i
ABSTRACT
Besides part I (Introduction) and part III (Conclusion), in the graduation
paper there are three chapters in part II (Main content) which mainly focuses upon
Humanism in three short stories The skylight room, The gift of the magi and The last
leaf by O. Henry.
In Chapter 1, it gives a brief review on Literary theory which covers the
conception and functions of Literature, the definition of Humanism and characteristics
of Humanism. Notably, the three characteristics of Humanism referred to in part 2.2,
listed as compassion, reality and love with life, are related to Humanism in the three
stories analysed in the graduation paper.
Chapter 2 provides general background knowledge of America’s setting
and literature in the late 19
th
century and the early 20
th
century, O. Henry’s important
events in his life and his writing style. The summaries of the three stories are also
included in this chapter.
The last and the main one, chapter 3 deals with three major features of
Humanism in the three short stories, respectively as sympathy for the characters’ poor
life and their destiny, praise of characters’ moral virtues and their good qualities, and
hope for a better life. Then, a small part quickly pointing out some features on O.
Henry’s writing style is added.
As a whole, this graduation paper is my response to O. Henry’s great
works whose humanity regarded as its beauty.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Acknowledgement i
Abstract ii

3. O. Henry’s life and works
3.1. Life and main events
3.2. Writing style
3.3. General introductions and summaries of the three short
stories The last leaf, The skylight room and The gift of the
magi
Chapter 3: Humanism in the three short stories The last leaf, The
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skylight room and The gift of the magi
1. Sympathy for the characters’ poor life and their destiny

be inferred. This may give readers an overall outlook on O. Henry’s humanity
clearly evoked by the three famous stories The gift of the magi, The skylight room
and The last leaf.
3. Scope of the study
The graduation paper works on three of O. Henry’s short famous stories
The last leaf, The skylight room and The gift of the magi but does not cover all
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their aspects. It is humanism that gets focused on only. However, not only the
content but also the author’s writing style is referred to.
4. Methodology
In this graduation paper, some methods are used such as analysis,
comparison and synthesis. To be more detailed, ideas, theories on Literature and
Humanism including their definitions, functions and characteristics, are collected
and chosen to be suitable with the aims and the scope of the graduation paper.
Some famous sayings are also used as quoted. The foremost part is Analysis, which
not only requires thorough analysis but compares the three stories with other works
by O. Henry and some other authors. There are mutual comparisons and contrasts
among the characters to find out their common features and their different ones as
well.
II. Content
*Chapter 1: Literature theory*
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1. Theory on Literature
1.1. Definitions of Literature?
The term Literature has been used for a long time but many people may
not know what it exactly is. The definitions of Literature are varied and changeable at
different times, in different places, and based on different background knowledge,
culture, social context, and so on.
It is common knowledge that Literature may be a written and printed text
in form of stories, poems, novels, or even speeches or on-line texts. It may bring about

1.2. Functions of Literature
As it comes to the functions of Literature, they mainly focus on the
purposes of writing literal works. Literature is a mental activity undertaken by both
creators and receivers. To adopt the viewpoint of Nguyen Hung in Functions of
Literature (2011), the main functions of Literature are clarified as Cognition,
Education and Art. Other functions can be listed as Communication or Interaction,
Entertainment and Struggle.
First of all, in the position of recipients, thanks to Literature readers can
“cognize”, “self-cognize” and “reform”. Reading literary works may draw great
inspirations and create exists for readers to take an honest and overall look on
themselves. Studying one’s works, readers may discover his soul’s deep corners and
his personalities shown by the ways he uses words and gives his opinions toward
others. Readers may understand or sympathize with writers’ mood swings. In other
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words, with one’s writings, readers can build a relatively all-sided portrait of the
writer.
Another important function of Literature is education. Readers can
perceive ambient environment and gain a large amount of knowledge contained in
literary works. Literary works as “course books about life” reflect many aspects of
real life as culture, language, history, biology, geography, politics and economics.
Authentic materials collected from the real life and contained in literary works can fit
gaps in people’s knowledge. In addition, as devoted guides, literary works can help
readers learn by themselves how to choose and use words, how to organize ideas into a
logical set or what methods of meaning transference are. Educative feature is retained
in works’ content as well. It is related to a famous saying by Zhu Xi (1130-1200), a
well-known Chinese Confucian, “Literal works always bring its morality”. Moral
lessons, norms and rules, hopes, encouragements, pieces of advice and ideology that
writers expect to be perceived by their readers may be expressed directly or indirectly.
In many cases, big writers have to play their role as teachers or consultants to orient
readers towards right ideology and sound life style.

