...“The Gift of the Magi” (1906) remains one of the most recognizable and frequently anthologized stories in American literature. In its time the tale was extremely popular, both commercially and critically, and O. Henry was called the “Yankee Maupaussant.” Today the story is considered juvenilia and has not garnered much serious critical attention. “The Gift of the Magi” initially appeared in one of O. Henry's best-known collection of stories, The Four Million, which was published in 1906. Plot and Major Characters On Christmas Eve, a young married woman named Della has cut and sold her long, beautiful hair to earn the rest of the money she needs for her husband's Christmas present: a platinum chain for his treasured watch. When her husband, Jim, returns to their apartment, he is shocked to see her hair gone; he has sold his watch to buy her a pair of tortoise-shell combs for her long hair. Touched by his thoughtfulness, Della assures him that her hair will grow back and she gives him the watch chain. When he sees the gift, he lovingly tells her that he has sold his cherished watch to buy her the combs for her hair. The story concludes with an omniscient narrator praising the sacrifice and love of the young couple. Major Themes Critics have noted the irony of the young couple sacrificing their most treasured possessions—Della's hair and Jim's watch—in order to buy each other gifts related to those same possessions. Poverty is also a prominent theme, as Della saved her...
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...The Gift of the Magi Ashlee Stevens ENG125: Introduction to Literature Amy Sloan September 10, 2012 Ashford University The Gift of the Magi The Gift of the Magi was about sacrificial love. The story explained how important it is to be willing to sacrifice for the one that you love. No matter what the circumstance, if a person can unselfishly give of themselves for another, they can experience life in a whole new way. Many people give what is not important to them and makes no difference. I think the term “it’s the thought that counts” has been used to justify just giving anything to a person without actually put your heart and soul into the gift you are giving. O. Henry uses The Gift of the Magi to demonstrate the importance of expressing your love through sacrifice. O. Henry uses setting throughout the whole story to show the reader how little Mr. and Mrs. James Dillingham Young have. In the first paragraph the reader already has a sense of how meager their living conditions are when Della has counted the one dollar and eighty-seven cents three times. He explains the lengths she went through to save that much money, and sixty cents of it was all pennies. He does not immediately describe their way of living all at once. He draws it out through the whole story so the reader never loses the sense of the struggle that Della and James are living in. In the second paragraph he says that she flopped down on the “shabby little couch”. (Clugston...
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...The Analytical Magi William T. Long ENG125 Instructor Kurt Mueller January 5, 2013 In O. Henry’s short story, “The Gift of the Magi”, a young couple must give all they’ve got to give each other the best Christmas present possible. The wife (Della) needs a gift for her husband(Jim). She has very little money, but a priced possession in her hair. She has her hair cutoff to pay for a gift for her husband (a gold chain to match his priced gold watch). When Jim gets home, she finds out he sold his watch to get combs for her beautiful hair(cited in Clugston, 2010). This creates a kind of paradox where both parties wanted to get a special gift for the other, sparing their most precious items to do it. Both presents are now irrelevant, but it shows each have a deep love for each other. The theme, tone, point of view, and characters in this story are all special and work together to make this story. Each facet of the work helps build and support the story from start to end. The point of view in this story starts off as third person limited. In the majority of the story the reader is only let in on Della’s world. The reader follows the path on how she feels over the anguish of not having enough money to buy her husbands present. It then goes on to tell how she got the money and the hardships involved there-in. Toward the end of story, her husband comes home. We still don’t see much into his world even after he shows up. For example, the story...
