Kết cấu truyện ngắn của o henry tt tiếng anh

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES LE THI THANH TAM STRUCTURE OF SHORT STORIES BY O.HENRY Major: Foreign literature Code: 22 02 45 SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS IN LITERATURE HANOI, 2020 The work was completed at GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES Scientific Supervisor: Prof Dr Le Huy Bac Dr Dao Thi Thu Hang Reviewer 1: Assoc Prof Dr Do Hai Phong Reviewer 2: Assoc Prof Dr Do Thu Ha Reviewer 3: Assoc Prof Dr Do Lai Thuy The dissertation will be defended before the thesis review council of the Academy at the Graduate Academy of Social Sciences at hour minute, day month year The thesis can be found at: - National Library of Vietnam - Library of Graduate Academy of Social Sciences INTRODUCTION The necessity of the subject Along with Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bret Harte, O Henry (pseudonym of William Sidney Porter) is considered one of the four leading writers of US short stories Especially, O.Henry’s short stories are evaluated by researchers to reach the exemplary criteria of the genre from which many writers later inherited and created new features based on the essence of his short stories The conflicting emotions of the years of life with unfortunate childhood, adulthood with adventure experiences across many parts of the United States and an unlucky marriage are considered strong catalysts which strongly created the short stories imbued with the human spirit In addition, narrative genre structure, especially short story structure, is always the foundation for the writer's success Structure is not only about the art of organizing, arranging events, incidents, character lines, narrators, etc… in the surface of the text, but more importantly in the art of building messages and human life issues which are below and behind the text The structure of a short story is a meaningful sign that the communication and decoding of it always needs other considerations of the readers about the cultural context that makes up the text The specialty of O.Henry's short stories is mainly in the art of structural organization In Vietnam, however, current research on structural issues in O.Henry's short stories are just only studies of small problem such as unexpected endings or case studies of some specific short stories Those are the reasons why we chose the topic "Structure of short stories by O.Henry" The purpose and task of the thesis Finding out the peculiarities in the art of O.Henry short stories structure; Explaining the origin of the unique art world in O.Henry's short stories; Identifying similarities and differences from O.Henry short stories structure compared to other authors and indicate the style of O.Henry short stories Object and scope of the research 3.1 Object of the research: The research object of the thesis is the structure in O.Henry's short stories expressed in the following aspects: narrative structure through narrators; Spatial and the unexpected ending structure 3.2 Scope of the research: Short stories are selected in O.Henry short stories (by various translators), Van hoc Publishing House, Hanoi, 2012 and his other short stories In addition, the thesis expands the scope of examining short stories of some other authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway Research methodology: Method of structure - system; Methods of analysis - synthesis; Comparative method (synchrony and diachrony); Interdisciplinary method New contributions of the thesis Identifying the prominent features of O.Henry short stories structure, and explain the origins and cultural foundations of the writer's unique short story style; Affirming the masterful style of narrative as well as the humane value of this talented writer; Acknowledging the writer's contributions to the movement of short stories from classical to modern and post-modern Theoretical and practical significances of the thesis Adding other approaches to the O.Henry short stories in addition to biographical and sociological criticism, the subject can be used as research materials, teaching literary theory and Foreign literature in the school The structure of the thesis In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion and Bibliography, the thesis consists of chapters: Chapter 1: Research overview Chapter 2: Narrator and narrative tone in O.Henry's short stories Chapter 3: Spatial structure in O.Henry's short stories Chapter 4: The structure of unexpectedly plot ending in O.Henry's short stories Chapter RESEARCH OVERVIEW 1.1 Overall research on O.Henry’s life and career 1.1.1 In the world Most of the researchers who have approached his short stories from a biographical critique can include typical studies such The Sewanee Review, (O.Henry; Author(s): Hyder E Rollins; Source: The Sewanee Review); The South in the Building of the Nation The Library of Southern Literature; “O.Henry's Case Reconsidered" by Luther W Courtney [American Literature, Vol 14, No (Jan., 1943)] [American Literature, Vol 14, No (Jan., 1943)] O.Henry's Life and Position in The Sewanee Review,… These studies mainly focus on studying O.Henry’s short stories from the perspective of biographical criticism and mentioning the main features of O.Henry short stories such as the theme of the poor, the workers, the humor in the narratives 1.1.2 In Vietnam Le Dinh Cuc, Dang Anh