Humanism, which can help writers to avoid confusion.
In his work, Fred Edwords divided Humanism into many branches but
in this graduation paper, Literary Humanism and Secular Humanism are focused on
due to their suitability with the three literary works The last leaf, The skylight room
and The gift of the magi written by O. Henry in the period from the late 19
th
century to
the early 20
th
century.
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In a nut shell, according to Fred Edwords, Secular Humanism is an
outgrowth of 18
th
century enlightenment rationalism and 19
th
century free thought.
Many secular group such as the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, the
American Rationalist Federation and many otherwise unaffiliated academic
philosophers and scientists, advocate this philosophy. Then, Literary Humanism is a
devotion to the humanities or literary culture.
2.2. Characteristics of Humanism
In regards to Humanism’s characteristics, there are four main features
summarized as follows according to Fred Edwords in What is Humanism (1989).
Firstly, “Humanism is a philosophy focused upon human means for
comprehending reality”. Humanists do not lead people to beliefs in supernatural
influence and transcendent knowledge. Instead, reality, which is regarded as the origin
of everything and the inspiration for Literature in general and Humanism in specific, is
highlighted.
Secondly, “Humanism is a philosophy of compassion”. It sympathizes

In a few words, America’s situation from the late 19
th
century to the
early 20
th
century can be described as wars, crisis, depression, reconstruction, power,
poverty and prosperity.
There were two main events in this period, the Civil War and
Reconstruction (1861-1877) and the Rise of Industrial America (1876-1900) leading to
America holding World Power (1865-1914).
During the Civil War and Reconstruction, The United States faced the
greatest crisis and many troubles on every aspect. There was a big gap between the
northern and southern states in many fields of society, economy, politics. The North
became increasingly industrial and commercial while the South remained largely
agricultural. The big discrepancy between the two regions caused many serious
conflicts. Another cause was African-American slavery, which was the focal point of a
political crisis. African slaves were treated unfairly and crucially as if they had not
been humans. They had to work hard and even dangerously in factories and farms but
they had to lead a poor and miserable life with a lack of food and drink, health care
and education. Conflicts between white bosses and black slaves got much bitter and
needed to be solved. Then, following the 1860 election to the presidency of
Republican Abraham Lincoln, 11 southern states eventually seceded from the Federal
Union in 1861. A costly and bloody civil war happened, which led to as many
Americans were killed in the Civil War as in all the nation's other wars combined. All
the reasons above led to a drained America with every field that was seriously
affected.
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In the next period, people witnessed a rising and recovering American.
In the decades following the Civil War, the United States emerged as an industrial
giant and proved its dominating strength all over the world. Old industries expanded

