O'Henry Essay

Many people have not heard or have read any of the classical short stories by O.Henry a 1900 short story writer. His style of writing makes the reader feel the emotions of the characters’ by detailed and deep descriptions. Because of O.Henry’s unique writing his stories have delighted readers for over a hundred years. One of O.Henry’s writing styles he uses in many of his stories are member s of law enforcement. In his short story “A Dollars Worth,” he uses many members of law enforcement. In that same story it makes more sense if a district attorney is being threatened by a man he put in jail rather than a regular person. It also can make the story interesting like a shootout with a criminal and the district attorney in “A Dollars Worth.” There are even more examples of law enforcement in “The Retrieved Reformation.” An example is the eminent detective Ben Price who arrested Jimmy for safe cracking. There is also the warden at the jail that Jimmy served his sentence. The warden wanted Jimmy to stop safe cracking and just be a good citizen. This is just one of O.Henry’s writing styles. Another writing style of O.Henry is the use of irony in his stories. In “The Retrieved Reformation,” he uses irony at the end. The irony happens when Jimmy has to use his tools for good and not for stealing to save a girls life. O.Henry also uses irony in his short story “The Last Leaf.” In the story Behrman an amateur artist who is not very gifted at art is able to with his art save a dying girls life. I think the way O.Henry uses irony makes his stories stand out and unique to other short story writers. He also has many other styles and his is just another one of his writing styles.
He also uses ordinary people for his characters in his short stories. In “The Gift of The Magi,’ he uses two ordinary people trying to make the other happy. When he uses regular people other people might relate to same problems as the characters.