How to Produce a Surprise Ending for Readers

Abstract：“Twist ending” is well used by writers in a novel in order to leave readers a strong impression. In this essay， the author will focus on the narrative strategies that produce such a surprise ending in a short story， using as the example O. Henry’s The Last Leaf （1907）. The author gives each of strategies O. Henry used in the novel a name and explains how it is used to produce a surprise ending， standing at the readers’ perspective.

Key Words： writing strategies； surprise ending； reader-response

中图分类号：I106 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1005-5312（2014）03-0045-02

1. Introduction

In order to attract readers’ attention， writers often make the best use of a strategy-a surprise ending in their stories. Some people give this kind of strategy a name， a plot twist， which means that it is a sudden and thorough change in the unexpected direction or outcome of the plot of a story. When a plot twist happens near the end of a story， especially when it changes readers’ opinions of the previous plots， people call it a surprise ending. The most famous writer using this technique may be O. Henry. O. Henry， an American writer， is famous for using this kind of ending in his stories. He wrote more than 600 stories in his short writing career and is said to have popularized the “twist ending”. George Monteiro indicated in his essay that O. Henry’s stories work toward surprising， sometimes astonishing endings （George Monteiro 1）.

In this essay， the author will focus on the narrative strategies that produce a surprise ending in a short story， using as the illustrative example O. Henry’s The Last Leaf （1907）， a famous short story for bringing readers an unexpected ending， also a masterpiece of O. Henry. For many readers， the ending of The Last Leaf is not in the direction they may have thought in the process of reading and reveals the secret and truth at the last moment that make people suddenly aware and surprised， which is identical to O. Henry’s other short stories with a surprise ending， such as The Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of Red Chief. Considering the literary theory and schools of criticism， in this essay， we use reader-response criticism.

2. Strategies Used to Produce the Surprise Ending

After analyzing the whole story， the author considers that the surprise ending in The Last Leaf is produced by four strategies： a sudden change of the protagonist’s fortune， the inconsistency between what people say and what people do， a revelation of an incredible truth and an abrupt stop of the plot. In the following paragraphs， the author will explain these four strategies more specifically and illustrate how they are used in The Last Leaf.

2.1 A Sudden Change of the Protagonist’s Fortune

The first strategy O. Henry uses in The Last Leaf is his design of Johnsy’s fortunate， which changes abruptly and gives readers a surprise. It is really a big surprise for readers when they find there is a change in Johnsy’s fortune from a sick and hopeless girl to a healthy and hopeful one， which makes readers happy and satisfied. At the very beginning of the story， the writer used many words to describe the seriousness of Johnsy’s illness. The doctor repeated that “she has one chance in- let us say， ten.”What is worse， Johnsy lost all her hope for life and became very negative towards her life. She counted and counted the number of leaves on the ivy vine outside the window of her bedroom. She believed that when the last leaf of those five left fell， she must go. “Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls I must go， too. I’ve known that for three days. Didn’t the doctor tell you？” （O. Henry 2） Johnsy told to her friend Sue.

This belief seems negative， incredible and even ridiculous for readers， but this belief partly helps O. Henry to create a surprise ending for The Last Leaf. Most readers think that such a seriously-sick girl who lost all her hope for life must die with the fall of the last leaf and the story would be a total tragedy. However， she changed her mind abruptly when she saw the last leaf was still on the tree after several stormy， windy and dreadful nights. Afterwards， she became hopeful and began to recover from her illness. The sudden change of a protagonist’s fortune contributes to a surprise ending for readers.

The author wants to give this kind of strategy a name， a contrary ending. That means in the previous plots of the story， for example， the writer creates a forward direction leading readers to go on the way together and form the emotion or idea appearing similar to the writer’s， which makes readers believe that they can anticipate the ending correctly with satisfaction and consider that they are becoming the host of the plot. Nevertheless， when it comes to the end， the direction turns backward unexpectedly and suddenly. All readers seem to fall into a trap created by the writer in order to leave readers a surprise. For example， in The Last Leaf， all sentences about Johnsy make readers believe that she may face the death at the end of the story. However， near the ending， the direction of Jonesy’s destiny turns in an opposite way. The function of this strategy is to leave readers a deep impression.

2.2 The Inconsistency between What People Say and What People Do

Secondly， O. Henry creates a character whose utterance is not consistent with his action. The character is Behrman in this story The Last Leaf. Concerning his first appearance in this story， it leaves readers a negative impression. When Sue found him， telling him the situation of Johnsy， and explained her strange idea of the last leaf， he “shouted his contempt and derision for such idiotic imaginings”. These utterance and performance make readers hold a thought that Behrman is indifferent and does not care too much about Johnsy’s health. On the contrary， the surprise ending reveals the deep thought of Behrman. In order to give Johnsy a hope for life with the help of the last ivy leaf， Behrman sacrificed his life to paint a fake leaf on the wall. Behrman tried his best to offer a hope to Johnsy with his behavior. The description of him in the end touched plenty of readers. Up to the ending， readers find that the inconsistency between what Behrman said and what he did gives them a big unexpectedness.