Religious creeds and fight for humans. Stepping out from Romanism, the authors
showed their desire to paint the real picture of life with their pens.
Besides, it was also called the period of Realism and Naturalism. In this
graduation paper, only Realism gets focused on for the reason that it clearly
represented and was related to Humanism in Oliver Henry’s works. Discussing
Realism, William Dean Howells said “Realism is nothing more and nothing less than
the truthful treatment of material" (Editor’s Study, 1889). Realism tries hard to
present the world as it really is and to be truthful, realist literature. It delivers plain and
simple truth, leading realists to fill their works with details from everyday life or facts.
In the so-called realist works, the authors do not write about extraordinary people in
fantastic situations but about plain, normal, everyday stories. In addition, Realism
generally celebrates the individual. Most realist works feature a central character who
is a victim of the hard-boiled life and has to deal with some moral struggle in their
mind. Before the story reaches its ending, the character has to learn the moral dilemma
that the author wants to express through his message. Human beings in realist works
must learn, grow, and change their worlds or take responsibility for not doing these
things. Instead of giving up easily, they have to overcome the situations of panics,
depressions and discontents.
Literary works in this period depicted the damage of economic forces as
a result of urbanization, industrialization, poor and overcrowded housing, unsanitary
conditions, low pay and difficult work conditions. They spoke of alienation of the
weak and vulnerable individual. Some examples are Maggie: A girl of the streets by
Stephen Crane, Martin Eden by Jack London, An American tragedy by Theodore
Dreiser. Famous authors also described characters enduring through inner strength and
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qualities of kindness, flexibility, and individuality; for instance, Huck Finn by Mark
Twain, Sister Carrier by Theodore Dreiser.
Other trends in literary works during this period were Frontier Humor
and Realism with the rising of Local Colorist and Cosmopolitan Novelists. Low-life
characters like gambles, prostitutes and robbers were first introduced in many stories

but his passion in literature could not fade. He learned much on his own by studying
masterpieces by Homère, Shakespeare, Henry James, and so on.
After leaving school, he worked in a drug store and then did a job as a
pharmacist. This job brought him chances to meet many customers in which most of
them were poor. With his humane and sympathy, he wished to do more to help those
people. In 1889, he started writing because he felt his previous job was boring. In
1894, with his friend, he bought a were-about-to-bankrupt newspaper which was then
The Rolling Stones. Also being an environmental-friendly and adventurous person, he
travelled to many places as Texas, Austin and New York, so he gained various
experiences.
He used to be accused of embezzlement while working as a bank clerk
and put into jail. Though suffering from difficulties and problems and having to do
many kinds of jobs to earn his living, he was lucky to get help, encouragement and
support from his friends, his family and his two wives. Modern researchers have
indicated that the relationship with his family and friends and his works during his
youth had an overwhelming influence on his literature career.
At the climax of his job, O. Henry earned a lot of money but he also
spent much money, so he always lacked money and led a poor life. Money became his
obsession, which was proved in his works. O. Henry's last years were shadowed by
alcoholism, ill health, and financial problems. He died of cirrhosis in 1910.
About his works, during his life time, O. Henry published 10 collections
and over 600 short stories.
3.2. Writing style
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As referred above, Realism is a material for literature and played an
important role in American literature from the late 19
th
century to the early 20
th
century. O. Henry’s works were not out of trend. He also described the life of ordinary

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successful stories, he showed his poetic, romantic and humorous view on life. In
addition to humor, O. Henry used slangs, dialects, conversational language, and many
kinds of comparison.
In short, any author’s writing style serves as a device to represent his ideology
throughout the content of his works. In this regards, O. Henry’s writing style attributes
to signify his Humanism.
3.3. General introduction and summary of three short stories
“The last leaf”, “The skylight room” and “The gift of the
magi”
The last leaf was published in 1907 in the collection The Trimmed
Lamp and Other Stories. It is about two young women artists, Sue and Johnsy living
in the early 20th century Greenwich Village. They shared a cheaply rented room as
their studio apartment. The story started with the event that Johnsy was near the death
because of pneumonia. She almost gave up lying in bed waiting for the last ivy leaf on
the brick wall she saw through her window to fall down. Fortunately, when Johnsy
was about to die, Behrman, an old man who was also an artist and lived in the
apartment below Sue and Johnsy, saved her life. It turned out that Mr. Berman used a
ladder to paint an ivy leaf on the brick wall when the last leaf fell down, which led to
his death of pneumonia. Thanks to Berman's sacrifice, Johnsy could recover and
continued her dream.
The skylight room was published in 1906 in The four million. It is about
Leeson, a poor intellectual, wanted to look for a low-rent room. With her low salary,
she just could rent a cheap room on the top floor, which was called the skylight room.
Though having to work hard, Leeson was still optimistic. She always sat on the steps
telling some funny stories or talking about her star, also her friend with other tenants.
One day, because of depression and hunger, Leeson fainted but luckily was saved by
Dr. William.
The last story, The gift of the magi was published in 1906 in The four
million. It is about Mr. and Mrs. Dillingham (James and Della) and their awkward

