William Sydney Porter's Works and their Reflection of the Present Day (Research Paper Sample)

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William Sydney Porter
William Sydney Porter is a renowned American writer who majored in short stories. His pieces of literary work were presented under the name "O. Henry." He was conceived in 1862 at a place known as Greensboro based in North Carolina. Before William Sydney Porter became a prolific writer, he worked as a columnist and a reporter in Texas. Porter's work revolves around the life of both the rich and the poor in New York City. Most of his short stories are fictitious full of humor and irony. Different themes like love have been presented in some stories picturing the New Yorkers' way of life. William Sydney Porter's style, historical and cultural context, fiction, and theme were exemplary and timely about Americans' mode of life.
Porter is indeed a Civil War fiction author. His pieces of writing which depict civic war include "The Guardian of the Accolade," "The Rose of Dixie," "The Emancipation of Billy," and "The Duplicity of Hargraves." Successive topics in a wide range of his stories are particularly fitting to fiction about the Civil War and its unending fallout (Henry 14). The study gives an in-depth analysis of William Sydney Porter's stories, namely "The Gift of the Magi" (1905), "The Ransom of Red" (1910), and "A Romance of a Busy Broker." All three stories reflect on different societal issues experienced by American people during the 20th century.
           The Gift of Magi: The short story reflects a broke young couple who intends to buy each other gifts for Christmas. One of the characters named Della decided to sell her most valuable beautiful hair to get money for her lover's gift. Della did not inform Jim of her plan of selling her hair to afford a fob chain made of platinum. The chain was mainly purposed to beautify Jim's watch. On the other hand, Jim decided to sell his only treasured possession, the watch, to entice his lover (Della) on Christmas celebrations. The intended gift by Jim was a jeweled comb for his lover's hair. Little did he understand that his lover had already sold her glittering hair. Both lovebirds planned special offers for each other, only that the gifts turned out worthless due to lack of proper planning and adequate communication. Indeed, they could have informed each other and shared what to get as gifts. The story itself portrays the theme of irony since the expected turned out to be the opposite (Henry 23).
           Jim's focus was to keep Della's hair well-combed by buying a jeweled comb. On the other part, Della