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

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

Chapter 2 provides general background knowledge of America’s settingand literature in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, O Henry’s importantevents in his life and his writing style The summaries of the three stories are alsoincluded in this chapter.

The last and the main one, chapter 3 deals with three major features ofHumanism in the three short stories, respectively as sympathy for the characters’ poorlife and their destiny, praise of characters’ moral virtues and their good qualities, andhope 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 greatworks whose humanity regarded as its beauty

1 Rationale for the study

2 Aims and objectives

3 Scope of the study

4 Methodology

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Chapter 2: O Henry’s life and works

1 Historical background in America in the late 19th century and the

early 20th century

2 American literature in the late 19th century and the early 20th

century

3 O Henry’s life and works

3.1. Life and main events

3.2. Writing style

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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

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

17

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I Introduction

1 Rationale for the study

Among many American reputable authors during the late 19th centuryand the early 20th century as Mark Twain, Jack London or Walt Whitman, OliverHenry also gets his name remembered in readers’ mind so deeply that whenever itcomes to American realist literature, his name can hardly be neglected and he isconsidered 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 maynot be considered first-rate literature, they have become a significant part of theshort story genre” (Wilton Eckley, 1994) Commenting on O Henry’s writingstyle, outstanding features represented in his works are not figuratively literarysentences but a massive number of his short stories written in a short time, closelyconnected storyline and particularly his great humanity The author has achievedreputation 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 Studyinghis 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

their aspects It is humanism that gets focused on only However, not only thecontent 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 andHumanism including their definitions, functions and characteristics, are collectedand 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, whichnot only requires thorough analysis but compares the three stories with other works

by O Henry and some other authors There are mutual comparisons and contrastsamong the characters to find out their common features and their different ones aswell

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 aboutgreat, moral and meaningful messages or lessons or contain useful information aboutthe 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 almostsimply 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 literaturework must refer to popular, interesting or helpful affairs that are concerned about byreaders The content may be various, ranging from relationship between familymembers, 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

Literature can be defined as the creation by meaning through form These definitionshighlight the aspects of form and linguistic behaviors It means that Literature is wordsthat 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 andtells about anything related to life It may be a real event in the past or at present, afiction 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 writersand themselves

Whatever literature is, it cannot be denied that Literature plays animportant role in human life It serves as an ample source of delicious dishes forhumans’ mental life and enriches tough souls with its beauty

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 onthemselves 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 towardothers Readers may understand or sympathize with writers’ mood swings In otherwords, with one’s writings, readers can build a relatively all-sided portrait of thewriter.

Another important function of Literature is education Readers canperceive 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 fitgaps in people’s knowledge In addition, as devoted guides, literary works can helpreaders learn by themselves how to choose and use words, how to organize ideas into alogical 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 thatwriters 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 orientreaders 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 worksshown in ways of creating characters, skillfully mastered language, explicit or implicitmessages, beautiful souls of the writers, and so on

Besides, the process of reading and feeling is the process ofcommunicating while literary works are bridges between writers and readers At first,

language, main events happening in and affecting their life Then, it is Literature thatworks as a helpful device for writers to express their thoughts, feelings, concept, hopeand dreams Readers are recipients who get the messages signaled or coded in form ofletters or speeches Without messages from writers, literary works are just stretch ofmindless 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 andrights They may contribute their works to making a better life by debating andfighting for the poor’s rights, appealing for mutual sharing, agreeing with the rightsand opposing the wrongs Especially in times of wars or depression, writers maybecome 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 acomplete set and sometimes it is hard and confusing to clarify into discrete parts

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 19th century tothe early 20th century.

In a nut shell, according to Fred Edwords, Secular Humanism is an

outgrowth of 18th century enlightenment rationalism and 19th century free thought.Many secular group such as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, theAmerican Rationalist Federation and many otherwise unaffiliated academicphilosophers and scientists, advocate this philosophy Then, Literary Humanism is adevotion 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, ishighlighted

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 aswell by devoting to the getting better of the reality so that the future may have a stablebasis to develop To make this happen, the most drastic and effective solution ismorally 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 offermutual help to people in need

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 moreplainly

*Chapter 2: O Henry’s life and works*

In a few words, America’s situation from the late 19th century to theearly 20th century can be described as wars, crisis, depression, reconstruction, power,poverty and prosperity

There were two main events in this period, the Civil War andReconstruction (1861-1877) and the Rise of Industrial America (1876-1900) leading toAmerica holding World Power (1865-1914)

During the Civil War and Reconstruction, The United States faced thegreatest crisis and many troubles on every aspect There was a big gap between thenorthern and southern states in many fields of society, economy, politics The Northbecame increasingly industrial and commercial while the South remained largelyagricultural The big discrepancy between the two regions caused many seriousconflicts Another cause was African-American slavery, which was the focal point of apolitical crisis African slaves were treated unfairly and crucially as if they had notbeen humans They had to work hard and even dangerously in factories and farms butthey had to lead a poor and miserable life with a lack of food and drink, health careand education Conflicts between white bosses and black slaves got much bitter andneeded to be solved Then, following the 1860 election to the presidency ofRepublican Abraham Lincoln, 11 southern states eventually seceded from the FederalUnion in 1861 A costly and bloody civil war happened, which led to as manyAmericans were killed in the Civil War as in all the nation's other wars combined Allthe reasons above led to a drained America with every field that was seriouslyaffected

In the next period, people witnessed a rising and recovering American.

