and essential to our inner core. Last but not least, its purpose
is the enhancement of life and the propagation of human values.
There is one point to notice that all the characteristics of Humanism have
a close relation to reality and truths. In the following chapter, it will be analyzed more
plainly.
8
*Chapter 2: O. Henry’s life and works*
1. Historical background in America in the late 19
th
century
and the early 20
th
century

In a few words, America’s situation from the late 19
th
century to the
early 20
th
century can be described as wars, crisis, depression, reconstruction, power,
poverty and prosperity.
There were two main events in this period, the Civil War and
Reconstruction (1861-1877) and the Rise of Industrial America (1876-1900) leading to
America holding World Power (1865-1914).
During the Civil War and Reconstruction, The United States faced the
greatest crisis and many troubles on every aspect. There was a big gap between the
northern and southern states in many fields of society, economy, politics. The North
became increasingly industrial and commercial while the South remained largely
agricultural. The big discrepancy between the two regions caused many serious
conflicts. Another cause was African-American slavery, which was the focal point of a
political crisis. African slaves were treated unfairly and crucially as if they had not
been humans. They had to work hard and even dangerously in factories and farms but
they had to lead a poor and miserable life with a lack of food and drink, health care
and education. Conflicts between white bosses and black slaves got much bitter and
needed to be solved. Then, following the 1860 election to the presidency of
Republican Abraham Lincoln, 11 southern states eventually seceded from the Federal
Union in 1861. A costly and bloody civil war happened, which led to as many
Americans were killed in the Civil War as in all the nation's other wars combined. All
the reasons above led to a drained America with every field that was seriously
affected.
9
In the next period, people witnessed a rising and recovering American.
In the decades following the Civil War, the United States emerged as an industrial
giant and proved its dominating strength all over the world. Old industries expanded

and many new ones, including petroleum refining, steel manufacturing, and electrical
power, railroads, shipping, transportation, emerged. It was the industrial growth that
changed the face of the American society. It produced a new class of wealthy
industrialists, a prosperous middle class and a vastly expanded blue collar working
class. Millions of newly arrived immigrants from Europe, Latin-America, Africa and
North Asia and even larger numbers of migrants from rural areas rushed into big cities,
which made a lively picture of the American society. However, there was a big gap
among classes. Workers’ wages were very low. Labor unions were created to protect
workers. Meanwhile, farmers also faced hard times as technology and increasing
production led to more competitions and falling prices for farm products. Hard times
on farms forced many young people to move to the city in search of better job
opportunities. On the other hand, the high and middle classes owned most of the
nation’s properties though accounting for a small number. By World War I, America
had become a major world power.
To sum up, during the period, many important political and social issues
were witnessed. The dark side of the civilized society which remarked unstability and
unfairness did exist in the American society, which provided the authors with sheer
inspirations to bring real ingredients into their works.
2. American literature in the late 19
th
century and the early 20
th
century
This is the period highlighted as the one of “awakening” in which
American writers composed to call on Americans to wake up and be alert to different
realities in all the aspects of life as spirituality, politics, economics and sociality.
10
Following the shifts and changes of life, the authors with their kind,
sensitive and sympathetic hearts realized that their duties were to reflect a real
America with its overall description and to wake people up to get out of Secular and