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...more about the situation of Jim and Della. The short of it is they live in a shabby flat and they're poor. But they love each other. Once Della's recovered herself, she goes to a mirror to let down her hair and examine it. Della's beautiful, brown, knee-length hair is one of the two great treasures of the poor couple. The other is Jim's gold watch. Her hair examined, Della puts it back up, sheds a tear, and bundles up to head out into the cold. She leaves the flat and walks to Madame Sofronie's hair goods shop, where she sells her hair for twenty bucks. Now she has $21.87 cents. With her new funds, Della is able to find Jim the perfect present: an elegant platinum watch chain for his watch. It's $21, and she buys it. Excited by her gift, Della returns home and tries to make her now-short hair presentable (with a curling iron). She's not convinced Jim will approve, but she did what she had to do to get him a good present. When she finishes with her hair, she gets to work preparing coffee and dinner. Jim arrives at 7pm to find Della waiting by the door and stares fixedly at her, not able to understand that Della's hair is gone. Della can't understand quite what his reaction means. After a little while, Jim snaps out of it and gives Della her present, explaining that his reaction will make sense when she opens it. Della opens it and cries out in joy, only to burst into tears immediately afterward. Jim has given her the set of fancy combs she's wanted for ages, only now...
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...The Gift of the Magi Gabrielle M Parks ENG 125-Introduction to Literature Jennifer Thompson November 1, 2014 Throughout literature writers have sought to entertain or to tell a very important story. Often there is a hidden depth or theme to the story that is overlooked by the reader. The story The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry is about value and sacrifice. The author uses point-of-view and situational irony to support and bring meaning to the various themes. Theme The theme of a story tells you what the story is about (Clugston, 2014, section 6.1). It is essential for the reader to establish the theme of the story so that he/she is aware of what the writer is trying to convey. In The Gift of the Magi the main theme of this story is sacrifice. Each character sacrifices something for the other person. Also, in addition to sacrifice, value and love are themes as well. Both characters felt a deep love for the other and therefor sacrificed something that held great value to them. It is immediately apparent that the main theme is about sacrifice and value when the author writes, “One dollar and seventy-eight cents. And the next day would be Christmas” (Clugston, 2014, section 4.4). Also the author writes, “Now there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride” (Clugston, 2014, section 4.4). One of those items was a pocket watch Jim had that belonged to his father and the other was Della’s hair (Clugston, 2014, section 4.4). From...
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...Why does O. Henry call his story “The gift of the Magi”? What do you think about the last phrase of the author’s remark? What do you think is his point of view of love and sacrifice? “The gift of the Magi” is a famous story by O. Henry. The author calls his story “The gift of the Magi” because he wants to emphasize the meaning of the gift and shows his admiration for the love of Jim and Della. First of all, the Magi were the three wise men from the Bible. They brought unique gifts to the baby Jesus (“Biblical Magi”, para. 1). This is reflected in the story by O. Henry. Della and Jim sold their most precious possessions to give each other the most valuable gifts for the Christmas. Della was willing to sell her precious hair to buy Jim a platinum chain, and Jim was willing to sell his precious watch to buy Della a beautiful comb. Both Jim and Della have shown that they were willing to sacrifice the most treasured thing they have to give something to the other. In the exchange, they gained something new. Love is not something they have of their own; love is something they share together. They unwisely scarified in order to make their sweetheart happy. The presents seemed to be useless but it is priceless indeed. Their gift giving shows the selfless love of each for their loved one. They care deeply and want to please the other. The gift was valuable because it came from the heart. At the end of the story, O. Henry expressed his love for the characters. He admired their unconditionally...
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...For one to understand the differences between Sesame street "The gift of the Magi" and the original "Gift of The Magi"(By O. Henry) they must understand what they have in common as well. We are able to compare the stories because they are both about giving away there most precious items to get something for the others special item. Instead the end up with neither of them having a special item.You have to go further into the story to undertsand what is going on. The impact of the differences can be seen in the similarities as well. The popular show "sesame street" happened to do a clip on "The gift of the magi"(by O. Henry). They directors did an amazing job turning a story like that into a childrens clip. Both are extreamly similar to the other. For instance, both of the "couples" had a...
