Black humor in O. Henrys novels.docVIP

Black humor in O. Henrys novels 　　Abstract：Black humor is a kind of literary style rose in American and O. Henrys novels used it to express the satire to society and show the sympathy to the lower class. The most typical works contain black humor two are The Cop and the Anthem and The Gift of the Magi. By using black humor， he created his unique endings. This article is trying to analysis the use of black humor in his novels and the effect. 　　Key words：Black humor；O. Henry；Novel 　　中图分类号：G648 文献标识码：B 文章编号：1672-1578（2013）07-0001-01 　　1.Brief introduction to O. Henry 　　O. Henry is a famous American writer. He is the top three of short novel writings. He did a lot of jobs for example； he was pharmacist， librarian and Tracer. There were another time he worked in bank but was put into prison then. He is famous for his twister ending of the novels. He belongs to the period of American realism and many of his stories tell about the lives of poor people in Now York， as well as in other places. His stories are usually short. The plots are exceedingly clever and interesting； humor abounds， and the end is always surprising. 　　It is his serious intention to expose and criticize the poverty， injustice and hypocrisy. He made his novels the instruments of morality and justice. He is very different from Thackeray who also attacks the darkness of the society. Thackeray satirized the society by describing the whole aristocracy. He believed that human born with evil and even the whole society would go down. O. Henry wrote people who live a miserable life but finally they were not in hopeless situation. 　　2.The background of the society O. Henry lived. 　　O. Henry lived in the society which just recovered from wars and people all held money worships. America was a country which poor people live a real miserable life while rich people live a luxurious life. There is a sharp contrast between these two sides of the society. The lower class has no power and they can not decide their