The Gift Of Magi, And Mme Loisel's 'Gift Of The Magi'

In "The Gift of Magi," Della and Jim sacrifice their prized possessions for each other and for love. Irony is represented in this story when Della and Jim both get each other gifts that mean a lot to each other. However, what they did not realize is that when Della cut her hair to to buy Jim a chain for his watch, she was unaware that Jim was going to sell his watch to buy her combs for her hair. The irony of their gift exchange is monumental as their unconditional love for one another took over for their own personal possession. Jim exclaims, “I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first." The magi which are described as wise men also signifies irony because Della and Jim's presents were more than wise. They represented that a gift does not need to be expensive to have value. A gift can be more meaningful just by the thought.

Great ideas come from the least expected places. That's what happened to famous American short story writer O. Henry. He found himself a career by writing in a jail cell. Although this seems like a weird place, many of his famous pieces came from him writing while serving time in jail. O. Henry was famous for his surprise endings and also put a lot of his life experiences into his stories. Two of O. Henry’s stories where he incorporates his life into the most are “A Retrieved Reformation” and “The Gift of the Magi.”

It was one week from Della's 30th birthday and Jim didn't have enough money to

The story was written by O’Henry in 1906. The story was centered around a seemingly poor couple who did not have enough money to buy each other the gifts that their significant other deserved. The story took place during Christmas. The Gift of the Magi is like a classic wisdom story in the bible. O’Henrys choice of title depicts symbolism between the three magi that brought gold, frankincense, and mur, to the baby Jesus and the gifts that Jim and Della had given to each other which mainly consisted of selfless love, Della’s hair and Jims pocket watch. This itself ties into the theme of his story. These gifts all entail the act

Love is a powerful force that bonds people together through anything and everything. Love will make people do anything for the ones they love and sometimes can’t see the bigger picture. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, two young lovers in “fair Verona” from rival families come together in love. They instantly fall in love as soon as they lay eyes on each other and have to marry each other after only knowing each other for twelve hours. Romeo and Juliet have no idea what is to come due to their actions. Young love often results in a selfish isolation from the rest of the world which causes impulsive decisions that bring unintended consequences.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage” (Lao Tzu). In the myths Nanabush Creates the World, Orpheus and Eurydice and Savitri and Satyavan, they all have someone that they love. Their loved ones may be their weakness, however, the bravery they have comes from their loved ones. There are different kinds of loves exist whether it is in the past or in the present. Loves are everywhere, it is just how you see it. For example, love in a family can make one’s family strong and reliable and love between wife and husband can make create trust and responsibility. No matter what they must go through, they always willing to save each other.

Love affects what people choose to do weather it is right or wrong. “You’re going to have to make a choose, the girl said carl or us ” (Carver 785). In this example from “Everything Stuck to Him”the boy is faced with his family

“The greatest thing in life is love, and be loved in return” (Eden Ahbez). “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (Cor 13:7). Love also influences all things. It is a powerful force that drives people to do things they would normally not do. In the news, there are several instances of murder in the name of love or robbing a bank because a person needs money for the person they love. There are also everyday instances of moving cross country for the person you love, leaving the person you love just to see them happy, or choosing another career path just to be with your significant other. In the literary works The Epic of Gilgamesh and Medea. Gilgamesh and Medea prove

In The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry (1906), Della is one of two main characters, the other being her beloved husband, Jim. On Christmas Eve, Della has saved very little for a present for Jim when she decides to sell her most prized possession, her long beautiful hair, for more money. After doing this, and buying the perfect gift,

The comparison O. Henry makes between the story of Jim and Della and that of the Magi is rather relevant as the Magi were the ones who are credited with being the origins of the “giving nature” of the Christmas season. In this story, we see a man and a woman so blinded by love that they are willing to make ultimate sacrifices for the happiness of the other. Similar to the Magi, Della and Tim put each other before themselves and through their generosity and considerable lengths they both went to achieve that generosity is something more admirable than any materialistic gift they could ever offer each other, thus making the uselessness of their gifts irrelevant.

Love is a neurochemical con job that sustains people. Many people are influenced from their abundance or lack of love. This influence can lead to bettering a person’s life or destroying their life. Frankenstein is a prime example of someone who grew up surrounded by love and his choices still led him to make horrible decisions.

Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money

Love is one of the strongest bonds that keep any number of humans together. This bond, combined with our natural instinct to cooperate with each other is the strongest by far one of the strongest bonds that almost nothing can break. Love stories can be one of the most complicated to describe, and once two people establish the bond of love the need to cooperate with each other no matter what falls apart in the relationship can never be broken. Ha Jin depicts a story very similar to this in his novel Waiting.

“My purpose is to show that in every human heart there is an innate tendency towards a respectable life; that even those who have fallen to the lowest depths in the social scale would, if they could, get back to the higher life…”(Rollins 7-8 ). O`Henry came up with this philosophy when writing his many different, entertaining stories. “The Gift of the Magi” was initially published in 1906 in O`Henry`s second collection of stories. “The Gift of the Magi” is a perfect story to illustrate how people do anything for the ones they love. The main characters each sell their most valued possession in order to buy the other the perfect Christmas present. They each bought the other something to complement their prized possession. Ironically, they had both sold their prized possession to get the other a gift.However, they bought gifts that were now useless to one another. Themes have some aspect of life, general truth, or moral that is shown throughout the story by the author. The themes in this short story really stand out to the reader. The way in which the two main characters demonstrate their selflessness for each other helps to emphasize the three major themes: poverty, love, and sacrifice.

Authors use literary elements to enhance their writing through details to describe a scene in the author’s writing, or use language to elevate the story. “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry and “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, both use many literary elements to give their writing more depth. “The Gift of the Magi” uses irony throughout the story when Della and her husband, Jim, both do not have enough money to buy each other gifts for Christmas. “The Necklace” uses a lot of detail to show what Madame (Mme.) Loisel dreams of at the beginning of the short story. “The Necklace” is one of the many short stories that use literary elements to elevate the story and keep the reader engaged in the author’s writing.