Dao, Le Huy Bac, are the early researchers on biography, literary style of O Henry and the role of that biography in the writer's career In the treatise on The History of American Literature, the authors dedicated a chapter to O.Henry about his biography and writing career Most researchers in the world and in Vietnam have meticulously and elaborately researched the life and career of O.Henry In-depth studies from this point of view can evoke reference points to some of the issues in the O.Henry short stories of our thesis 1.2 Research on the art of short stories by O.Henry 1.2.1 In the world Although considered the pioneer writer of modern American literature, studies of the characteristic of O.Henry's short stories usually focus on his literary contact area with the latter half of the 19th century literary period with typical representatives such as William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, Henry James Considering the linguistic structure and narrative tone of O.Henry's short stories, author L W Payne in the essay "The Humor of O.Henry" asserts that if there is a single feature by O Henry that made him stand out to the American public more than anyone else, it was the sense of humor that covered the entire work which we found in his stories Sharing the appreciation for artistic value in O.Henry's writing, especially in terms of language and structure, Encyclopedia of American Literature: 1607 – to the Present in the section on O Henry, the author commented: “The most famous stories are regularly the selection includes The Gift of the Magi, The Skylight Room and The Voice of the City, all of which exemplify O.Henry's short stories feature.” 1.2.2 In Vietnam Some of the typical studies written on O Henry in: Analysis, commentary on foreign literary works (at junior high schools), Le Nguyen Can; Le Huy Bac’s The History of American Literature, published in 2010; Le Dinh Cuc’s American literature - a few issues about the author, published in 2001; Nguyen Duc Dan’s The Journey of American Literature These works relate to the artistic features of the O.Henry short stories focusing on aspects such as the character world, the art of organizing perspectives, realistic values, words, themes and especially, the art of creating an unexpected ending 1.3 Research on the structure of O Henry’s short stories In the monograph O.Henry: A Study of the Short Fiction, Eugene Current-Garcia presented a survey comparing critical attitudes and evaluations of O Henry’s short fiction stories from 1908 until the 1920s and 1930s, and lasted for several decades In History of American Literature since 1870, Fred Lewis Pattee mentioned O.Henry three times with respectful opinion In the article O.Henry’s Life and Position, published in The Sewanee Review, Vol 25, No (April, 1917), John Beaty emphasized that since 1916, “O.Henry has surpassed the limits and scope of a writer belonging to a sole country by becoming the best-selling author in the UK.” Deming Brown in the article O.Henry in Russia published in The Russian Review, No (Oct., 1953) summarized the whole beloved O.Henry phenomenon in Russia for the reasons: simple narrative, humor and deep humanity 1.4 About the concept of "structure" and the structure of short stories 1.4.1 The concept of "structure": Through the glossary of dictionaries and research works, we define: Structure is the arrangement, organization, connection of detailed events, images of literary texts to form the whole Structure is not only an element created by a writer's artistic talent but also established through the interpretation of structural symbols in the reader’s text-decoding process 1.4.2 Structure in the short story In his work Literary Theory, researcher Tran Dinh Su said: “The plot of short stories may be outstanding and attractive, but its function is generally to recognize something The main point of the short story is “to make a deep impression on human life and love,” and the structure of the short story is usually “the contrasts, associations.” The structure of short stories through different literary paradigms has shown their thinking about the reality of life, their very aesthetic In this sense, the structure has participated in the journey of genre innovation in particular and literary innovation in general In general, through the study of short stories of O.Henry in English and Vietnamese, however the limited accessibility, we found that the study of O.Henry in Vietnam and the world is not really abundant Many works have mentioned specific structures in O.Henry short stories such as: unexpected ending, dramatic structure, character structure, but there has been no direct research on the general structure in short stories of O.Henry These studies, whether preliminary or in-depth, are also important directions for us to acquire and develop the thesis Chapter NARRATOR AND NARRATIVE TONE IN O.HENRY’S SHORT STORIES 2.1 Narrator and perspective in narrative work 2.1.1 The role of the narrator in story structure Narrator is an important category in narrative structure of the text It is considered a terminology that guides readers into the artistic world of the work Narrator always take on a key and important role, associated with the introduction, lead the story and control the story situations as well as how to open and close the story 2.1.2 The relationship between the narrator and the narrative perspective