Religious creeds and fight for humans. Stepping out from Romanism, the authors
showed their desire to paint the real picture of life with their pens.
Besides, it was also called the period of Realism and Naturalism. In this
graduation paper, only Realism gets focused on for the reason that it clearly
represented and was related to Humanism in Oliver Henry’s works. Discussing
Realism, William Dean Howells said “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than
the truthful treatment of material" (Editor’s Study, 1889). Realism tries hard to
present the world as it really is and to be truthful, realist literature. It delivers plain and
simple truth, leading realists to fill their works with details from everyday life or facts.
In the so-called realist works, the authors do not write about extraordinary people in
fantastic situations but about plain, normal, everyday stories. In addition, Realism
generally celebrates the individual. Most realist works feature a central character who
is a victim of the hard-boiled life and has to deal with some moral struggle in their
mind. Before the story reaches its ending, the character has to learn the moral dilemma
that the author wants to express through his message. Human beings in realist works
must learn, grow, and change their worlds or take responsibility for not doing these
things. Instead of giving up easily, they have to overcome the situations of panics,
depressions and discontents.
Literary works in this period depicted the damage of economic forces as
a result of urbanization, industrialization, poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary
conditions, low pay and difficult work conditions. They spoke of alienation of the
weak and vulnerable individual. Some examples are Maggie: A girl of the streets by
Stephen Crane, Martin Eden by Jack London, An American tragedy by Theodore
Dreiser. Famous authors also described characters enduring through inner strength and
11
qualities of kindness, flexibility, and individuality; for instance, Huck Finn by Mark
Twain, Sister Carrier by Theodore Dreiser.
Other trends in literary works during this period were Frontier Humor
and Realism with the rising of Local Colorist and Cosmopolitan Novelists. Low-life
characters like gambles, prostitutes and robbers were first introduced in many stories

by Oliver Henry and Bret Harte. Besides, experimentations in bringing feminism,
social transformation, political intrigue and perceptions like self-awareness, wisdom
and self-sacrificing love into literary works were done. The portrait of a lady by
Henry James, The age of innocence and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton are some
much-quoted examples.
Another feature of the American Literature in the late 19
th
century and
the early 20
th
century was remarked on Naturalism and Muckraking. Literary works
used Realism to relate the individual to society and to expose social problems. They
showed authors’ beliefs in determinism in which individuals were helpless pawns of
economic and social forces beyond their control. Topics like sex, divorce, adultery,
poverty and crime became dominant. Some famous authors can be listed as Stephen
Crane, Jack London, Frank Norris and Upton Sinclair.
3. O. Henry’s life and works
3.1. Life and main events
Oliver Henry’s real name was William Sydney Porter. He was a prolific
American short-story writer who was born in 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina. His
childhood suffered from a dark period of the Civil War and Reformation. His father,
Algernon Sidney Porter, was a physician. When William was three years old, his
mother died, and he was raised by his paternal grandmother and his aunt. Though not
having been born in a wealthy family, he was still admired for being born in an
12
intellectual and humane one. During his childhood, O. Henry was mainly taught by his
aunt; he also went to a school established by her. Therefore, when he was a child, O.
Henry was inspired, took interest, learned basic rules of art creation and showed his
talent in literature.
Pressure of earning to live made it possible for him to enter a university

but his passion in literature could not fade. He learned much on his own by studying
masterpieces by Homère, Shakespeare, Henry James, and so on.
After leaving school, he worked in a drug store and then did a job as a
pharmacist. This job brought him chances to meet many customers in which most of
them were poor. With his humane and sympathy, he wished to do more to help those
people. In 1889, he started writing because he felt his previous job was boring. In
1894, with his friend, he bought a were-about-to-bankrupt newspaper which was then
The Rolling Stones. Also being an environmental-friendly and adventurous person, he
travelled to many places as Texas, Austin and New York, so he gained various
experiences.
He used to be accused of embezzlement while working as a bank clerk
and put into jail. Though suffering from difficulties and problems and having to do
many kinds of jobs to earn his living, he was lucky to get help, encouragement and
support from his friends, his family and his two wives. Modern researchers have
indicated that the relationship with his family and friends and his works during his
youth had an overwhelming influence on his literature career.
At the climax of his job, O. Henry earned a lot of money but he also
spent much money, so he always lacked money and led a poor life. Money became his
obsession, which was proved in his works. O. Henry's last years were shadowed by
alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems. He died of cirrhosis in 1910.
About his works, during his life time, O. Henry published 10 collections
and over 600 short stories.
3.2. Writing style
13
As referred above, Realism is a material for literature and played an
important role in American literature from the late 19
th
century to the early 20
th
century. O. Henry’s works were not out of trend. He also described the life of ordinary

