Watch our new presentation about O. Henry and typical features of his works.

1. O. Henry
Stylistic Devices
Prepared by Alexandr Kapustkin
And Olia Voronchagina
4th year, Groups 2 & 3

2. In his works O. Henry shows America
in the beginning of the XX century. He
depicts different levels of population,
different types and characters. With the
help of satire and humour he exposes
some important problems of American
reality.

3. O. Henry’s language is rather simple but
the complex usage of stylistic devices
helps him to create additional emotion
colouring.

4. A lot of American critics say that pun
quoting is one of the constant stylistic
devices, used by O. Henry. He quotes
Shakespeare, Spencer, and others
changing the meaning of their words to
distort the meaning of the text.

5. O. Henry was a pharmacist and a
journalist and it had helped him to use
different styles in his novels.

6. Lexical structure of O. Henry’s novels
includes common literary,
conversational and low colloquial
expressions and slang. It helps a reader
to understand the characters properly.
to be about to die — умирать,
a crack on a head — давать
затрещину,
nix cum rous — с боку
припека,
to blow in one's money—
продувать деньги,
to snap one's fingers— показать
кукиш

7. Also the usage of bookish words in
contrast to colloquial ones creates the
stylistic function of influence within the
text.
And I think your partner, Mr.
Tucker, goes on Bill, is also a man
of sufficient ingratiation and
connected system of mental
delinquency to assist you in
securing the appointment. — Мне
сдается, что и твой компаньон,
мистер Таккер, тоже человек
мозговитый и может оказать
тебе содействие

8. The special emotional colouring is
achieved by using idioms and
comparative units. On the lexical level
metaphors, metonymies, similes,
epithets help to extend semantic field of
the words.

9. Metaphors:
a disturber of the piano keys —
возмутитель фортепьянных
клавиш,
demon rum — виски,
great Cotham — великий Гот-хэм,
It didn't exactly beggar description,
but it certainly had that word on the
look-out for the mendicancy squad.
— В обстановке не то чтобы
вопиющая нищета, но, скорее,
красноречиво молчащая
бедность

10. Comparisons:
On Broadway, Raggles, successful
suitor of many cities, stood bashful,
like any country swain. — На
Бродвее Рэглз, обольститель
многих городов, засмущался, как
деревенский увалень;
Even in the shadowed hansom her
eyes shone like stars at night. —
Даже в полутемном кебе глаза ее
сияли, как звезды в сумерках

11. Epithets:
But this grim, abject, specious,
subservient, burr-like wreck of a
man would not be shaken off — Но
стряхнуть этот фамильярный,
подобострастный, упорный,
несчастный репейник в
человеческом образе было не
так-то легко,
Silent, grim,colossal, the big city
has ever stood against its revilers.
— Молчаливый, мрачный,
громадный город всегда стойко
выдерживал нападки своих
хулителей

12. Personifications:
They call it (New York) hard as iron; they say that no pulse
of pity beats in its bosom... — Они говорят, что он
холоден, как железо, говорят, что жалостливое сердце
не бьется в его груди; A royal and generous lady this
Pittsburg, though—homely, hearty, with flushed face,
washing the dishes in a silk dress and white slippers, and
bidding Raggles sit before the roaring fireplace and drink
champagne with his pig's feet andfried potatoes. —
Шикарная, величественная леди, эта Питтсбург, и в то
же время такая непритязательная
простушка;раскрасневшись, моет посуду в своем
шелковом платье и нарядных белых туфельках,
приглашает Рэгл-за подсесть к камельку и запить
шампанским поросячьи ножки с жареным
картофелем.

13. Such stylistic devices as antithesis and
hyperbole enrich the author’s language,
archaisms and historicisms underlines
the historical colouring.

14. Syntactic peculiarities play an important
role in creating of the expression of the
writer’s works. Repetitions help the
reader to focus on some important
detail; conversions and hortatory
sentences create an illusion of direct
communication; gradation contributes to
the increasing of the pragmatic potential
of the short stories.

15. Compound sentences creates narrative
nature of the short stories.
Thus vocabulary and syntaxes of O.
Henry’s short stories helps to
understand the author’s outlook.

16. The individual style of O. Henry is
based on his talent to use different
stylistic devices. Irony is always a part
of O. Henry’s works as well as paradox.