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A Case For O. Henry A story, after all. Is a ••story” — yet his treat an encompassing truth. tty SHELBY STEP II E\SO.\ h is lime for a revival of inleresl in North Carolina's William Sydney Porter, popularly known as O. Henry'. Born in Greensboro in 1962. he is buried in Riverside Cemetery near Asheville — his grave not far from Thomas Wolfe's. (Porter’s second w ife. Sara Lindsay Coleman, was from Weavervillc.) After 0. Henry’s death in 1910. his popularity developed into an industry’. Eugene Currcnt-Garcia wrote in the O. HENRY. Twayne’s United States Authors' Series. 1965: "No other American writer of stories had ever been so widely read, enjoyed, dis¬ cussed. approved of. and imitated.” Along came the new criticism w ith its dictum that a work of art is an object in itself. O. Henry's endings, new critics argued, were not prepared for and were nol organic parts of the stories. Moreover, the writers stirring the world one decade after (). Henry's death included those great American twentieth-century experimenters in form — Sherwood Anderson. Ernest Hemingway. William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. These writers wrote about the deep and tragic loneli¬ ness of people and they found new ways — points of view — to present them. And the name O. Henry faded into obscurity. Old South vs New South Many of his approximately 250 short stories are set in the South and several in his native state. These stories ex¬ ploit the theme of the old South versus the new: "The Guardian of the Ac¬ colade." "The Emancipation of Billy." and "A Blackjack Bargainer." They present a "professional South¬ erner." an old southern gentleman- type. in contrast to a changing, unsure kind of character w ho wants to move on into the twentieth century. This old South-new South theme is part of O. Henry's larger concern and overall theme — the effect and con¬ sequences of coincidence on charac¬ ter. His dominant attitude is the fa¬ mous entertaining humor, often grotesque and ironic, as in "The Guar¬ dian of the Accolade." when Uncle Bushrod. an old black guardian of the THE STATE, March 1982 Weymouth family, tries to preserve the family honor of his boss. Robert Weymouth, president of the bank, by making him give up a suitcase before boarding a train. Uncle Bushrod had seen his boss stuffing the suitcase in the bank vault. Bushrod gets the case. Weymouth goes on a vacation to fish, confessing on arrival that he has lost it. Back home Bushrod says the suitcase contained "two quarts of the finest old silk-velvet bourbon . . . you ever wet your lips with." The touches for which (). Henry is known are here — the surprise ending, the contrived de¬ scription and dialogue. There is nos¬ talgia for the past — a sentimental, tenderly rendered attitude toward an unredeemable past resolved with a self-conscious humor. The artiness — the contrived quality, dominates. Manipulation and Irony So also with "The Emancipation of Billy." The conflict between the old South and new comes out in the re¬ lationship between the aged Pember¬ ton. a Civil War hero, and his son Billy, a forty-two-year-old lawyer who has gained a national reputation by win¬ ning many cases before the United States Supreme Court. The question is w ill Billy take a federal judgeship or turn the chance down to remain the "son of* his father forever. Will Billy preserve family and the old order? All the citizens of Hlmvillc gather to hear Billy's decision. Everybody thinks he will turn down the assignment and re¬ main in his father's shadow. He takes the judgeship. asO. Henry's technique of manipulation and irony rule again. Ironic humor is the main charac¬ teristic of "A Blackjack Bargainer." Set in western North Carolina, the story concerns a once wealthy, suc¬ cessful lawyer Yancy Goree who drinks and gambles away the family estate, finally even selling the rights to a long-standing feud between his fam¬ ily and the Coltranes. The buyer of the estate and the right to the feud is one Pike Garvey, a squirrel-hunter who "acknowledged no occupation save that of a squirrel hunter, but he moon- shined occasionally by way of diver¬ sion. Once the revenues' had dragged him from his lair, fighting silently and desperately like a terrier, and he had been sent to state’s prison for two years. Released, he popped back into his hole like an angry weasel." Yancy arranges for Pike Garvey to kill him as he rides Coltrane's horse. Since Yancy is wearing Coltrane s jacket and looks like Coltrane from a distance. Pike Garvey thinks he is actually shooting Coltrane. The feud over and Yancy Goree dead, the hackwoodsy Garvey wants no part of civilization and goes back to the woods. Like all of (). Henry's stories, these three display the triumph of humor and comedy over matter. Another example is "Let Me Feel Your Pulse." writ¬ ten right before he died. Also set in western North Carolina, this auto¬ biographical story is about an alcohol¬ ic who comes from the Catskills to Pincyvillc to try to get himself to¬ gether. The doctor tells him he can he cured if he finds an Amaryllis in the shade. The alcoholic learns that the mind’s natural high, the imagination, is superior to any lift whiskey can give. Since World War II. parody, humor, and satire have almost dominated fic¬ tion: these traits also characterize O. Henry’s writings. With his self-con¬ scious humor, stereotypes, contrived plots. (). Henry never lets his reader forget that a story, after all. is a "story.” something made up. Yet his stories treat an encompassing truth we Teed to remember: human experience edeems itself. 13