O. Henry's delightful story of two loving, unselfish,
"foolish" young people who sacrifice their most valuable possessions in order to buy
something that the other will enjoy has delightful language that abounds in allusions,
irony, and other literary devices. Among these are metaphor and simile. In the tenth
paragraph, for instance, after Della pulls out the pins holding her hair and it falls to
its full length, it is described as "rippling and shining like a cascade
of brown waters," a phrase that is a simile. And, with humor, O. Henry
points to his own metaphor: "Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on
rosy wings."
After Jim arrives home and
opens the door only to see Della with her short hair, he stops as
immovable as a setter [simile] at the scent
of quail. For, he has noticed that her hair is short. He reaches in his pocket and
lays the combs down. Stella hugs them and then says, "My hair grows so fast,
Jim!"
And then Della leaped up like a little
singed cat [simile] and cried, "Oh,
oh!"
Then,
when Jim receives his platimum watch fob, the "dull precious metal seemed to flash
with a reflection of her bright and ardent
spirit."[metaphor]
One
example of personification occurs in this line:
When Della
reached home her intoxication gave way to a little to prudence and
reason.
No comments:
Post a Comment