The story under discussion is called The Green Door. It is one of the works by OHenry, the famous American writer of the end of the 19th century.

The problem it’s devoted to is, that very often real life interferes with our intentions, and here with the intentions of the main character Rudolph Steiner, who is an adventure-seeker.

The composition of the story has a climatic structure.

In the exposition the author tunes up the reader to make him perceive the story, and does it in and adventurous way.

One day Rudolph leaves the house in search of the unexpected as usual, walking along a street in New York he receives a card from a dispenser. Here the conflict begins, as all people receive dentist’s cards and he receives cards with a mysterious inscription “The Green Door” two times running.

We distinguish several stages of gradation.

Rudolph enters a house in the street, which might keep some secret in store for him, as he thinks.

The tension gradually grows, he walks up the stairs and sees a green door in front of him. This is the green door!

The next stage of gradation comes. He knocks at the door and sees a girl, a fragile and exausted one. It makes him draw a conclusion, that it was she who had written the cards in order to find a man to support her.

Rudolph’s kind nature gets the better of him and he rushes downstairs to bring some food to give the girl.

He brings it and lets the girl have it. The girl tells him the story how she had come to do so badly.

Rudolph leaves the flat. And looking around he takes notice of the colour of the doors in the house. Here comes the climax of the story – they are all green. It makes him understand that it was a mere coincidence, and that he was not right, when he suspected her of distributingthe cards.

Then comes the anticlimax – Rudolph says that all the same he believes that the hand of Fate doped out this way for him.

The message of the story can be interpreted as following, that sometimes we should rely on Fate and then everyone will find his green door.