in the narrative structure of the text Tran Dinh Su considered that the perspective was the position and status of the narrator used to observe and tell the story It links authors, narrators, audiences, actual readers into one system According to Lotman: "there is rarely a factor directly related to the construction of the world picture as an art perspective" and thus "the perspective will become a recognizable element of the art structure upon its ability to change within the narrative.” It can be said that the perspective is the center of narrative It is one of the key issues of structure, not a purely formal perspective, but it bears the writer's ideas, conceptions and stances The art of narrative is essentially the art of organizing perspective 2.2 Narrator with narrative perspective in O.Henry's short stories 2.2.1 First-person narrator with an inner perspective O.Henry's short stories are less likely to feature first-person narrators than the number of works with third-person narrators The first-person narrator with an inner perspective appearing in stories A Service of Love, Cupid A La Carte, The Skylight Room, An Unfinished Story In these short stories, the author mostly used the first-person narrators who reveal themselves directly in the text The narrator carries an inner perspective, told the story with a limited viewpoint What is special, however, is that these first-person narrators hardly tell about their own experiences, but about the experiences of others Therefore, the above stories have a subjective tone but mixed with an objective tone While the first-person narrator telling stories about himself often makes the reader feel confident, the narrators in the O Henry’s short stories sow a seed of doubt and hesitation into the reader The firstperson narrators of O.Henry often focus on portraying the character with sophisticated, careful observation 2.2.2 The third-person narrator, "know-it-all" with an omniscient perspective in O.Henry's short stories O.Henry has many works organized by third-person narrators with such know-it-all perspective Such as: The Furnished Room, The Last Leaf, The Hiding of Black Bill With the outside perspective, the narrator of O.Henry always moves the viewing angle, sometimes standing from afar The third-person narrator of O.Henry's short stories often opens the story directly, with little or no ramble Besides the know-it-all third-person narrators carrying the omniscient perspective of God, there are also notable points about this type of narrator in O.Henry's stories that are innovative and flexible in terms of narrative techniques The image of third-person narratives sometimes speaks directly with comments and descriptions, thesis-like sentences We can find many such thesis in the short stories of O.Henry such as: Mammon and the Archer; The Gift of the Magi; The Roads We Take Sometimes the know-it-all third-person narrator are telling other narrators, also hiding their faces, so the authority of this third-person narrator from the omniscient perspective tends to narrow and depend on other third-party narrators in the text 2.2.3 Intertwining of the narrator with the perspective complex in O.Henry's short stories The narrative point of view of O Henry's short stories is always mobile, creating a multi-dimensional, attractive look Besides texts with first-person narrators and pure third-person narrators, O.Henry short stories also feature a number of short stories intertwining narrators with perspective complex His literature is not as decentralized as the narrator in postmodern literature, but has begun to appear in a narrative mode that did not frequently occur before, which is multi-subjective narrative O.Henry has not proposed a fragmented and chaotic world, but through those unified storylines, the reader still sees the multifacetedness of life through precarious, floating, the small and unfortunate destiny in American society In particular, multi-narrators narrative have brought to his short stories the integration of modern spirit in theirs happy endings As such, the interplay between non-level narrators causes the narrator's perspective to move from the narrator's point of view to the character's point of view, from one character to other character The obscure fragments of character's fate are expressed in a profoundly subtle way Multi-narrators narrative create the phenomenon of perspective, diversifying the tone for the style of short stories of O Henry Wind, The Skylight Room The confiding, whispering tone is the incarnation of the narratorauthor into the narrator in the text This reincarnation brought words of confession, the sharing of which originated them is the life of pain and unhappiness, loneliness and fear of O.Henry Conclusion: As such, the narrators in O.Henry's short stories are diverse Foremost, it is the appearance of the first-person narrator with an inner perspective Next came the appearance of the third-person narrator A special feature of the narrator is the intertwining of many narrators in the non-level narrative mode associated with the perspective complex that made a unique impression in the short stories of O.Henry With a tone of philosophy and satirical humor, sometimes whispering confidently, pitying by the narrator, O.Henry's work is a polyphonic, energetic chorus Chapter SPATIAL STRUCTURE IN O.HENRY’S SHORT STORIES 3.1 Structure of artistic space in the story