The author gives this strategy a name， a contrast ending， which means that the writer creates a contrast in the story. In this story， O. Henry created a contrast between Behrman’s utterance and his action. His unselfish action at the end of story cannot be easily concluded from his words in previous description. It is really makes readers unexpected at the end of the story. The function of this strategy is that it reveals the nature of an event or a character and in the meantime， the strategy emphasizes the essence. By displaying a contrast， readers can easily to find out the essence and understand the theme of a story. In The Last Leaf， by showing the contrast， readers understand that Behrman is really a great and unselfish man and the admiration for him arises immediately. Though a little unexpected， this strategy is beneficial for readers to understand the whole story.

2.3 A Revelation of an Incredible Truth

Next， the revelation of an incredible truth also leads to a surprise ending. In the whole story， the function of the last ivy leaf is very important to all the characters. When Johnsy began to use the leaves to decide her death， readers become more interested in them. Readers hope that the last leaf will always be there so as to support Johnsy to live longer， but the weather was not satisfactory. With dreadful winds and storms all the nights， the last leaf was in a very dangerous situation. Readers even think that the last leaf is easy to fall at any time. However， the last leaf was so strong and powerful that it still existed after several stormy nights.

Just like what Johnsy thought， readers believe that it is “something has made that leaf stay there to show me how wicked I was”. Readers begin to smile when reading this sentence and are confident that all the things will become better. Nevertheless， the writer again creates a surprise for readers. At the end of the story， the writer reveals the true reason for why the last leaf still stayed there that it was painted by Behrman； it is not a real leaf.

The name of this strategy is a disclosure ending. This kind of ending is abundant with information， for much of them are not mentioned in previous plots. Readers get to know the truth at the last moment of the story， which is a very interesting and exciting experience for readers. Using this strategy can kind of arouse readers’ attraction， because when people are reading with confusion or a doubt， they are desperate for finding out the truth. The only way to get the truth is reading continuously to the end. That is really a useful strategy to make readers read the whole story with an interest. The disclosure of the truth at the end of the story is also used for revealing the theme which is very important for understanding a story. This way to show the theme is ingenious.

2.4 An Abrupt Stop of the Plot

Lastly， the story comes to an end abruptly and leaves many plots without further description， which makes readers surprised. At the end of the novel， there was no description about the reflection of Jonesy when she heard the news that Behrman died of her. Moreover， there was no further description about the future life of Sue and Jonesy. Those plots appear in the readers’mind after reading the preceding paragraphs but they did not appear in the novel. This kind of writing gives enough room for readers to imagine and think on their own.

The name of this strategy is a fantasy ending， which clearly show the effect caused by this kind of ending. Without more enough information about the characters in the future， what all readers can do is imagination by themselves. What are the following plots of the story？ Whether can these characters realize their dreams in the future？ How does the character react to the previous plots？ All these questions readers are interested in but are not mentioned in the story offer readers a space for daydreaming. Everyone can design a different follow-up of the story in their own way as long as it satisfies them. Although something readers feel interested in is not explained by the writer with enough details， the surprise stop of plots give readers more chance for developing their own story.

3. Conclusion

All in all， it comes to the conclusion that with the combination of the suddenly-changed fortune， the inconsistency between people’s utterance and action， the revelation of a truth and the abrupt stop， O. Henry successfully produces a surprising ending for readers. The ending is unexpected but reasonable. On one hand， with some hints in O. Henry’s individual experience and similar writing style of O. Henry’s other works， the ending seems much more acceptable for readers than it appears. On the other hand， those hints are not so obvious enough for readers to infer the following plots. Therefore， readers cannot figure out this kind of ending ahead of time， otherwise they are not going to be surprised and the story would be an ordinary one. However， the sharp contrast of the destiny of the characters prevents the whole novel from being too straight forward. Meanwhile， the surprise ending of the story leads to a deep consideration for readers of the situation revealed in the story. The theme of the whole story therefore becomes clearer for readers. We believe that this is a success again for O. Henry just as what he had done many times in other stories.

References：

[1]George Monteiro. Hemingway， O. Henry， and the Surprise Ending. Nebraska： University of Nebraska Press 1973. Print.

[2]O. Henry. The Last Leaf. N. p. N. d.