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...The short story “The Gift of the Magi” was written by O. Henry in 1906. The story is about a husband and wife who did not have enough finances to buy each other gifts at Christmas time. So the couple sacrificed two precious items to show their love for one another. This theme and narrative essay will explain O. Henry use symbolism and characters to contribute to the themes of poverty, generosity, and selfless love. The main symbolism was use in the title of the short story. In the biblical story of the birth of Jesus three men came in on camels bringing precious gifts to the son of Mary and Joseph. “These three represent the Three Wise Men or Kings, also called the Magi (Jesus, 2007).” The wise men brought Jesus three gifts gold, frankincense and myrrh. They gave them freely and unselfish because they believed Jesus was “the promise one”. The symbolization in “The Gift of the Magi” was that Jim and Della gave three gifts to each other freely and unselfish. Jim’s watch, Della’s hair and selfless love for each other were the three distinct gifts given in this short story. Three themes was basically portrayed in “the Gift of the Magi. One theme was poverty. One dollar and eighty-seven cent was all Della had on Christmas Eve. Della begins to cry over the fact she did not have enough funds to buy Jim a Christmas gift. “In the vestibule below was a letter box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring (Clugston, 2010).”...
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...LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY THE GIFT OF THE MAGI The Gift of the Magi is one of the most popular short stories by O. Henry, a pen name for William Sydney Porter - a renowned American author. Originally published in 1906, in O. Henry’s second collection of short stories, The Gift of the Magi which displays all of the major O. Henry traits in abundance has given him credit for his genuine talent. It has been retold in various forms since then, especially at Christmas time. The story is about a young poor couple, Jim and Della Dillingham Young, who each sells their most precious possession in order to buy a Christmas gift for their partner, but in doing so, they end up making each others gift worthless. The profound philosophy about love, generosity and gift-giving is successfully delivered to readers by O. Henry in part through a compelling plot and a unique point of view. A simply inspiring storyline with a clever twist ending, for which O. Henry is well-known, helps bring the short story a huge success. Despite some different attitudes on fundamental plot elements which should be included in a great story, Freytag’s idea of five key parts – exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and denouement, is predominant. These factors are also apparently demonstrated in The Gift of the Magi. In the phase of exposition, James Dillingham Young, also called Jim, and his wife, Della, are introduced as a poor young couple living in New York. Even so, there are...
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...short story “The Gift of the Magi”, which is written by O. Henry, the point of view of the story is told in the third-person point of view and is in the omniscient point of view. The third-person omniscient point of view seems to be seems to be constant throughout the story. The only time this point of view changes is in the last paragraph of the story. The point of view goes to first person as the narrator speaks directly to the reader “The magi, as you know, were wise men” (Henry, O. 1906) then the narrator uses I in this part “And here I have lamely related to you the unevent¬ful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house” (Henry, O., 1906). I felt the way in which the story was told by its point of view we were able to see several details about the couple. We were able to see where they lived, their lifestyle and how much they loved one another. The theme of the story is about love and sacrifice. The characters of the story are both unselfish and gave up something that they treasured in order to give a gift to the other. They were not well off and did not have the money to buy Christmas presents but they found a way by selling something that they treasured in order to buy something for the other that they knew they would love. References: Clugston, R. W. (2014). Journey into literature (2nd ed.). San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. Henry, O., 1906, “The Gift of the...
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...Poverty, Love, and Each Other “The Gift of the Magi” remains one of the most recognizable and frequently read stories in American literature. During its time the tale was extremely popular. Today the story is considered juvenilia and has not garnered much serious critical attention. “The Gift of the Magi” initially appeared in one of O. Henry's best-known collection of stories, The Four Million, which was published in the late 1906. This story’s plot has two main characters on Christmas Eve. A young married woman named Della has cut and sold her long beautiful hair in order to gain enough money to purchase her husband a Christmas present. The present that she wants for her husband is a platinum chain for his pocket watch. However when her husband Jim returns he is stunned to see that she has cut her hair. He is in turn has sold his pocket watch to purchase her a pair of tortoise-shell combs for her long hair. The author throughout this story is trying to explain to us the feeling of mutual respect people have for one another as well as the love that these two people feel for one another even though they are poverty stricken . As the author tells the story he is sure to describe the mutual feeling, love and respect that Jim and Della have for one another. He also is showing how much they were devoted to one another and gave themselves to one another to ensure that the other one was happy no matter what their situation may be. Jim and Della were totally devoted to each other...
