A Stylistic Analysis of “After Twenty Years” by O. Henry

Abstract

The present study aimed at stylistically analyzing the short story of “after twenty years” written by O. Henry, a pen name for William Sydney Porter. This American short story writer has a rich canon of more than 250 short stories and his stories are well known throughout the globe. He wrote in a dry and humorous style and famous for his use of surprise or twist endings of his stories, mostly, for the aim of underlying ironies. Since the study is both theoretical and descriptive in nature, the researcher paid a close reading to the text. The short story is stylistically analyzed applying only two categories, namely lexical categories and cohesion and context in the linguistic and stylistic checklist suggested by Leech and Short (2007).