P lot, Setting

1. What type of conflict is the plot based on?

2. Does the plot comprise a variety of events?

3. Do the events involve physical movement or psychological movement, or both?

4. Are all the events logically related to the theme of the story?

5. A successful work of literature requires a highly credible plot, effectively arranged, and a suitable setting. Which one, if any, of these two aspects appears to be more effective in The Cop and the Anthem''?

6. What is the effect of setting the story in Madison Square late in autumn? What are the functions of this setting?

7. Is this setting related to the message of the story?

8. What time span does the story cover?

Literary Techniques

1. Coincidence plays a rather important role in the plot — there is a whole series of incidents that turn out opposite to what the character had hoped and expected. Did O'Henry use coincidence to excess? Does it make the story sound less credible? How did the author manage to make his readers accept the coincidences?

2. What effect does the series of coincidences serve? Does it suggest the irony of circumstance? Does it increase the unexpectedness of the climax?

3. How do those incidents contribute thematically and artistically?

4. O'Henry is a master of surprise endings. Is this skill revealed in the story?

5. How well did the author use dialogue to create real characters and episodes? Choose several passages of dialogue that can prove the effectiveness of this technique.

6. What did the author gain by the detailed description of the anthem and the night scene?

7. Does the detailed description of Soapy's thoughts serve the same purpose? Does the scene affect your understanding of the message? Does the case of retardation heighten the reader's suspense?

8. O'Henry made several digressions. Find instances of these digressions. Are they unnecessarily interruptive? Do they advance the actions of the story? Do they help to explain plot or character, or both? Do they in any way affect your attitude to the events of the story? Do they add to or interfere with the enjoyment of the reader?

Plot Structure

1 Are the events arranged chronologically? Do they catch and hold the reader's interest?

2 What is the role of the exposition?

3 What is the climax of the story?

4. Is there a denouement in the story?

5. What did the author achieve by leaving out the denouement?

6. What advantage, if any, did the story gain by its plot structure?

7. What can you say to evaluate the contribution of the plot structure to the exciting narrative of the story? To what extent does it affect the general impression produced by the story?

Text 2. Mistaken identity

MARK TWAIN

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 — April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is also known for his quotations. During his lifetime, Clemens became a friend to presidents, artists, leading industrialists, and European royalty.

Clemens enjoyed immense public popularity, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. American author William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

Years ago I arrived one day at Salamanca, New York, eastward bound; must change cars there and take the sleeper train. There were crowds of people there, and they were swarming into the long sleeper train and packing it full, and it was a perfect purgatory¹ of dust and confusion and gritting of teeth and soft, sweet, and low profanity. I asked the young man in the ticket office if I could have a sleeping-section, and he answered "No," with a snarl that shrivelled me up like burned leather. I went off, smarting under this insult to my dignity, and asked another local official, supplicatingly, if I couldn't have some poor little corner, somewhere in a sleeping car; but he cut me short with a venomous "No, you can't; every corner is full. Now, don't bother me any more"; and he turned his back and walked off. My dignity was in a state now which cannot be described. I was so ruffled that — well, I said to my companion, "If these people knew who I am they — "But my companion cut me short there — "Don't talk such folly," he said; "If they did know who you are, do you suppose it would help your high-mightiness² to a vacancy in a train which has no vacancies in it?"

This did not improve my condition any to speak of, but just then I observed that the colored porter of a sleeping car had his eye on me. I saw his dark countenance light up. He whispered to the uniformed conductor, punctuating with nods and jerks toward me, and straightway this conductor came forward, oozing politeness from every pore.

"Can I be of any service to you?" he asked. "Will you have a place in the sleeper?"

"Yes," I said, "and much oblige me, too. Give me anything — anything will answer."

"We have nothing left but the big family stateroom," he continued, "with two berths and a couple of armchairs in it, but it is entirely at your disposal. Here, Tom, take these satchels aboard."

Then he touched his hat and we and the colored Tom moved along. I was bursting to drop just one little remark to my companion, but I held in and waited. Tom made us comfortable in that sumptuous, great apartment, and then said, with many bows and a perfect affluence of smiles:

"Now, is dey anything you want, sah? Case you kin have jes' anything you wants. It don't make no difference what it is."⁴

"Can I have some hot water and a tumbler at nine tonight — blazing hot? I asked. "You know about the right temperature for a hot Scotch punch?"

"Yes, sah, dat you kin; you kin pen on it; I'll get it myself."

"Good. Now, that lamp is hung too high. Can I have a big coach candle fixed up just at the head of my bed, so that I can read comfortably?"

"Yes, sah, you kin; I'll fix her up myself, an' I'll fix her so she'll burn all night. Yes, sah; an' you can jes' call for anything you want, and dish yer whole railroad'll be turned wrong end up an' inside out for to get it for you. Dat's so." And he disappeared.

Well, I tilted my head back, hooked my thumbs in my armholes, smiled a smile on my companion, and said, gently:

"Well, what do you say now?"

My companion was not in the humor to respond, and didn't. The next moment that smiling black face was thrust in at the crack of the door, and this speech followed:

"Laws bless you, sah, I knowed you in a minute. I told de conductah so. Laws! I knowed you de minute I sot eyes on you."

"Is that so, my boy?" (Handing him a quadruple fee.) "Who am I?"

"Jenuel McClellan," and he disappeared again.

NOTES

¹ a purgatory — any state or place of temporary punishment (here it is used figuratively)

² your high-mightiness — ironical: on analogy with your highness

³ oozing politeness Irom every pore - ironical: looking extremely polite

⁴ The coloured porter speaks non-standard American English — the so-called "Black English", spoken by the uneducated Negro population in the USA. The phonetic features of "Black English" are recorded by means of deviations from the spelling norm.