Book Review: The Cop and the Anthem

This book is written by O. Henry, whose real name is William Sydney Porter. This book tells a ridiculous story about one man trying to get arrested. The author uses relaxing and humorous words and surprising plot to tell a deep thought and think over the disadvantage of society.


The author writes this story from the view point of a spectator. The whole story is full with a sense of humour. Firstly, the plot is designed thoughtfully. Soapy wanted to be sent to jail to live through the winter. He did lots of illegal things to attract cop's attention. But he didn't "succeed". And when he changed his mind and tried to turn to the good, he got caught surprisingly. The whole story looks funny and ridiculous apparently. The author made the story more humorous by the choosing the words fit. He used lots of rhetorical devices in this book. For example,

A dead leaf fell in Soapy’s lap. That was Jack Frost’s card. Jack is kind to the regular denizens of Madison Square, and gives fair warning of his annual call. At the corners of four streets he hands his pasteboard to the North Wind, footman of the mansion of All Outdoors, so that the inhabitants thereof may make ready.

He used simile and symbolism to describe the difficulty that Soapy met and that makes the story lively.

And also in a moment his heart responded thrillingly to this novel mood. An instantaneous and strong impulse moved him to battle with his desperate fate.

The simile here is very fitting to describe the hope and happiness Soapy when he heard the anthem.


The author successfully made the story sounds funny and humorous. But the thought he gave through the story is just opposite. The "gentlemen and ladies" Soapy met are lately found as thief and prostitute. And in the end, when finally Soapy decided to find a job and do something good, he was caught by the police. The author is trying to tell the disadvantage of the society with the funny ploy.
The humour is used to ugly side of the society. The difference between the appearance of the story and the meaning makes the satire much stronger.

O. Henry provides a really amazing story. The amazing point of the book is: the story sounds ridiculous and funny apparently. But when you give it a deep thought, you will find all the ridiculous things happened to the character is reasonable. And the information the author gives from the book is just oppositely heavy. It's really amazing and thoughtful for O. Henry to represent this with a story full of sense of humour. I highly recommend this book to others.