Analysis of Social Criticism in O. Henry’s Short Stories

DOI

10.2991/icemct-16.2016.121How to use a DOI?

Keywords

O. Henry; social criticism; The Cop and the Anthem; The Gift of the Magi

Abstract

O. Henry is universally acknowledged as a modern American master of short story. In most of his short stories, he succeeds in presenting the social reality of America in the early twentieth century. Through the truthful description of the society of his time, he strongly conveys sharp criticism and satire towards the government, the American state apparatus, the economic and social system in that society. The Cop and the Anthem and The Gift of the Magi, belonging to the same category with the description of the same kind of people from the low social and economic class, can serve as a mirror of the social reality of that time. This essay attempts to expose the social criticism in the two stories by analyzing the plots and the characters. It aims to disclose the corruption of the state apparatus and the miserable life of the low class, so that it can help readers to acquire better knowledge of that society in America and the failures and unfairness in the development of capitalism, as well as the miserable living conditions of the poor people caused by the failures and the unfairness.

Copyright

© 2016, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ling Luo
PY  - 2016/04
DA  - 2016/04
TI  - Analysis of Social Criticism in O. Henry’s Short Stories
BT  - Proceedings of the 2016 International Conference on Education, Management and Computing Technology (ICEMCT-16)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 565
EP  - 568
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/icemct-16.2016.121
DO  - 10.2991/icemct-16.2016.121
ID  - Luo2016/04
ER  -