In the decades following the Civil War, the United States emerged as an industrialgiant and proved its dominating strength all over the world Old industries expandedand many new ones, including petroleum refining, steel manufacturing, and electricalpower, railroads, shipping, transportation, emerged It was the industrial growth thatchanged the face of the American society It produced a new class of wealthyindustrialists, a prosperous middle class and a vastly expanded blue collar workingclass Millions of newly arrived immigrants from Europe, Latin-America, Africa andNorth 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 gapamong classes Workers’ wages were very low Labor unions were created to protectworkers Meanwhile, farmers also faced hard times as technology and increasingproduction 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 jobopportunities On the other hand, the high and middle classes owned most of thenation’s properties though accounting for a small number By World War I, Americahad become a major world power

To sum up, during the period, many important political and social issueswere witnessed The dark side of the civilized society which remarked unstability andunfairness did exist in the American society, which provided the authors with sheerinspirations to bring real ingredients into their works

century

This is the period highlighted as the one of “awakening” in whichAmerican writers composed to call on Americans to wake up and be alert to differentrealities in all the aspects of life as spirituality, politics, economics and sociality

Following the shifts and changes of life, the authors with their kind,sensitive and sympathetic hearts realized that their duties were to reflect a realAmerica with its overall description and to wake people up to get out of Secular andReligious creeds and fight for humans Stepping out from Romanism, the authorsshowed their desire to paint the real picture of life with their pens.

Besides, it was also called the period of Realism and Naturalism In thisgraduation 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 simpletruth, leading realists to fill their works with details from everyday life or facts In theso-called realist works, the authors do not write about extraordinary people in fantasticsituations but about plain, normal, everyday stories In addition, Realism generallycelebrates the individual Most realist works feature a central character who is avictim 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 thatthe author wants to express through his message Human beings in realist works mustlearn, 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, depressionsand discontents

Literary works in this period depicted the damage of economic forces as

a result of urbanization, industrialization, poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitaryconditions, 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

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 Humorand Realism with the rising of Local Colorist and Cosmopolitan Novelists Low-lifecharacters 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 19th century andthe early 20th century was remarked on Naturalism and Muckraking Literary worksused Realism to relate the individual to society and to expose social problems Theyshowed authors’ beliefs in determinism in which individuals were helpless pawns ofeconomic and social forces beyond their control Topics like sex, divorce, adultery,poverty and crime became dominant Some famous authors can be listed as StephenCrane, 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 prolificAmerican short-story writer who was born in 1862 in Greensboro, North Carolina Hischildhood 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, hismother died, and he was raised by his paternal grandmother and his aunt Though nothaving been born in a wealthy family, he was still admired for being born in an

intellectual and humane one During his childhood, O Henry was mainly taught by hisaunt; 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 histalent in literature.

Pressure of earning to live made it possible for him to enter a universitybut his passion in literature could not fade He learned much on his own by studyingmasterpieces by Homère, Shakespeare, Henry James, and so on

After leaving school, he worked in a drug store and then did a job as apharmacist This job brought him chances to meet many customers in which most ofthem were poor With his humane and sympathy, he wished to do more to help thosepeople 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 variousexperiences

He used to be accused of embezzlement while working as a bank clerkand put into jail Though suffering from difficulties and problems and having to domany kinds of jobs to earn his living, he was lucky to get help, encouragement andsupport from his friends, his family and his two wives Modern researchers haveindicated that the relationship with his family and friends and his works during hisyouth had an overwhelming influence on his literature career

At the climax of his job, O Henry earned a lot of money but he alsospent much money, so he always lacked money and led a poor life Money became hisobsession, which was proved in his works O Henry's last years were shadowed byalcoholism, ill health, and financial problems He died of cirrhosis in 1910

About his works, during his life time, O Henry published 10 collectionsand over 600 short stories

O Henry is like a master and a witch of telling stories His stories have aclosely 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 asdouble-ending, direct story-opening, letting readers join his stories, and flexibility inchoosing the first or the third person, but he still used classic mechanisms like happyendings, philosophical tone, pure penmanship, and thorough description Therefore, O.Henry’s way of telling stories has been still adopted and favored until now despite hisclassic style

With his ability of observation and his thorough grasp of humanintellect, 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 inhis stories such as reality-based humor, culture humor and linguistic humor Toproduce 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 toembody his feelings with deep thoughts, concerns about life and human beings In hissuccessful stories, he showed his poetic, romantic and humorous view on life Inaddition to humor, O Henry used slangs, dialects, conversational language, and manykinds of comparison.

In short, any author’s writing style serves as a device to represent his ideologythroughout 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 astheir studio apartment The story started with the event that Johnsy was near the deathbecause of pneumonia She almost gave up lying in bed waiting for the last ivy leaf onthe brick wall she saw through her window to fall down Fortunately, when Johnsywas about to die, Behrman, an old man who was also an artist and lived in theapartment below Sue and Johnsy, saved her life It turned out that Mr Berman used aladder to paint an ivy leaf on the brick wall when the last leaf fell down, which led tohis death of pneumonia Thanks to Berman's sacrifice, Johnsy could recover andcontinued 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 stepstelling 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

The three stories are regarded as typical works by O Henry andcontribute their values to make the author’s reputation and to assert his talent

*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, andcramped 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

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 andshortage 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 preciouspossessions: Jim’s gold watch taken over from his grandfather and his dad and Della’shair 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 thethings had no material value at all but their spiritual one shown through simile devicewith mocking meaning O Henry did not use any adjectives to show off their value butabsolutely 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 buyingsomething for each other, James and Della arrived at a tough decision to sell theirpossessions, 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

could earn money for his living and hire a flat at eight dollars per week; while Leeson