1. Basic introduction 1.1 introduction of author O.Henry is one of the greatest novelist of short story in the world. His unique writing style is famous for the zigzag plots and unexpected endings, which arouse many readers#8217; attention on him. O.Henry, who is an outstanding critical realistic writer in the 20th century in U.S, writes a lot of novels in his lifetime. Also, his short stories were crowned as the Humorous Encyclopedia of American life. His novels are interesting and significant and reflect the real situation of American society. His humorous,comedic and ironical writing techniques leaded him to an important position in the history of American literature, at the same time, exposing the miserable theme that the absurd society without humanity brings people spiritual agony. 1.2 introduction of novel The story describes a New York tramp-soapy, who manages to let himself to be arrested in prison in order to acquire some place to accommodate himself before the coming winter, thus he always intended to commit crimes, such as eating without paying, breaking down the display window, taking possession of others#8217; financial relief harassing women, breaching the peace and etc. He feels a great disappointed after six intended committing without getting expected result. In consequence, he is deeply moved by tender and leisure Anthem droned from a church. The god inspire him to give up bad habits and behaviors, as well as refresh his following lifetime. However, it is at this moment that soapy is arrested by policemen for no reason. 2. Literature review 2.1 Background of writing 2.1.1 Situation of writer As a realistic writer, the writings of O.Henry mainly demonstrate the current society reality. He lives in a big city-New York which characterizes capitalistic fiance. O.Henry is a seedier side of society. He tends to observe the passersby sitting in front of his windows, surrendering in the street, or to find opportunities to keep contact with people in restaurants, among unemployed workers who are lined to get benefits surrounding life for writings. In this works of writing, the characters from his novels such as thefts, policemen,salesman and etc can vividly show their lives and make readers think its life. O.Henry experiences flexible time in which he is engaged in various jobs an even in prison. He also has great affection in life and likes vast grassland. Living in grassland makes him excited and open-minded. Combined unlucky experience with optimistic personality, he feels more contradictory. As a result, his works also reflect successively surprising plots to readers. 2.1.2 Situation of characters in novel The Cop and the Anthem was released in 1904 when New Industrial Revolution had going on. Great Material Civilization has achieved by American capitalism through the procedure of industrialization. Great changes has also happened on American life style, as well as increasingly extreme disparity between the rich and the poor. In the beginning of this short story, the comparison between shabby soapy and leather coat woman establish the foundation of wide gap between the rich and the poor. In cold winter, the rich can buy tickets to go to the beach and drift in Vesuvius Bay and etc. But the poor represented by soapy is worried about his accommodation and food in winter. From Maslow#8217;s hierarchy of needs, the most essential and strongest need for people is living. However, in this high developed both material and spiritual civilization city, the poor cannot live well with enough food and clothes. Facing the coming severe winter, soapy chooses a more satisfied living place, that is in prison because he should not care about hungry and warmth and shares the same interests and situation with companies. All of which exposed completely the tragic conditions from lower depths who struggle for their most essential living needs. At the same time, through soapy#8217;s experience, we clearly see the essence of American judicial and social system, as well as dirty and abjective society. 2.2 Writing styles of novel O.Henry adopts many kinds of rhetoric devices to make effects. In the Cop and the Anthem, Black Humor is applied well to express irony with meaningfulness. Here the humor is different from purpose of fun instead of revealing author#8217;s emotional tendency and attitudes to characters. It is clearly showed that the author doesn#8217;t directly write down his tendency and then lets humorous story itself to speak. Through this kind of writing style, actually, the author can be objective and calm,hiding real emotion into the story, more easily appeals to common thoughts and emotion with readers. Human plays an important role in the whole work. At first, the story is plain that soapy#8217;s life experience much misery, suddenly, the plot quickly changed to an unexpected and reasonable ending. The readers have fun while showing sympathy for soapy#8217;s tragic undergoing. When soapy did bad things and wished to be arrested, the policemen didn#8217;t punish him and even show their generosity,which are humorous plots but also exposed ironic reality in the U.S. At the same time, by contrast, firstly, the author describes soapy#8217;s bad things and policemen#8217;s generosity. Secondly, the shabby soapy and leather coat woman have different jobs. One is a tramp and the other is a cocotte. They also have have different social status. Last but not least, miserable and unexpected ending. Humor and misery mix up in the story, which will bring readers much fun as well as deeply reflect the tragic theme of this absurd society. 2.3 Analysis on characters The character in the novel is a complicated man. Different people hold different opinions. Some of them think that soapy is lazy and indolent tramp. But some believed that soap has prideful and persevering spirits. In the beginning of the Cop and the Anthem, it refers that soapy#8217;s origin intention is pure and kind. We can know that soapy was not a lazy tramp. Also, his life contained with love, friendship and affection of family. He was an aggressive and kind youth with stable occupation. Though he gradually comes to a tramp, he still wants to keep the pride soul. Couples of intended committing are just because he would like to stay in prison for avoiding the cold winter. Soapy perhaps can seek jobs to feed himself on busy streets to avoid being a tramp. But he later degraded life. All of which made him hate himself. We can not simply define the soapy as bad or good guy. On one hand, he didn#8217;t positively find a job to support himself to get through this winter instead of thinking of the prison where he needn#8217;t care about food and warmth, as well as not labor work. Laziness is deeply planted in his mind. To achieve his purpose, he even spoils his personality and did a lot of bad things. Of course, the author also printed out that he is self-respect and pride,looking down upon the charities and benefits for the poor. In particular, at the end of the story, soapy was attracted by the anthem from church,recalling his wonderful moments and deciding to refresh his life. In conclusion, he is an unlucky tramp. His unlucky life and attitudes of behaviors are all result from the society. Although he is selfish and rude, we can feel his kindness and purity in essence. O.Henry adopts writing techniques and conclude the reality of society to convey meaningful theme. It#8217;s his obvious characteristic. Through describing soapy#8217;s tragic experience, the author actually would like to criticize ironically the extravagant life of higher-level society and expose the cruel nature of monopolistic capitalism. Compare to the struggling life of vast bottom-level labor people. It outlines the extreme diversity in a capitalistic society and reveals the miserable life of bottom-level people. He charges the oppression of ruler and points out the social root reasons of miserable life of the poor. Soapy#8217;s bad behaviors did not arouse the attention of policemen, they didn#8217;t punish him. However, when soapy decides to refresh his life, the policemen arrest him for no reason. Through this funny, unexpected and surprising plots, we can clearly tell that the society is confounding right and wrong, bad and good. It#8217;s a so ironic society and moral standard. O.Henry shows his sympathy for thousands of bottom-level people in American society and at the same time he praise highly for positive attitudes of them to the miserable lifetime. However, he stress his importance to convey anger and taunt to this ugly society. Table of Contents 1. Abstract 2. Introduction 2.1 Introduction of author 2.2 Introduction of novel 3. Literature review 3.1 Background of writing 3.1.1 Situation of writer 3.1.2 Situation of characters in novel 3.2 Writing styles of novel 3.3 Analysis on characters 4. Methodology 5. Results 6. Discussion of results 7. Conclusion 8. Works cited