structure 3.1.1 The role of artistic space in story structure I.U Lotman, a well-known scholar of structuralism, said: “What kind of interest in the artistic space issue is the result of the notions of viewing a work of art as a somewhat limited space, a finite space reflected within an infinite object is the world outside the work.” In a model of the world, symbolized in artistic texts, space must sometimes be expressed in metaphorical forms of moral, cultural, social, religious relationships (non-spatial relationships) of a realistic world model In other words, by the spatial structure in literature, the author compels the reader to relate to the context of historical times and its imprints are encoded in artistic symbols The artistic space conveys in it the operation of an era on the cultural, historical, political and ethical levels 11 3.1.2 Characteristics of artistic space in the story structure Artistic space has many different forms of existence We can mention the point space/linear space, flat space/stereoscopic space, closed space/open space, non-moving/static space, near/far space… Artistic space brings culture, religion, politics and moral relationships into literature Thanks to this permeability, the link between non-art in the text and the system of external cultural signs becomes tight and intimate Therefore, different types of culture have different narrative space characteristics, so we can talk about the different types of narrative space of the era - history and ethnicity With its continuity, demarcation and modeling, the artistic space is a place where ideological values, moral conceptions, the foundation of social philosophy are overlapped and merged, and a way to realistic thinking 3.2 Urban space in O.Henry's short stories 3.2.1 The space of a dark, cramped room The form of cramped, dark spaces haunted the reader in the way O Henry described them in meticulous detail in his short stories The closed room space is clearly shown in the stories: The Skylight Room, The Furnished Room, An Unfinished Story Obviously in the description of the room space of O.Henry is the closed nature This is a limited type of space This space is often associated with closed, deadlocked characters If the outdoor space is characterized by open space, movement, linearity, the furnished room and the skylight room are interrupted and isolated It is in these small rooms how many cramped lives have struggled and withered Space is bounded from all sides, the boundary is completely fixed From the nature, it is stagnant, eliminates movement, eliminates change Besides the closures, the room spaces in O.Henry's short stories are also spaces filled with darkness They are illuminated by light so weak that they can only be "reflected" from worn and ragged furniture, sometimes with light "only a quarter of the light of a candle" Darkness 12 is both a space feature in a closed room and a special literary symbol O.Henry characters entering this form of space always feel stuffy like falling into "deep wells" and "coffins" This is a metaphor of low space, negative space, dead space The enclosed room features a portrait of an individual, a typical person in the typical circumstances of O.Henry’s short stories With those closed rooms, the space is limited by stuffy walls They are also metaphors of stage space, in which the narrator gives the reader the privilege to grasp the psychology and actions of the character Each character is an individual on the stage of life O.Henry short stories are therefore highly dramatized 3.2.2 The space of a sad, gloomy city City space in O.Henry’s short stories has a gloomy, sad appearance These are not cities invisibly tinged with myths like Italo Calvino's style but filled with reality They are clearly expressed through the image of the bustling train stations, brightly lit boulevards, theaters, banks, squares, and parks with smooth lawns City space is described by the writer through the symbols of sound and light It is surrounded by "deserted streets", in the hotel which "weak light passes through the blinds on the upper floor" In contrast to the state of sad and gloomy, these are bustling and vibrant cities An Unfinished Story is about a city full of people during rush hour The owner of the clean and glossy horse-drawn carriage in From the Cabby's Seat is Jerry Naturally, crowded and bustling cities appear very little in O.Henry's short stories (An Unfinished Story, From the Cabby's Seat) with a bit of bright light moving in a descending direction from the wide city space to the cramped rooms, from the brilliant place towards the flickering candles, from the surface of the underground street to the room in the attic If the space of cramped rooms is associated with the stagnation and separation time, the city space is moving from low to high, from wide to 13 narrow, from far to near linear time If closed rooms are a negative, interior space, where characters often fall asleep, city space is associated with everyday activities All of this still reveal a dreary urban space full of loneliness and sadness 3.3 Rural space in the O.Henry’s short stories 3.3.1 The vast prairie in the countryside of America There is another America behind those closed, cramped rooms, tedious, creeping cities in O.Henry's short stories It is a vast United States, full of surprises with images of cowboys wearing wide-brimmed hat riding horses on wild