A Brief Stylistic Analysis of The Cop and the Anthem Written by O. Henry

張秋婷

【Abstract】O. Henry owns a particular style in short story writing. With the example of The Cop and the Anthem， this paper is aimed at analyzing the stylistic features from the perspective of lexical， syntactic and semantic in order to have a better understanding of O.Henrys writing style.

【Key words】O.Henry； lexical； syntactic； semantic

1. Introduction

Literary stylistics， whose research subjects are language style and stylistic features， concerns much with the techniques of language use in literature （Liu 194）. With the help of stylistic analysis， readers can better appreciate literature works. O. Henry is a great author during the early 20th century. Through the stylistic analysis of his representative work The Cop and the Anthem， we can further comprehend his writing style.

2. At the Lexical Level

The use of words by the author is a reflection of the authors family and education background. As O. Henry comes from a poor family and is forced to drop out of high school， he sees the life of people living in the bottom of society and his works tend to reflect their life. In order to comply with the education level of those people， O. Henry uses simple words which are short and not so literary. Such as “a dead leaf fell in Soapy's lap”， “paid no attention” and “cars and pedestrians were few” in the The Cop and The Anthem. However， some formal words like “cognizant” and “soporific” are also used to create a contrast effect and reflect O.Henrys humorous style.

3. At the Syntactic Level

The words show the artistry of language while sentence structure make readers create different feelings to better understand the authors goal. O. Henry displays the miserable life of less-educated poor people by using simple sentences.

3.1 Sentence Type

In The Cop and the Anthem， O. Henry utilizes many short sentences as a reflection of low education level of people like Soapy who usually uses simple and short expressions and sentences.

（1）“A dead leaf fell in Soapy's lap. That was Jack Frost's card.”

（2）“There were many easy ways of doing this. ”

3.2 Omission in Conversations

For the conciseness of the conversations and in order to be more similar to the daily conversations in the real life. Omission in conversations is not rarely seen.

（1）“Then come along，” said the policeman.

（2）“Three months on the Island，”

3.3 The Use of Short Parenthesis

Short parenthesis is often employed to give detailed description. We can discover in The Cop and the Anthem that O. Henry has a good command of short expressions. He puts parenthesis in the sentences to give more details to the readers. And these short expressions are more apprehensible than long and complex modifiers.

（1）“Soapy stood still， with his hands in his pockets， and smiled...”

（2）“…said Soapy， not without sarcasm， but friendly， as one greets good fortune.”

4. At the Semantic Level

4.1 Figures of Speech.

Mainly six kinds of figures of speech are skillfully used in The Cop and the Anthem. They sufficiently elucidate the O.Henrys language diversity and artistry.

（1） Simile： “‘No cop for you， said the waiter， with a voice like butter cakes and an eye like the cherry in a Manhattan cocktail.”

（2） Metaphor： “Soapy's mind became cognizant…resolve himself into a singular Committee of Ways and Means to provide against the coming rigour.”

（3） Personification： “That was Jack Frost's card.”

（4） Metonymy： “…having decided to go to the Island…”， “…hospitable Blackwell's had been his winter quarters.”， “…smiled at the sight of brass buttons…”

（5） Irony： “For years the hospitable Blackwell's had been his winter quarters.”

（6） Anaphora： “When wild geese…， and when women…， and when Soapy moves uneasily on his bench in the park...”

4.2 Cohesive Devices

“Strong and ready hands turned him about and conveyed him in silence and haste to the sidewalk and averted the ignoble fate of the menaced mallard.”

Cohesive devices are for coherence and unity. By successively using four “and” in the sentence， O.Henry makes the detailed actions a continuum and achieves the goal of unity.

5. Conclusion

Through the brief analysis of The Cop and the Anthem， we are able to conclude many stylistic features from the perspective of lexical， syntactic and semantic. Such analysis can help us obtain more inspiration of O.Henrys humorous writing style so as to deepen our reading of O.Henrys works in the future.

References：

[1]劉世生.文學文體學：理論與方法[J].外語教學與研究，2002，34 （3）：194-97.

[2]歐亨利.王永年譯.歐亨利短篇小說選[M].北京：外語教學與研究出版社，2013.