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...In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” penned by O. Henry 1906 written in third-person objective point of view. This stories illustration is about a married couple that makes lavish decisions of sacrificial love to provide Christmas gifts for each other. Della is the main character in the story and shows the love she has most from actions of the heart in the story. The theme is demonstrated by the unselfish loved the couple has for each other. The narrator describes the setting as poor, as stated by Henry, “In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James Dillingham Young” which they used during the time of prosperity now they are considering only the initial “D” since hard times have hit (Clugston, 2010). One could also surmise the conditions of them being poor when reading that Della is counting her change which is only $1.87 not enough to get Jim a gift for Christmas. “For most rich family, one dollar and eighty seven cents might not be an important sum of money. Nevertheless, $ 1.87 would mean a lot to Della because it was "something fine and rare and sterling." She planned to use the little money she owned and bought her husband a Christmas present. $ 1.87 was one ordinary level, but on another level something valuable to Della (Lin, 2010)”. The narrator goes on to describe how Jim used to make $30.00 per...
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...English 1102 “The Gift of the Magi” “The Gift of the Magi” is a very touching story written by O’Henry. This story is often told during the Christmas season and teaches the true meaning of gift giving. The main characters in the story are Jim and Della. They are a very poor married couple that lives in a ragged flat with only two prized possessions. Della's beautiful, brown, knee-length hair is one of the two great prized possessions of the poor couple. Her hair was gorgeous and she loved it. The other is Jim's gold watch that was passed down from his grandfather and father. Jim also loved his watch. The story opens with Della counting one dollar and eighty seven cents. It is one day before Christmas and she wants to buy her husband Jim a gift. She cries hysterically because there was not enough money to buy a gift. The story continues as Della walks to the mirror and gains her composure. She looks at her hair, pulls it back, and walks out of the door. Della walks to Madame Sofronie's hair goods shop, and she sells her hair for twenty dollars. She now has twenty-one dollars and eighty seven cents. After Della sells her hair, she goes to several different stores looking for Jim’s gift. She looks for several hours until she finds the perfect gift. The gift she finds seems to be made perfectly for Jim’s watch. Della finds a platinum fob chain. As soon as she saw the chain she knew it was perfect. The chain seemed to be like Jim with its quietness and value. The new chain...
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...The Gift of the Magi Themes Love "Gift of the Magi" is the story of a poor, young couple whose love for each other is the most important thing in their lives. Such is their love that they're led to sacrifice their most valuable possessions to find Christmas gifts for each other. The warm home they make together contrasts with the drabness of their poverty and the dreary world outside. Their love seems to know no bounds, though Della (the wife) worries about how her sacrifice will affect her husband because of how it affects her looks. If ever there were a story with the message that all you need to be happy is love, this is it. Sacrifice The two main characters in "Gift of the Magi" are a husband and wife who give up their most precious possessions to be able to afford gifts for each other on Christmas Eve. The story seems to be all about sacrifice. We watch Della go through the process of deciding to make the sacrifice and going through with it, only to discover that her husband has made the same sacrifice. The story's narrator assures us that in their willingness to give up all they have, they have proven themselves the wisest of all gift-givers. It might remain unclear, though, exactly what their sacrifice has accomplished, or how it has affected them. Wealth In many ways, "Gift of the Magi" is a story about what it means for something to be valuable. Does something's value lie in how much money it is worth? Or are other things more valuable than money? The main characters...
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...At what point does kindness devolve into self-sacrifice, when it is a simple gift of money or the loss of the most important items owned? O. Henry tells a fascinating tale in his work, “The Gift of the Magi”, about a coincidence in which a couple each trades their most valuable possessions to buy something for one another. Each of the gifts that they purchased happened to only be useful when their significant other has their most valuable possession. “The Gift of the Magi” leads to a deeper meaning about the interaction of social classes, showing the cruxes of the lower classes. Starting from the beginning of the story, references are made to the wealth of the main characters. When Della began to count her money, she came to the conclusion of how little she actually owns, “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all.” The short story’s first two sentences, simple, but telling, go far in describing the social class of the lead characters. From this small piece of information, it is revealed that money is difficult to acquire. Following these opening sentences, the rest of the story recapitulates this idea throughout, “shabby little couch”, “Pier-glass”, and the “mendicancy squad”. O. Henry uses this distinction of class to emphasize the...
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