The cop and the anthem鉴赏

ⅠAbout the author

O.henry originally named William Sydney Porter, who is one of famous short-story writer in America. His short, simple stories are noted for their careful plotting, ironic coincidences, and surprise endings. So some critist may think his stories as shallow and contrived,but in my opinion nothing can be perfect and his disadvantage also become his advantage.he did catch the color and movement of the city and show his gift in describing the genuine psychology of ordinary people,especially the poor ones.

ⅡSummery of the work

The cop and the anthem is a very simple but funny story. The main character is called Soapy, who is a homeless men and also a member of the substantial army of underclass men and women who had flocked to New Y ork City during the earliest years of the twentieth century. The time is located at a late fall. It is becomimg more and more cold for a homeless person, so Soapy plans to go to jail for a shelter by doing something bad. He therefore develops a series of tactics intended to encourage the police to classify him as a criminal and arrest him. In fact, this plan itself is very funny, but the more funny thing is- however he do some bad things that the cop do not care about him and find logical reasons for his bad doing. At last,the most funny thing is when he gives up creat crimes and wants to become a good person, the cop put him into jail for no logical reason! What a surprise ending!

ⅢFeatures of the work

There are four main feature of this work, which is ironic coincidences, black homor language, and full of contrast, and short surprising ending.

The short story is full of ironic coincidences, which is mainly reflected at the series of trategies to catch the cop’s attention. At first, he tried to go have dinner and not pay. The upper c lass restaurant looks down upon him and refuse to serve him. A waiter threw him out. Then he threw a brick through a window. Officer didn’t believe he did it because he didn’t run away. Then he ate dinner at a cheap restaurant and said he couldn’t pay. The waiter just called some guys trow him out rather than called the police! He tried to hit a young woman of a modest and pleasing guise,but she didn’t call for the cops because she was a prostitute.The fifth time he acted drunk but the cop thought he was a college student celebrating a win in a football game. Then he tried to steal another man's umbrella. But the victim of the umbrella theft relinquishes the item without a struggle.

Because it is also not his umbrella. At last, he passed by a church and heard the Sabbath anthem. He was touched by the anthem and decided to be a good person. But the cop put him into jeil because the cop didn’t believe Soapy have any relation to the church.

In the text,the writer used a series of coincidences to show the social situation of America. The victims were just the people who harbourd evil intensions. Both the upper class restarant and the under class restaurant chose to punish Soapy in a rude privite way. Soapy broke the shop window but was not arrested just because he standed still,and then the cop ran after a innocent passenger who was running to catch a car. All of these promoted the developing of the plot. At the same time, these coincidences showed the real social situation in a indirect way,the situation was: the gilded and perfumed but inwardly rotten nobility,the weak are the prey of the strong,confusing right and wrong, law were the servant of the upper class.

The story was full of profound contrast. In the text, there are the description of the environment: “glittering cafe, where are gathered together nightly the choicest products of the grape, the silkworm and the protoplasm,”“electric lights and cunningly displayed wares behind plate-glass made a shop window conspicuous,” “district where by night are foun d the lightest streets, hearts, vows and librettos,” “Women in furs and men in greatcoats moved gaily in the wintry air.” These description showed the luxurious life of the ruling class and made a sharp contrast to the under class people, such as Soapy, who possessed almostly nothing. For Soapy, the prison was a best refuge for him to avoid cold and starvation. By contrasting their needs, we can see the real society in that days: huge gap between the rich and poor.

Another contrast is the cops’attitude to d ifferent people, which means the attitude to the rich and poor. When Soapy pretended to be a priest to distorb public order, the cop chose to fogive and cover up Soapy’guilt. When Coapy pretended to be the men who was whoring, the cop turned a blind eye to him. When the rich women turned up, “the policeman hurried to assist a tall blonde in an opera cloak across the street in front of a street car that was approaching two blocks away.” However, the situation become the opposite. When Soapy was thrown out of the restaurant rudely by the waiters, “a policeman who stood before a drug store two doors away laughed and walked down the street.” When Soapy was touched by the anthem and desired to be a good man in future, the cop didn’t believed him and thrown him in to prison for three months. These doing of the cops made a profound contrast and revealed the real social condition: bully the weak and fear the strong.

The story is full of black humor, which is obviously reflected in the attitude to the prison for Soapy. In the text, there were the description of the attitude to the prison, which were “f or years the hospitable Blackwell's had been his winter quarters”, “t hree months of assured board and bed and congenial company, safe from Boreas and bluecoats, seemed to Soapy the essence of things desirable” , “i t seemed that his route to the coveted island was not to be an epicurean one. Some other way of entering limbo must be thought of ”, “would leave him filled and happy for the journey to his winter refuge”, “arrest seemed but a rosy dream”, “the Island seemed very far away ,that would insure his winter quarters on the right little, tight little isle”, “the persecuted young woman had but to beckon a finger and Soapy would be practically en route for his insular haven” , “in his fancy the Island seemed an unattainable Arcadia”. Prison in his heart were “hospitable”, “journey”, “cozy warmth”, “coveted island”, “a rosy dream”, “little isle”,” insular haven”, and “an unattainable Arcadia”. All of these is a ironic.

On the other hand, the black humor reflected on a large number of figure of speech, which included exaggeration,personification,simile,metaphor,irony,metonymy and taboo. In fact, almost every figure of speech were full of ironic. For example, “ambitions of Soapy”, “hospitable Blackwell's” ,“little isle” ,“rosy dream”, “products of the protoplasm”, “brass buttons”, “minutest coin and himself were strangers” and the like. In the text, there were a great number of examples like that and all of these were full of ironic,by using them the writer described a funny and a sympathetic character and deeply exposed the real situation of the society.

The last feature of the short story were the surprising ending. In fact,the most remarkable characteristic of O. Henry’s short stories was surprising ending. O. Henry was an amazing genius. No one could surpass him in holding the reader in “suspended”. More than that, the reader scarcely knew that they were “suspended” until at the very close of the story. The reader would f eel suprised at the first glance, while immediately showed their conprehension for the surprising ending for there were many clues to infer the ending, such as the hunor language, and ironic coincidences.

The writer vividly portrayed a funny character by meticulous psychological description, overstatement of speech and clawn-like action. The reader could split his sides with laughter by the humor and ironic language and would show sympathy to the characer simultaneously. Soapy couldn’t simpely be treated a s a good or bad person. He had a strong body but an abnormal psychology. He didn’t choose to work even he had a good choice. All his hope was arrested in

prison for shelter. He loved ease and hated work, even not hesitated to uglify his personality by creating crimes. On the other hand, he had a “proud spirit” and looked down upon the philanthropy and refused for help from them.

All in all, he was a unfortunate vagrant, and his unfortunate life and abnormal psychology were the fruit of the capitalist society. By a series of funny coincidences and careful portrayal of the character,the writer exposed the social situation of capitalism society:the capitalist class created a ruthless exploitation and oppression on the common people; the right and wrong were confused in capitalist society.

Bibliography：

O．Henry. Collected Stories of O. Henry [M]. New Y ork: Avenel Books, 1979. O．Henry. The Four Million [M]. New Y ork: McClure, Phillips, 1906. O．Henry. The Trimmed Lamp [M]. New Y ork: McClure, Phillips, 1907.

张伯香，《英美经典小说赏析》，武汉大学出版社，2005

罗选民，《英美文学赏析教程》，清华大学出版社，2002年版

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