people, poor workers, criminals and intellectuals living in big cities, especially in New
York. They lived in slums or cheap rented rooms that were dirty, dense and fusty and
had to earn money fairly hard for living. However, he did not stop at describing the
picture of the American society in the late 19
th
century and the early 20
th
century.
Several typical characters were portrayed. He described his characters with their
beautiful souls which are full of optimism and hope inspite of their situations. O.
Henry also brought his own experiences on business, work, social relationship,
marriage and family life into his stories. Readers can see his image in every symbol,
icon, model and detail in his stories. Notably, “space of a closed room” made an
obsession in O. Henry’s stories. It reminded of poor people’s life in American society
and O. Henry’s difficult time in poverty and prison.
O. Henry is like a master and a witch of telling stories. His stories have a
closely connected plot but have a tendency to end surprisingly. A twist of plot turns on
an ironic or coincidental circumstance. He also developed his unique skills such as
double-ending, direct story-opening, letting readers join his stories, and flexibility in
choosing the first or the third person, but he still used classic mechanisms like happy
endings, philosophical tone, pure penmanship, and thorough description. Therefore, O.
Henry’s way of telling stories has been still adopted and favored until now despite his
classic style.
With his ability of observation and his thorough grasp of human
intellect, O. Henry proved his genuine talent on language master. A remarkable feature
as it comes to O. Henry’s writing style is humor. He used various types of humor in
his stories such as reality-based humor, culture humor and linguistic humor. To
produce humor, he employed all kinds of lexical and syntactic devices and used
rhetorical irony. Using humor, O. Henry did not mean to make his stories funny but to
embody his feelings with deep thoughts, concerns about life and human beings. In his

14
successful stories, he showed his poetic, romantic and humorous view on life. In
addition to humor, O. Henry used slangs, dialects, conversational language, and many
kinds of comparison.
In short, any author’s writing style serves as a device to represent his ideology
throughout the content of his works. In this regards, O. Henry’s writing style attributes
to signify his Humanism.
3.3. General introduction and summary of three short stories
“The last leaf”, “The skylight room” and “The gift of the
magi”
The last leaf was published in 1907 in the collection The Trimmed
Lamp and Other Stories. It is about two young women artists, Sue and Johnsy living
in the early 20th century Greenwich Village. They shared a cheaply rented room as
their studio apartment. The story started with the event that Johnsy was near the death
because of pneumonia. She almost gave up lying in bed waiting for the last ivy leaf on
the brick wall she saw through her window to fall down. Fortunately, when Johnsy
was about to die, Behrman, an old man who was also an artist and lived in the
apartment below Sue and Johnsy, saved her life. It turned out that Mr. Berman used a
ladder to paint an ivy leaf on the brick wall when the last leaf fell down, which led to
his death of pneumonia. Thanks to Berman's sacrifice, Johnsy could recover and
continued her dream.
The skylight room was published in 1906 in The four million. It is about
Leeson, a poor intellectual, wanted to look for a low-rent room. With her low salary,
she just could rent a cheap room on the top floor, which was called the skylight room.
Though having to work hard, Leeson was still optimistic. She always sat on the steps
telling some funny stories or talking about her star, also her friend with other tenants.
One day, because of depression and hunger, Leeson fainted but luckily was saved by
Dr. William.
The last story, The gift of the magi was published in 1906 in The four
million. It is about Mr. and Mrs. Dillingham (James and Della) and their awkward

15
story on Christmas Eve. Having only one dollar and eighty-seven cents, Della could
not afford to buy James a Christmas present which was a chain. In her great attempt,
Della sold her long and beautiful hair which was considered as her treasure to get
enough money to buy the chain. When James arrived home, he noticed that Della had
her hair cut. Della was surprised because James's present for her was a set of beautiful
combs that she had wished for a long time. However, the most surprising moment was
when Della gave the chain to James and found out that James sold his watch to buy the
combs.
The three stories are regarded as typical works by O. Henry and
contribute their values to make the author’s reputation and to assert his talent.
16
*Chapter 3*
Humanism in “The last leaf”, “The skylight
room”
and “The gift of the magi”
1. Sympathy for the characters’ poor life and their miserable
destiny
Generally in O. Henry’s works and specifically in the three stories The
gift of the magi, The skylight room and The last leaf, most characters shared some
common things: having too little money, which leads to their living in dark, cheap, and
cramped rooms, being unable to pursuit their dreams or even facing the death.
Right in the opening of the story The gift of the magi, O. Henry
announced Della’s being in necessity to readers: “One dollar and eighty-seven cents.
That was all.”, using very short phrases and sentences and assertive tone. Starting with
short sentences, then O. Henry spent a substantial number of paragraphs to describe
Della’s situation with more details. He added a piece of information: “sixty cents of it
was in pennies”, and the origin of those sixty cents. Della had to bargain even a little
cent in any case if possible “by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the
butcher”. He did not directly express his comment on Della’s behavior; instead, he let

