How would you describe the style of this story? Does the ...

[vicky]

 
• How would you describe the style of this story? Does the authors tone tellyou anything about his attitude toward the characters and events of the narrative?

 

 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

What do the narrator and her half-sisters have in common? How does thisfactor relate to the theme of the story?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[kkenney]

Answer to Question 1

Clearly, O. Henry does not hold with those who feel that the best style is a transparent medium between author and reader. His writing constantly calls attention to itself by its hyperbole, allusiveness, and chattiness; the style invites this scrutiny not only indirectly but even overtly, as in paragraph 18. Like a miniature Fielding or Thackeray, the author interposes himself between the material and the reader in such a way that his genial tone and his controlling presence reassure us that all will be well in the end.

Answer to Question 2

• She and her half-sisters share a biological and spiritual link to their common mother, and through her they share a bond to one another. Together we look like our mother, June observes. Her same eyes, her same mouth. Their fates are interrelated, as reflected by their names. In China, June asks her father the meaning of her Chinese name, Jing-mei, and he interprets her name to signify the younger sister who is the essence of the other lost daughters. As she discovers on meeting them, she does share their essencethey are all daughters of the same mother.