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

O. Henry

【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.Henry’s writing style.
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【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 author’s 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.Henry’s 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 author’s 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.Henry’s 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.Henry’s humorous writing style so as to deepen our reading of O.Henry’s works in
the future.
Bookish words.
The epithet 'bookish' implies a very wide sphere of communication. According to Yu. Screbnev,
words traditionally referred to as 'bookish' occupy, as a matter of fact, the whole of the upper part of
the stylistic scale: some of them are only slightly above the neutral sphere; others belong to the
medial sphere; many bookish words are excessively high-flown.
Bookish words are mainly used in books and in oral polished speech (public speeches, official
negotiations).

2. to spend the winter in the mild climate (of people)

In “The Cop and the Anthem” O.Henry uses another bookish word of the same root, a
derived adjective to describe his miserable character’s reflections concerning the
approach of winter: The hibernatorial ambitions of Soapy were not of the highest …
Three months on the Island was what his soul craved.