Holiday homework
Name – Ashish Sparsh
Class & sec – 9th C
Roll no. - 07
About the author
William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910),
better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short
story writer.
He was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He moved
to Texas in 1882.
He graduated from his aunt Evelina Maria Porter's
elementary school in 1876. He then enrolled at Lindsey
Street High School.
As a child, he was always reading, everything from
classics to dime novels; his favorite works were Lane's
translation of One Thousand and One Nights and Burton's
Anatomy of Melancholy.
Art of writing
Author's most prolific writing period started in 1902, when he
moved to New York City to be near his publishers. While there, he
wrote 381 short stories. He wrote a story a week for over a year for
the New York World Sunday Magazine. His wit, characterization, and
plot twists were adored by his readers but often panned by critics.
His stories frequently have surprise endings. In his day he was
called the American answer to Guy de Maupassant. While both
authors wrote plot twist endings, O. Henry's stories were
considerably more playful, and are also known for their witty
narration.
Cabbages and Kings was his first collection of stories, followed by
The Four Million.
His final work was "Dream", a short story intended for the magazine
The Cosmopolitan. It was never completed.
His Contribution to English literature
and his legacy
› His works include "The Gift of the Magi", "The
Duplicity of Hargraves", and "The Ransom of Red
Chief". His stories are known for their surprise
endings and witty narration. He also wrote poetry
and non-fiction.
› His legacy includes the O. Henry Award, an annual
prize awarded to outstanding short stories.
› Most of O. Henry's stories are set in his own time,
the early 20th century. Many take place in New
York City and frequently feature characters with
blue-collar jobs, such as policemen and waitresses.
the gift of magi
~ o henry
Summary
This is one of the most famous stories written by O henry. In the story “The Gift
of Magi”, there is a girl named Della who is poor and wants to give a surprise
gift to her husband Jim but after her saving, she could only save 1 dollar and 87
cents which were not enough to buy a gift her husband. Jim does a job from
which he could earn 20 dollars and they live in a furnished apartment at a rent
of 8 dollars a week. Suddenly, Della moves from the window to the mirror. She
lets her long hair down. It's one of the couple's two prized possessions, the
other one being Jim's heirloom watch. Her hair falls below her knees. She
quickly puts it up again and pauses as a tear falls. She puts on her old coat and
hat and hurries down to the street. While moving on she found a shop that
buys hair and for her hair, she was going to get 20 dollars which was a good
agreement and she accepted it. After the haircut, she started finding a good
gift for her husband and after two hours of searching she finally found a watch
shop where she bought a platinum fob chain which cost her 21 dollars and
after reaching home she was happy and a bit nervous that will the Jim accept
her after she cut her hair and for looking good she started dressing up her hair
so that she could look beautiful. After waiting for some time she could hear the
steps of Jim.
Jim enters looking serious. His gaze is fixed on Della. He
has a peculiar expression that she can't interpret. She's
afraid. She goes to him and explains herself. Jim struggles
to understand that she's cut her hair and that it's gone.
Eventually, he snaps out of his stupor and hugs Della. He
takes a package from his coat and puts it on the table. He
assures her that her haircut won't affect his feelings for
her. He says if she unwraps her gift, she will understand
why he was so out of it earlier. When Della open the gift
she scream with joy it was a pair of expensive hair comb
that she wanted to buy earlier but she couldn’t. she
handed over the gift and She asks for his watch so they
can see how it looks. Jim sits on the couch instead and
says they should put their presents away for a while. He
sold his watch to buy the combs. Which tells that the love
between the couple was far most from the materials.
Theme
In the story of the gift of magi, one of the themes
shows, the endless love between the couple as they
sold their most valuable things so that they can buy
gifts for each other on the behave of Christmas. Della
sold her most beautiful hair so that she could buy a
watch chain for her husband without caring about her
beauty and Jim sold his priceless gold watch given by
his father so that he could buy jeweled combs for his
wife and this shows the love they are having for one
another triumphs over the material things.
Twist at the end
The irony of the story is that both of them sold their
valuable things so that they can buy gifts for each other
on the behave of Christmas but without knowing that
they are used to buying the gifts for that thing which will
be not there with them just like Della sold her hairs so
that she could buy a watch chain for her husband as he
loved his watch and it will suit him without knowing that
he sold his gold watch so that he could buy a jeweled
comb for her without knowing that she cut off and sold
her hair.
Word – meaning
Peculiar- markedly different from usual.
The Cop & the Anthem
~ O Henry
Summary
The Cop and the Anthem is a humorous story and one of the
most famous stories written by O henry. Soapy, the
vagabond was looking in search of shelter in winters. He was
a jobless and homeless man. Furthermore, Soapy became
restless due to the approaching winters. As such Soapy
wanted shelter and the Blackwell Island prison came to his
mind. Consequently, he tried to get arrested for the winter
season duration. His first plan was to eat at a good
restaurant and refuse to pay. As such he came to a good
restaurant but the head waiter forced him out due to his
broken old shoes. Soapy then went to another restaurant
and said he had no money. Despite this, his arrest didn’t
take place. His other attempts also failed. While roaming
around at street childhood thoughts made Soapy realize his
mistake. Soapy then decided to live a life of dignity but soon
got arrested by a cop.
Theme
In the story the cop and the anthem, one of the
themes shown is poverty. A homeless man’s ill-
fated attempts to get arrested to avoid sleeping in
the cold is an examination of the cruelties and
inescapable realities faced by underclass citizens.
This shows that a person is ready to commit a
crime also so that he could save himself from the
cold, harsh winter. For him, the jail was as good as
heaven as it was going to protect him from the cold
winter and provide him food and a warm bed which
will be enough to survive the winter months .
Twist at the end
O Henry was also famous for the twists that he wrote
at the end of his stories. In the story, the irony was
that when soapy was desperately wanted to be
arrested by the Cop so that he could spend his winter
at the jail with a warm bed but fails to attract the
cop, and at the end when he realizes his mistakes and
when his personality changed and he promised
himself that from now he would stop making attempts
to go to jail and he will be going become a good man
and a respected person in the society then a cop
approaches to him, thinking that he was a thief and
he is going to steal the treasury of the church and
arrest the soapy and put him behind the bars
Word-meaning
Vagabond- having no fixed place
