Writing skills learnt from The
The Girl and The Graft is a famous short story written by O.Henry, aiming to expose the ugly and fact in the late 19th century in America. In the short but deeply thoughtful story, what impressed me most is the technique the writer used in each sentence and also throughout the whole passage.
When it comes to the well-known writer O.Henry, his unique writing style of leading to a surprising ending occurs to me. The Girl and The Graft is not an exception. The ending is absolutely opposite to what I think it is supposed to be. In my imagination, Vaucross could become the headline with the help of the pretty lady and gain fame and reputation just as what he had been long for. But contrary to expectation, the rich man made up his mind to marry the girl after the date and left only something used to Pogue. It seems that the ending is unusual and makes readers surprised. But it is just the surprising ending that attracts numbers of readers. With the pen, O.Henry leads the readers to feel and touch the emotion of the characters in the story. It is natural that all readers will predict the development and ending of the story. Let me put it in this way. Just as walking on a road, when all readers consider the road they walk on as the only choice, O.Henry tends to find a shortcut and brings us to an extremely different destination.
Being inspired by O.Henry, it comes to my mind that we can imitate the style of surprising ending in writing narration. The extraordinary ending leaves a more fantastic impression on the readers and also satisfy their mind of pursuing excitement in a fabled story instead of dull and usual reality. When using this special writing style, one thing should be paid attention to. Be logic. Though the ending exceed our expectation, the writer indicates us through the whole passage and makes the story be enough logic. What I want to emphasize is that a surprising ending is never equal to being non-logic. The whole story is supposed to follow the rule and be understandable.
Another point I have noticed is the special story narrating way in The Girl and The Graft. After reading the story, we can easily find that the writer narrates a chat with a friend of him and all the message we get about how the story develops is from the narration of Pogue. From my point of view, it is a creative way to tell a story, which can also be used in our daily English writing. Unlike normal way of narrating a story, it is a better way to make the readers have a clearer understanding and more unique feeling in the eyes of bystanders. What’s more, in this way, readers are more encouraged to develop their own thought instead of just receiving what the writer says.
Every light has its shadow. Some subjectivity of the narration is unavoidable. When the speaker is telling us a story, he has his own opinion and doesn’t show us the whole of the story but only part of it. Just take The Girl and The Graft as an example. Pogue wants to claim his understanding of the graft used by girls so he quotes the story of Vaucross. He tells us that the marriage between the rich man and the pretty lady is not love but graft. Is it true? Or in other words, is it the whole story? I think it is a question remained to be discussed. That is, in the narration, the writer tends to quote part of the story to prove his view but ignore the integrity of the story. What the readers should do is to stay calm, critical and have their own judgment.
The whole passage is brimming with formal, luxuriant language and many uncommon phases. Obviously, it promotes the passage to a higher level and makes the story more flowery. But at the same time, some confusion occurs to me: is it true that the more flowery the language is, the better the passage is? With senior vocabulary, on one hand, the narration is much vivider and exacter. On the other hand, it does lower the readability of the text. How to balance the relationship between using word and expressing exactly is worthy of consideration. Maybe the only explanation to this phenomenon is that different type of article choose different locution, neither plain or flowery.
Just as other works of O.Henry, The Girl and The Graft aims to expose some social phenomenon and his own thought through a story happening around normal people. Through the story, O.Henry wants to show us a society full of the thirst for money and fame. Pretty lady may be married with rich man for the sake of money but not for the pure love. All the people in the society want to be well-known and be respected by others. The story represents the ugly side of humanity in nature. That is what the writer want to condemn. O.Henry advocates the purity, goodness and beauty in our humanity. The writer passes on his idea through a plain story to the readers. In this way, the readers can get the main idea more comprehensively and in their own initiative. Moreover, they can develop their own thought while reading. Usually, we attempt to express our thought with obscure sentences. As a matter of fact, a simple story also has its power to claim a thoughtful view. It is usually easier for the readers to get the main point from plain story but not from a long and minute statement.
Last but not the least, I am sure that all of us would be impressed by the humorous language style in The Girl and The Graft. O.Henry tends to use vivid and humorous word to tell a story. Life-oriented language style makes the story become more understandable and can be accepted by readers. People can come across the similar kind of thing in our daily life and feel a sense of familiarity. In this way, readers can image that they are the exact character in the story and feel more intent emotions.
Through a short but incisive narration, we can get the essence in O.Henry’s writing, which can be applied to our own piece of work. Be unpredictable but logic. Be life-oriented but thoughtful.
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