O Henry was a very famous short story writer back in the 18-1900’s. His stories were known for the surprise endings. Recently I was assigned an unusual but very interesting assignment in my English class: to take a look at 2 of his short stories ‘The Gift Of The Magi’, and ‘The Last Leaf’, and do a compare and contrast essay also using 3 literary devices. Professor taught us to be very careful with how you write this essay, so after spending hours reading the short stories over, I’ve come up with 3 literary devices that I can use to compare and contrast the stories. The major literary devices I have recognized are imagery, personification, and irony.
Imagery played a huge part in both stories. A lot of details were used to create sensory …show more content…
In The Gift Of The Magi, O Henry sate that “the next two hours seemed to fly” (3) is an exemplar of personification. The writer clearly compares how fast time passes in reality to flying. In other words, Instead of saying time passed quickly, he says the time flew. That was one of the main ones that stood out to me because even in reality, people tend to use that phrase. In The Last Leaf, there is a lot of personification but one of the main one is “Mr Pneumonia was not a nice old gentleman” (2). The author used the disease Pneumonia to compare to the old man that was walking around town. (Mr.Behrman). Pneumonia is a serious kind of disease may become the cause of death. Johnsy falls ill due to the prey of pneumonia. And it’s also ironic because Behrman dies of it. All inclusive, personification is one of the most important literary devices that is used in both stories because it’s a way to describe inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities. If there was no such thing as personification stories would be boring and wouldn’t have …show more content…
O. Henry uses situational irony to create tension and surprise at an unexpected ending. He’s known to have twist endings in his stories. The contradiction between what the reader expects and what really happens at the close of the story is situational irony. In the Gift Of The Magi, an example is when Jim comes home from work and sees Della’s short hair. The fact that he purchased hair combs for Della shows that he did not expect her to sell her hair. It’s also ironic because Della wanted the comb but did not expect them as a gift. Following that, another strong example of situational irony is when Della gives Jim the watch chain not knowing he had sold his watch to buy her the comb. “Let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at
Imagery played a huge part in both stories. A lot of details were used to create sensory …show more content…
In The Gift Of The Magi, O Henry sate that “the next two hours seemed to fly” (3) is an exemplar of personification. The writer clearly compares how fast time passes in reality to flying. In other words, Instead of saying time passed quickly, he says the time flew. That was one of the main ones that stood out to me because even in reality, people tend to use that phrase. In The Last Leaf, there is a lot of personification but one of the main one is “Mr Pneumonia was not a nice old gentleman” (2). The author used the disease Pneumonia to compare to the old man that was walking around town. (Mr.Behrman). Pneumonia is a serious kind of disease may become the cause of death. Johnsy falls ill due to the prey of pneumonia. And it’s also ironic because Behrman dies of it. All inclusive, personification is one of the most important literary devices that is used in both stories because it’s a way to describe inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or abilities. If there was no such thing as personification stories would be boring and wouldn’t have …show more content…
O. Henry uses situational irony to create tension and surprise at an unexpected ending. He’s known to have twist endings in his stories. The contradiction between what the reader expects and what really happens at the close of the story is situational irony. In the Gift Of The Magi, an example is when Jim comes home from work and sees Della’s short hair. The fact that he purchased hair combs for Della shows that he did not expect her to sell her hair. It’s also ironic because Della wanted the comb but did not expect them as a gift. Following that, another strong example of situational irony is when Della gives Jim the watch chain not knowing he had sold his watch to buy her the comb. “Let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at