prairie These vast prairies bring a colorful rural space The cattle farms are located on the green pastures Cowboys ride horses across long miles of adventure to the far Western regions of the United States Two friends in the story Hearts and Crosses have roamed on horseback for an entire hour; The Church with an Overshot-Wheel opens a rural space with a atmosphere of painting It is the space described by the writer in Cupid A La Carte, so that, on her lost journey, Mame from a haughty person has become a tender girl accepting Jeff's love, a guy with the bad habit of eating 3.3.2 The daily life of rural people in O.Henry’s short stories The most successful and flourishing period of O Henry is after his time spent in prison and moved to live in New York City Therefore, the number of short stories written in rural areas is quite small compared to those related to urban space The short story depicts the rural space, which is the immerse and free grasslands, wild, remote features of the hills and mountains, with golden sunshine The typical short stories about the West of O.Henry are Hearts and Crosses, The Hiding of Black Bill, The Pimienta Pancakes, Cupid A La Carte have brought readers the vibration about the scenery and people of this land There, readers might come across 14 "tanned cowboys full of pistols, with silk scarves" known as the "king of the prairie, the god of animals": "the sound of hooves breaking the silence of the pasture together with the sound of a flock of goose suddenly taking off The specialties of suburban America also appear in richness In The Pimienta Pancakes, there are freshly harvested fruit stalls such as apricots, pineapples, cherries, white plums, etc… or the picture of the log house lying on a small knoll appearing in Cupid A La Carte They exuded a "sadness and pity", similar to the wooden house in The Church with an Overshot-Wheel These bungalows are traces of nomadic culture 3.3 Space shifting in O.Henry's short stories Putting urban and rural spaces in O.Henry's short stories side by side, we see a shift between these two types of space If the "path" character is often associated with a closed, narrow, dark space, where the character is less sedentary in personality, the "prairie" character type is often associated with large, open spaces, where characters often encounter events, handle events, and change personalities and actions This change creates character types corresponding to different types of space The type of "path" character usually exists in the path space which is inherently oriented and moves in a closed, linear orbit and implies the prohibition of movement to the edge The "prairie" character exists in a non-linear space, a type of space that implies a completely unpredictable movement, full of surprises Conclusion: Thus, artistic space has an important role in the structure of story By studying space symbols in O.Henry's short stories, we found that there are two specific types of spaces: urban and rural spaces In particular, putting urban and rural spaces in O.Henry's short stories side by side, we noticed a shift between these two types of space If the "path" character is often associated with closed, tight, dark spaces, the "prairie" 15 type character is often associated with large, open spaces Especially, the characters in his short stories often move from rural to urban areas, from darkness to light, from small, narrow spaces to large spaces This shift probably stemmed from the perspective of the writer's life Chapter THE STRUCTURE OF UNEXPECTEDLY PLOT ENDING IN O.HENRY’S SHORT STORIES 4.1 The role of the ending element in the narrative structure The ending element of the story plays an important role in the structure of the narrative It not only reflects the artist's thinking in the explanation, interpretation of life, about the cosmic structure model and the operation of the world, but also the land that demonstrates the storytelling skills of each writer From the end element, many cultural, historical and epoch texts have been opened in the symbolic layers of the work 4.2 Unexpectedly plot ending in the structure of O.Henry’s short stories 4.2.1 The element of randomness and surprise in the structure of short stories The role of the element of randomness and surprise in the structure of short stories is extremely big They act as a catalyst to help the writer select, detail, arrange and arrange the components in the structure of the work to create the deep impression and the highest artistic effect In other words, to mention short stories is to mention the small narrative form with plot, story situation and unexpected ending in order to suppress and condense the reader's feelings Perhaps because of that, O.Henry is considered by researchers to be the exemplary short story writer of American literature in particular and the world in general 16 4.2.2 O.Henry with the unexpectedly plot ending The accidental and unexpected appeared in literature very early It is derived from legendary texts It is the element of randomness and surprise that has been generalized by the myths in the canonical types and motifs associated with the folklore cycle story Since then, folk tales have squeezed into the narrative of literature into writing with the shift and continuation of the plot, themes, characters according to the development process of the short story genre Therefore, it is possible to establish