other characters judge “with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing
implied”. The description did not stop at that detail. Della even counted the amount of
money one by one that she had three times as if she could not believe the fact that all
she had were just one dollar and eighty-seven cents while “the next day would be
Christmas”. Della’s flopping down on the couch and howling reaction reflected her
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mental status as inability, depression and worry. Turning to James’s situation, it was
fairly bad as well. He was only twenty-two and to be burdened with a family. He had
an old overcoat and no gloves. The reason why Dillingham family lived in poverty and
shortage was James’s cut-off salary which was then as two thirds as it had been.
Rhetorical devices as simile and euphemism were applied in comparing his reduced
prosperity with fainted letter D in his name card which were describes as “modest”
and “unassuming” but in fact to imply James’s shrunken income. Another detail
contributing to the description of the Dillinghams’ hardship was their precious
possessions: Jim’s gold watch taken over from his grandfather and his dad and Della’s
hair. However, actually, they were just a watch without a good chain and hair without
combs to make it more beautiful. With such an “old leather strap” in place of the
chain, James could not feel comfortable to watch the time in any company, so he just
dared to “sometimes look at it on the sly”. How embarrassed he was! And Della,
although her long, “rippling and shining” hair was beautiful like “a cascade of brown
waters”, she could not afford to buy a set of combs that she had worshipped long.
Such kind of combs with a “pure tortoise shell” and “jewelled rims” were too
expensive for her to buy. For her, it was like a hopeless dream. In truth, both of the
things had no material value at all but their spiritual one shown through simile device
with mocking meaning. O. Henry did not use any adjectives to show off their value but
absolutely unreasonable supposition. There was no doubt that never would the Queen
of Sheba live in “the flat across the airshaft” like Della did. Never would King
Salomon be a janitor. Never would they be jealous of James and Della’s possessions.
Those were just self-satire. Eventually, when being stuck in a rut, to strive for buying
something for each other, James and Della arrived at a tough decision to sell their

(referring to the container to imply the thing contained), the author placed his
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characters in their neighbourhood; and through describing the poverty in which they
were trapped, he could enable his readers to figure out how the three characters Sue,
Johnsy and Behrman lived in such a place. Their occupation was described as being
located in a little district west of Washington Square with its crazily running streets
and strips called “places”. A variety of adjectives was made full use of to avoid the
humdrum, to be listed as “crazy, strange, valuable, quaint”. His loose way of using
informal words and satirical implications was shown more clearly as O. Henry told a
“funny” story about a collector who came for bills and had to meet himself back
because he could not get any cent from poor artists living there, which meant that the
artists could not afford for necessities. However, O. Henry did not over-focus on
telling in a lengthy way about his characters’ financial problems. He then moved on to
telling about Johnsy’s bad health as an important event leading the storyline. As
depicted, Johnsy was just “a mite of a little woman with blood thinned by California
zephyrs” but she had to fight with Pneumonia, a “red-fisted, short-breathed old
duffer” with his “icy fingers” who was very strong and cruel. No doubt it was an
unfair fight for the poor little girl. Johnsy was smitten hip and thigh and she just lay,
scarcely moving out of her bed, weekly resisting and almost surrendering in her mind.
All she did was laying on the bed white and still as fallen statue, light and fragile as a
leaf, looking out the windows with dull, wide-open eyes and taking to others in
whispers. She had only one chance in ten to recover from her illness. Nevertheless, it
was both miserable and blamable of Johnsy as she almost gave up all her hope and
entrusted her life to ivy leaves on a brick wall which was opposite to the windows of
her room. “When the last one falls I must go, too. […] I want to see the last one fall.
I'm tired of waiting. I'm tired of thinking. I want to turn loose my hold on everything,
and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves”, what a total
nonsense she uttered. As her doctor said, had it not been for her weakness, she could
have had a one-in-five chance, instead of one-in-ten. Even with all of his efforts, he
could not cure a patient who began to count the carriages in her funeral procession.