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Comparing The Works Of O. Henry, Mark Twain, And John Steinbeck

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Have you ever wondered what makes a book a classic? Three famous classical authors known as O.Henry, Mark Twain, and John Steinbeck have mastered the difficult art of making their works classics. All of these writers had one thing in common. They had unique styles that are parallel to their lives. O. Henry, Mark Twain, and John Steinbeck had unique styles that made their works timeless classics. O.Henry’s writing style parallels his life in the senses of situational irony and moral characterization. O.Henry writes with situational irony which is also known as a plot twist or surprise ending. In the short story, After Twenty Years, by O.Henry, a character named Bob is reading a letter from his old friend Jimmy Wells, who did not show up, the letter reads, “I was at the appointed place on time”(228). This quote shows situational irony because the reader did not think that Jimmy was there on time, yet he was and this surprises them.(CD) It also surprises the reader since they did not expect Jimmy to be the policeman who had talked to Bob. This is a classic connection to O.Henry’s life because he had been the person who guilty of embezzlement of the bank O.Henry was arrested. Another style of writing used by O.Henry is moral characters. Moral characters are people who do the right thing, no matter what the context is. Another quote from After Twenty Years is shown in the note written by Jimmy to Bob. The note said, “Somehow I couldn’t do it myself, so I went around and got a

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