Abstract:

This paper aims at analyzing the humanitarian spirit reflected in O. Henry’s short stories in the perspective of his writing style “smile with tears”. Comparisons are made to present the three different attitudes that O. Henry shows towards the ordinary people. It attempts to analyze the humanity in different stories so as to learn O. Henry’s humanism in his writings. Detailed analysis is provided with quotes from the original text and relative bibliography by means of information retrieval.

Key words: O. Henry; short stories; humanity; smile with tears

摘要：

本文分析了欧亨利所著的名篇短篇小说中的人性色彩的体现，旨在呈现不同的短篇中人物身上的人性光辉，为正确认识欧亨利本人所体现的人文立场提供依据。全文通过作者对这种人性体现的具体划分，结合欧亨利“含泪的微笑”的写作特点，分成对人性的丑陋一面的批判、对人性光辉一面的赞扬，以及对挣扎在道德边缘的人的鼓励三个主要部分。

关键词：欧亨利; 短篇小说; 人性色彩; 含泪的微笑

1. Introduction
1.1 O. Henry and His Life Experience
O. Henry, known as Father of modern American short stories, is among the three greatest who enjoy their reputation as short story masters of the world. As Henry James once said, “a novel is in its broadest definition a personal, a direct impression of life; that, to begin with, constitutes its value, which is greater or less according to the intensity of the impression” (Haralson & Johnson, 2009:311). The same definition also applies to O. Henry’s life experience.
William Sydney Porter, better known as O. Henry, lived a legendary life in the U.S. As the son of Algernon Sidney Porter, a physician, and Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter, O. Henry was born in September 11th 1862. O. Henry’s life was not care-free. Much like another American writer Mark Twain, he spent all his childhood moving around, from the east to the west, from cities to countryside. When he was fifteen-years-old, O. Henry took a job in his uncle’s drugstore. In the following years, he also worked as a licensed pharmacist, shepherd, draftsman, bank teller and journalist and so on, which provided him rich life experience for his writing. He started his writing career right after he got married to his first wife Athol Estes Roach, with whom he shared an affinity for singing and playing music. Tragically, Athol died from tuberculosis after ten years of marriage and meanwhile O. Henry himself was found of embezzlement during his time in Austin. In the February of 1898, he was sentenced to prison in the state of Ohio, where he started to write short stories for a living for both himself and his daughter.