the character of the element of randomness and surprise along the length of the historical process of trends, composing methods from classical to modern and post-modern This process helps us position O.Henry's style and artistic style in the flow of American and world literature Firstly, the surprise and randomness in O.Henry's short stories has not yet become the aesthetic philosophy and the principles of interpretation and explanation of the writer about the reality of life It only takes on the role as a push factor to push the plot development and create an unexpected ending Secondly, the element of randomness and surprise has become one of the outstanding features of the structure of O.Henry short stories: At the end of A Chaparral Prince, no one knows that the thieves tomorrow could still be the bandit In The Cop and the Anthem, after returning from prison, the protagonist does not know what life will be like Third, if in modern and postmodern short stories, the element of surprise and randomness is often a sequence of symbols representing broken narratives, chaotic character labyrinths, and disintegrating plots in life essence, the sudden ending element in O.Henry's short stories is based on a unified story that grows linearly Most readers not need to map his story because it is easy to find the main story line The end of O.Henry is mostly closed and in a classic way The character in postmodern literature is often associated with the 17 symbol of the journey to find the intrinsic meaning of life in existential situations and the situations where they have to choose O.Henry's character rarely has to choose, but is almost predetermined by a default ending This can be clearly seen through the short story The Furnished Room Lotman said: “Stories are a powerful tool for comprehending life It is only through the emergence of artistic narratives that people learn how to recognize the narrative aspect of reality.” In such a sense, O.Henry's talent for storytelling with the art of ending the plot unexpectedly with logical arrangement of elements, the writer has shown a diverse view in thinking about people and life His short stories, both have the romance, shimmering of the fairy-like ending, and the nakedness of life which drawn by realistic ecriture 4.3 The unexpected plot ending forms in O.Henry’s short stories 4.3.1 The plot ends unexpectedly with the accumulation of randomness The model of cumulative narrative is derived from the legend to O.Henry still retains the framework of random element accumulation As one of O.Henry's most beloved short stories, The Last Leaf plot is built on the accumulation of random elements in an arithmetic progression model Of course, if folklore's accumulated narratives are tinged with supernatural and mythical tales, O.Henry's short stories are fictionalized in a very realistic way from which, The Last Leaf is forever the most beautiful story of the salvation of art Many short stories of O.Henry have a plot that ends unexpectedly with the accumulation of random elements in an arithmetric progression model, meaning that these random elements are significantly increased during story development This is clearly shown in The Cop and the Anthem With this model of cumulative randomness, O.Henry's short stories "hide and expose quickly" the events of the plot development Readers 18 are swept from one random to the next and then fall into the writer's narrative trap This element of surprise makes O.Henry's short stories always create a strange appeal for readers of many generations 4.3.2 The plot ends unexpectedly with the character's overcoming challenges When studying the Semiosphere and story, Lotman pointed out the variability as a rule of existence of the book symbol structure: "It changes in the whole and often changes its own structure." In the theory of Story diagram, V.Sch Krivonos also pointed to the challenging story feature in relation to the mature story Accordingly, the challenging story is: "a type of story structure that is opposed to the mature story structure: events in which the characters "being tested" and reveal themselves without any connection to theirs personality development and individual formation Those are events – challenges which often happen, or mostly of adventure significance.” Of course, if the dualistic logical thinking of primitive people has interpreted the world as good/evil, noble/vile, above/below, far/near, inside/outside should have formed a challenging motif to multiply adventurous fairy tales that cross the boundaries of these categories, until the later works, its traces still remain very clear The fight between good/evil of Jimmy character proves that he has completely become an honest person, that good has overcome evil The victory of the fate challenging situation is not done by the help of fairy-tale myths but by the human love itself Therefore we know, O.Henry has devoted all of his love and trust to their good qualities It was the pure love, full of pride and trust of the girl that saved him Perhaps because of that, O.Henry's short stories are always hymns of love taken from the depths of the human soul The plot ends unexpectedly with the character's challenge, not by the help of fairy-tale elements but by human love In O.Henry's short stories, a motif that challenges characters is always associated with 19 random elements to push the plot to end unexpectedly