So In Love
...is not some high and mighty place you only hear about in fairytales. Realism is about being truthful and honest, even if it may be brutal. O. Henry’s stories were not about dreams coming true, or finding your knight in shining armor. He spoke the flat out truth. For example in his short story “The Cop and the Anthem” a homeless man is trying to get arrested, but nothing is really working. “But as Soapy set foot inside the restaurant door the head waiter’s eye fell upon his frayed trousers and decadent shoes. 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” (O. Henry). Soapy dressed up very nicely so he could eat at this nice restaurant and then just not pay and be arrested for that, but they would not even allow him in the restaurant because he did not look nice enough. O. Henry is just being truthful because you are not dressed nice enough for certain restaurants you wont be allowed in. In "A retrieved Reformation" a man is let out of jail for cracking safes and decides to start living straight. "That's Dandy Jim Valentine's autograph. He's resumed business. Look at that combination knob--jerked out as easy as pulling up a radish in wet weather. He's got the only clamps that can do it. And look how clean those tumblers were punched out! Jimmy never has to drill but one hole. Yes, I guess I want Mr. Valentine. He'll do his bit next time without any short-time or clemency foolishness" (O. Henry). In this story Jimmy Valentine is being blamed for something that he did not do, which happens to some people all the time. O. Henry is trying to explain that life will throw you hardballs and you may not catch them, but do not give up because of them. It is easier to associate with a story when you can connect it to your own life. O. Henry used “true-to-life” details very often in his stories. "Mr. Behrman died of pneumonia to-day in the hospital. He was ill only two days” (O. Henry). In “The Last Leaf” Johnsy gets sick with pneumonia and is judging her life expectancy on the ivy vine outside her window. Then when the neighbor Mr. Behrman paints the last leaf he gets pneumonia and dies. Now that is possible and can happen to anyone. You may be very sick and get better fast, but someone else might not be able to handle the sickness as well. “The Cop and the Anthem” also shows this theme. “On his bench in Madison Square Soapy moved uneasily. When wild geese honk high of nights, and when women without sealskin coats grow kind to their husbands...