Take a story's temperature by studying its tone. Is it hopeful? Cynical? Snarky? Playful?
Empathetic and Accepting
When talk about a story's tone we are looking at how the author feels about the characters and subject matter of the story, and even toward his or her audience. We usually have to go outside the story and look for clues in interviews and other places writers talk about their work. O. Henry was a super-private fellow, but he did leave us some juicy clues that say a lot about how he felt about characters like Soapy, and about what he wanted to accomplish with his story.
We are pretty sure that he felt a lot of empathy for Soapy, and for people in situations like his. Empathy is different than sympathy. With sympathy you feel sorry for somebody. With empathy you can actually relate the person's situation and feel what it might be like to be them. But you already knew that. Anyhow, here are a few of those clues.
The Four Million
"The Cop and the Anthem" was first published in 1904 (yep, over a hundred years ago) in a magazine called New York World. It was later published in a collection of other stories set in and around New York City. The collection is called The Four Million and it includes a note from O. Henry at the beginning, explaining the title and telling us a lot about his tone. OK, here's the note:
Not very long ago some one invented the assertion that there were only "Four Hundred" people in New York City worth noticing. But a wiser man has arisen—the census taker—and his larger estimates of human interest has been preferred in marking out the field of these little stories of "the four million." (Source)
From the 1860s the 1890s a man named Ward McAllister published an annual list of the four hundred wealthiest and most powerful people in New York City, claiming that these were the only people in New York who really mattered. Well, the 1900 census revealed that there were almost four million people in New York City. O. Henry's stories focus on people who would never make McAllister's list.
Unlike McAllister's list, the census tries to include all people, and doesn't place more or less value on any of those people. O. Henry suggests that he is trying to do this, too—his stories are meant to reach and represents a wide variety of people. O. Henry sees all these different people and their stories as valuable.
In "What's Up With the Ending?" we ask if you think Soapy's change of heart is temporary or permanent. We ask if you think Soapy will be able to turn his life around when he gets out of prison in the spring. O. Henry's note suggests another question—can we, the readers, accept Soapy for who he is, regardless of whether he changes his life or not? Can we see equal value in the high-society man and the homeless man? Can we see ourselves in Soapy?
Need a Loan? Call O. Henry
In O. Henry's New York years, toward the end of his life, he was notoriously short on cash, and frequently had to hit his publisher up for loans. Was he gambling it all away? Spending it on booze and women? Nope. He was giving it to his friends. A friend of O. Henry's said this about him:
He couldn't bear anyone who seemed to be in want. Why it seems I've seen him give a five dollar-bill to a hungry sandwich-board man. Has-beens appealed just as strongly to his sympathy. Down-at-the-heels actors, writers, and artists could always get a "loan," as he insisted on calling it. (7)
This gives us a good idea of how O. Henry might have felt about Soapy and others in his situation. Like Soapy, he doesn't really care about having a lot of money; his motivations for wanting to change his life go deeper than money.
He wants to feel clean inside; he wants to have friends and family; he wants to re-join the people of the world. Like Soapy, O. Henry had been in jail, and had probably experienced homelessness in his wanderings, too. According to what he told his interviewer, he probably also met many people like Soapy in New York City. He says,
When I first came to New York I spent a great deal of time knocking around the streets. […] at all hours of the day and night along the river fronts, through Hell's Kitchen, down the Bowery, dropping into all manner of places, and talking with any one who would hold converse with me. I have never met any one but what I could learn something from him; he's had some experiences that I have not had; he sees the world from his own viewpoint. If you go at it in the right way the chances are that you can extract something of value from him. (20)
See there. Right from the horse's mouth, so to speak. These clues are what lead us to think O. Henry's tone is empathetic and accepting of Soapy and Soapy's story. Check out our section on "Writing Style," where we dig even deeper into O. Henry's personal style.