Cupid A La Carte, A Retrieved Reformation are the typical short stories of this kind of structure 4.3.3 Unexpected ending with intertextual plot The unexpected ending with the intertextual plot is the superposition of many texts in O Henry's short stories There, the depth of the meaning of the story unfolded on the layer of symbols, archetypes, etc makes his short stories contain unique cultural beauty This is clearly shown in the intertextuality of the plot in the compositions: The Gift of the Magi, A Chaparral Prince, From the Cabby's Seat, The Ransom of Red Chief The Gift of the Magi is also one of the stories with intertextual plot This work is a unique dialogue with the biblical account of the birth of Jesus Conclusion: Thus, the plot ends unexpectedly in O.Henry's short story including three typical types: the plot ends unexpectedly with the accumulation of randomness, the plot ends unexpectedly with the characters overcoming of challenges, and the plot ends unexpectedly in an intertextual combination In particular, random factors play a key role The randomness of O.Henry is not the unreasonable, but the reasonable randomness but expressed naturally in the intention to build the plot It was these characteristics that brought O.Henry's short stories to modern writing and he was considered one of the people who greatly influenced later modern writers CONCLUSION Structure has an important role in studying the structure of artistic text By researching the Structure of short stories by O.Henry, we have added an interdisciplinary approach to the study of this American masterful short story writer We learn the Structure of short stories by O.Henry from these following three main aspects: First of all the narrator structure The narrators of O.Henry's short 20 stories are diverse First, there is the appearance of a narrator in the first person who has an inner point of view This narrator often drags readers into text This form of direct manipulation is not in the complex, open ending, but in the appearance of the reader characters (as in the way “I tell the story to you”) The first-person narrator in O.Henry's stories often does not tell stories about his own experiences but often about other people's experiences The people in O.Henry's writing are rarely psychologically, but mostly still is the classical action man The second is the appearance of the third-person narrator This type of narrators occupies a fairly large place in the short stories of the most exemplary short story author of the United States Although written mainly in the early years of the twentieth century, the short stories of O.Henry still carry the realistic style of classic writers The narrator in his literature always shows his know-it-all knowledge with a wealth of observation, giving readers the feeling the narrator knows all the secret stories, across the alley of the character These short stories only use this know-it-all narrator almost with a simple, concise but attractive storyline by the writer's flexible and always changing ecriture This narrator appears everywhere, is present everywhere, knowing everything and often gives an end to the character's life The narrator in some works is more of a describer than a storyteller, and sometimes he expresses the lyrical thesis directly to endow O.Henry's short stories with the spirit of classical literature, and the author completely believes in the educational value of literature A special feature of the narrator is the intertwining of many narrators in the non-level narrative mode associated with the perspective complex that made a unique impression in the short stories of O.Henry It can be said that, with the multi-narrators narrative which uphold the world inside the character, both has an objective sound when telling about others, and evokes the subjective nature of the narrator, his short stories truly has a polyphonic accent His literature is not yet the 21 decentralization of narrators as in modern and postmodern literature, but has begun to appear in a narrative mode which, before him, was almost nonexistent, which is the multi-subjective narrative O.Henry has not proposed a fragmented and chaotic world, but through those unified storylines, the reader still sees the multifacetedness of life through precarious, floating, the small and unfortunate destiny of American society In particular, multi-narrators narrative hass brought to his short stories the integration of modern spirit in their happy endings The appearance of female character who is full of sacrifice and compassion, honest crooks, ideal police officers appears on his page very vividly.The narrator's perspective slides from the narrator to the character, then from character to character This narrative strategy creates diverse people in the author's view of human life Just like that, the realistic picture was painted by O.Henry with all looks and figures With a tone of philosophy and satirical humor, sometimes whispering confidently, pitying by the narrator, O.Henry's work is a vigorous, polyphonic chorus The philosophical tone brought the short story of O.Henry the breath of daily life at that time, the distorted faces of the times, the upsets of the difference between rich and poor and all that created the realistic quality of American literary short story author in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Humorous tone covers his entire