other characters judge “with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing
implied”. The description did not stop at that detail. Della even counted the amount of
money one by one that she had three times as if she could not believe the fact that all
she had were just one dollar and eighty-seven cents while “the next day would be
Christmas”. Della’s flopping down on the couch and howling reaction reflected her
17
mental status as inability, depression and worry. Turning to James’s situation, it was
fairly bad as well. He was only twenty-two and to be burdened with a family. He had
an old overcoat and no gloves. The reason why Dillingham family lived in poverty and
shortage was James’s cut-off salary which was then as two thirds as it had been.
Rhetorical devices as simile and euphemism were applied in comparing his reduced
prosperity with fainted letter D in his name card which were describes as “modest”
and “unassuming” but in fact to imply James’s shrunken income. Another detail
contributing to the description of the Dillinghams’ hardship was their precious
possessions: Jim’s gold watch taken over from his grandfather and his dad and Della’s
hair. However, actually, they were just a watch without a good chain and hair without
combs to make it more beautiful. With such an “old leather strap” in place of the
chain, James could not feel comfortable to watch the time in any company, so he just
dared to “sometimes look at it on the sly”. How embarrassed he was! And Della,
although her long, “rippling and shining” hair was beautiful like “a cascade of brown
waters”, she could not afford to buy a set of combs that she had worshipped long.
Such kind of combs with a “pure tortoise shell” and “jewelled rims” were too
expensive for her to buy. For her, it was like a hopeless dream. In truth, both of the
things had no material value at all but their spiritual one shown through simile device
with mocking meaning. O. Henry did not use any adjectives to show off their value but
absolutely unreasonable supposition. There was no doubt that never would the Queen
of Sheba live in “the flat across the airshaft” like Della did. Never would King
Salomon be a janitor. Never would they be jealous of James and Della’s possessions.
Those were just self-satire. Eventually, when being stuck in a rut, to strive for buying
something for each other, James and Della arrived at a tough decision to sell their

possessions, the only things left in which they took great pride.
Definitely, James and Della were poor but Leeson, “a poor little
working girl”, in The skylight room was much poorer. By comparison, James still
18
could earn money for his living and hire a flat at eight dollars per week; while Leeson
became unemployed and had no money to pay for the rent of her room with the price
of two dollars per week and to buy food to eat. After spinning a long yarn about the
process in which Leeson searched for and rented the skylight room and how she lived
with her neighbours, O. Henry suddenly increased the speed up to make an important
knot which led to the climax of the story that Leeson fainted and might have died
because of hunger. O. Henry used a long sentence to describe the event that Leeson
became jobless and tried to seek employment: “And when she went out in the
morning, instead of working, she went from office to office and let her heart melt away
in the drip of cold refusals transmitted through insolent office boys”, which proved its
affect on evoking Leeson’s tiring and heavy steps with a very slow and boring rhythm.
The poor girl was faced with such a tragic situation that she was too weak to do
anything. She could not resist Mr. Hoover’s impolite action, light the lamp and
undress. Reading the description of Leeson: “She fell upon the iron cot, her fragile
body scarcely hollowing the worn springs … As she lay on her back she tried twice to
raise her arm. The third time she got two thin fingers to her lips and blew a kiss out of
the black pit to Billy Jackson. Her arm fell back limply”, readers may easily capture an
imagination of a girl who almost fainted in a delirium and was near death. Hunger,
exhaustion, tiredness and stress led to her drain that if she had not gotten cured in time,
she could have died.
Beside life of American workers and labours, life of artists was also
depicted in O. Henry’s stories maybe because he found out common features with this
intellect class. In his very famous story The last leaf, it was about three poor artists
helping mutually in time of distress, Sue, Johnsy and Behrman. O. Henry did not
directly refer to the difficult monetary situation of the three artists like he did in The
gift of the magi and The skylight room. Using rhetorical device of metonymy

