When you spend time in jail, you get a new view on life. Since O' Henry spent some time in jail for embezzling, his stories all seem to have a lawless element. Running from the law seems to be a big part of his short stories, and even more than his famous surprise endings, the obvious similarities between the stories, especially the lawlessness element, obscures the plots as just details. When you consider that 2 of …showed first 75 words of 1178 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1178 total…lies it's greatest strength. O' Henry, William Sydney Porter, whoever the name may be, in his short stories discovers depths of meaning in the causal word or action, he can suggest in a page what struggles to be said in a volume, which makes him uniquely worthy and capable of the study we put in his stories over this unit, and what makes him one of a select few; a master of the short story.