works in stories of pain, humiliation, unhappiness, or brings entertaining laughter It can be said that the origin of this humorous tone is suffering and tragedy, but above all, readers still find humor and intelligence in the art of using telling, descriptive, and even “divergent” language The confiding, whispering tone is the incarnation of the narratorauthor into the narrator in the text This reincarnation brought words of confession, the sharing of which originated them is the life of pain and unhappiness, loneliness and fear of O.Henry That adventurous life reflected on O.Henry's short stories the authenticity, and the deep empathy of the precarious, small people in American society at that time 22 Artistic spatial structure plays an important role in O.Henry's short stories We have found that there are two specific types of space: urban and rural spatial-temporal space If the urban space is made up of cramped and dark rooms, next to the depressing sad city, with a little light, the rural space will be opened with vast prairies, wandering cowboys, distant mountains blend in the golden sunlight In particular, the movement between urban and rural spaces in O.Henry's short stories is one of the characteristics of the art of spatialtemporal structure The "path" character is often associated with a closed, narrow, dark space, where the character is less sedentary in personality, the "prairie" character type is often associated with large, open spaces, where characters often encounter events, handle events, and change personalities and actions This change creates character types corresponding to different types of space The type of "path" character usually exists in the path space which is inherently oriented and moves in a closed, linear orbit and implies the prohibition of movement to the edge The "prairie" character exists in a non-linear space, a type of space that implies a completely unpredictable movement, full of surprises It can be said that O.Henry's short stories are unique with the unexpected plot structure The author has flexibly used random elements to skillfully handle the plot in a small narrative genre model With brief, concise capacity, his unexpected ending plot fully embodies the classic short story formula with five parts: presentation, knotting, development, climax and unfolding In particular, the random element has contributed to pent up the reader's emotions, creating unique and attractive endings The unexpectedly plot ending in O.Henry's short stories including three typical types: the plot ends unexpectedly with the accumulation of randomness, the plot ends unexpectedly with the character's overcoming of the challenges, and the plot ends unexpectedly in an intertextual 23 combination In particular, the model of cumulative narrative originated from the legend to O Henry retains the framework of the random element accumulation Of course, if folklore's accumulated tales are supernatural and mythical, O.Henry's short stories are fictionalized in a very realistic way The plot ends unexpectedly with the character's challenge, not by the help of fairy-tale myths but by human love The unexpected ending with the intertextual plot is the superposition of many texts in O.Henry's short stories There, the depth of the meaning of the story unfolded on the layer of symbols, archetypes, etc makes his short stories contain unique cultural beauty The randomness of O.Henry is not the illogical coincidence, but the resonable randomness but expressed naturally in the intention to build the plot His short story proposes an idea of reality that implies possible surprises So reality does not only include what happened, is happening, but also what is likely to happen In other words, they contain human possibilities, what people can become, that is, life always includes possibilities This has brought O.Henry's short stories to the modern ecriture Within a thesis, we still not have the sufficient conditions to study and compare the influence of O.Henry short stories on a number of other short stories before and after O.Henry This interdisciplinary research direction will be a fertile ground that will challenge researchers in the future 24 LIST OF SCIENTIFIC WORKS RELATED TO THE THESIS Article: The surprise in O Henry’s short stories, published in Scientific Journal of Hanoi University of Education, No 2, 2016 Article: The narrative tone in O.Henry's short stories, published in Journal of Lexicography and Encyclopedia, No 3, May 2019 Article: Urban space in O.Henry’s short stories, published in Scientific Journal of Hanoi University of Education, No 5, 2019 Article: Narrator in O Henry's short stories, published in Event Records journal, No 414, 2020 Article: The story ending in O Henry's "The Last Leaf", published in Literature Studies, No 3, 2020 ... fictionalized, through which, conveys to readers his concerns about life, about the condition of the poor, about the value of time, money, love 2.4.2 Humorous tone The art of witty and humorous... story of Mammon and the Archer, some philosophies about the power of money are expressed through the humorous tone of the narrator The humor lies in comparing the power of money with the smoothness... crooks, O Henry looked at people from the depths of their souls to see trails of light still lingering in the hearts of love 2.4 Narrative tone in O. Henry? ??s short stories 2.4.1 Philosophical tone