(referring to the container to imply the thing contained), the author placed his
19
characters in their neighbourhood; and through describing the poverty in which they
were trapped, he could enable his readers to figure out how the three characters Sue,
Johnsy and Behrman lived in such a place. Their occupation was described as being
located in a little district west of Washington Square with its crazily running streets
and strips called “places”. A variety of adjectives was made full use of to avoid the
humdrum, to be listed as “crazy, strange, valuable, quaint”. His loose way of using
informal words and satirical implications was shown more clearly as O. Henry told a
“funny” story about a collector who came for bills and had to meet himself back
because he could not get any cent from poor artists living there, which meant that the
artists could not afford for necessities. However, O. Henry did not over-focus on
telling in a lengthy way about his characters’ financial problems. He then moved on to
telling about Johnsy’s bad health as an important event leading the storyline. As
depicted, Johnsy was just “a mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California
zephyrs” but she had to fight with Pneumonia, a “red-fisted, short-breathed old
duffer” with his “icy fingers” who was very strong and cruel. No doubt it was an
unfair fight for the poor little girl. Johnsy was smitten hip and thigh and she just lay,
scarcely moving out of her bed, weekly resisting and almost surrendering in her mind.
All she did was laying on the bed white and still as fallen statue, light and fragile as a
leaf, looking out the windows with dull, wide-open eyes and taking to others in
whispers. She had only one chance in ten to recover from her illness. Nevertheless, it
was both miserable and blamable of Johnsy as she almost gave up all her hope and
entrusted her life to ivy leaves on a brick wall which was opposite to the windows of
her room. “When the last one falls I must go, too. […] I want to see the last one fall.
I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything,
and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves”, what a total
nonsense she uttered. As her doctor said, had it not been for her weakness, she could
have had a one-in-five chance, instead of one-in-ten. Even with all of his efforts, he
could not cure a patient who began to count the carriages in her funeral procession.

20
Johnsy was not the only character to live a tough life in The last leaf but
Sue and Behrman had to suffer from their own hardship as well. Besides sharing a
studio with Johnsy to save money, a young artist like Sue earned for living by drawing
illustrations for magazine stories. She also could not hire a professional model but had
Behrman be her model. About Behrman, his life was a lot worse than Sue and Johnsy.
Solely could his bad and odd appearance as a fierce little sixty-year-old man with
bushy beard and shaggy hair still bring an image of a pitiful person to readers. To get
more understanding about his life, he was past sixty and devoted forty years in his life
to art but was doomed to humiliating failure. For several years, hardly had he painted
anything except for daubing some commercial and advertising drawings, serving as
model for young artists, being drunken, scoffing terribly at others’ softness and talking
about his dream of making a masterpiece. In a brief comment on Behrman’s life, it
was O. Henry that said he was a complete failure.
Notably, a common thing among all the main characters in the three
stories, also a typically artistic image in O. Henry’s works, was the tightly closed
room. First, let’s visit James and Della’s room. They lived in a furnished flat with the
pay for rent of eights dollar per week. It was described as “furnished” but in fact
hardly there was anything valuable in that room. The letter box without any letter in it
and the electronic button without any mortal finger on it had not been used a long
time; the mirror also could not be used with its primary function. It was such a bare
room that O. Henry did not waste many words to describe apart from an irony joke
that the owners of the room should have had a lookout for the mendicancy squad. The
relation was used to emphatically assert that the Dillinghams lived like beggars. Then,
move to Ms. Lesson’s skylight room. She lived in a room which “occupied 7x8 feet of
floor space at the middle of the hall. On each side of it was a dark lumber closet or
storeroom” with an iron cot, a washstand, a chair and a shelf as a dresser. Particularly
in this story, O. Henry did not grudge using a high density of words with deep shades
21