The Gift Of The Magi Analysis

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.

In "The gift of the Magi" and "Bert and Ernie's Christmas", both show various similarities and differences. The first similarity was they both were short on money and on time, causing them to trade their treasured possessions for money in order to buy a gift for their loved one. One difference in " The gift of the Magi" there status was husband and wife, while in "Bert and Ernie's Christmas" they were just friends. Despite their different relationship status, in both stories they gave up their prized possessions for each other, not knowing they needed their belongings in order for them to properly use the gifts they had received. As an example in "The gift of the Magi" the wife, Della, sacrificed her hair to buy her husband a

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

The irony in the gift is that when the wife sold her hair to buy a watch for her husband and he sold the watch to buy her a comb, this was unselfish love for each other. The wife and husband just wanted to please each other, a love story.

This short writing written by a woman of the time of the Great Depression, brings an impact to the reader’s mind, and different views of this historical event. The author describes the terrible situations she had to get through, and clearly shows an argument of why the women were actually more in need than the men, who in our learnings, were a bigger part of this happening. Through this essay, she used many different writing skills and definite points, to hit the reader’s emotions, and thus persuade us to this point.

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,

Both Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry, the authors of “The Necklace” and “The Gift of the Magi”, are considered two of the best short story writers to have ever lived, and they both use irony to develop a complex theme in their stories. They both deal with young, poor couples who face certain trials, and are surprised by an unexpected, ironic event – although in different ways. In both of these stories, the authors create suspense and humor to create an enjoyable story. In both stories; there are several main themes including wealth, sacrifice, pride, and love; that can be seen in both “The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace.” One of the most noticeable pieces in both stories is the amount of wealth, or lack of wealth, that the couples have. The authors set the characters in an uncomfortable, drab environment. This can be seen in “The Gift of the Magi,” in lines 11-13 as, “a furnished flat at $8 per week (…) did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad” (Henry, 11-13), and in “The Necklace” in lines 13-15 as, “shabbiness of her apartment, the dinginess of the walls, the worn out appearance of the chairs, and the ugliness of the draperies” (Maupassant, 13-15). The Youngs are a low working class couple, while the Loisels are part of the middle class before the they lose the necklace. Altogether, it is clear that in

The Magi story and the Sesame street video are similar and different in a variety of different ways. Something the video and the story have in common is that all of the characters are poor, and cannot afford a Christmas present for one another. While comparing both the video and story, we can see that all of the characters care about each other so much, they are willing to trade their most prized possessions to put a smile on the other person's face. When contrasting the video and the story, you can see that the setting and characters from the video are from sesame street, while the couple in the Magi story are very much human and it is taken place in an older time. A distinction between the video and the story might be what their prized possessions

The art piece that caught my attention was at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The piece is called The Adoration of the Magi, painted by Girolamo de Carpi. The Holy Family and the Three Magi’s are illustrated in the painting. They seem to be sitting outside on the ground behind a home made of brick. A sense of space and perception is created because in the distance, behind the people in the painting there is a beautiful view of a mountain and the sun in the sky far from where the people are. In the artwork, de Carpi paints clothes on each person besides baby Christ, and the clothing differ in color; there is red, green, yellow, blue. The colors seemed somewhat bright, in a way indicating that the painting is representing a happy time. Also painted are horses depicted behind a short wall, next to the horses seems to be a servant giving one of the Magis a vessel of some sort.

The twists and turns of the plot as it unfolds within O. Henry 's “The Gift of the Magi” are what simply captivate the reader in such a short amount of pages. The story of Jim and Della on a cold Christmas Eve at the turn of 20th century America is centered around what is remarkably relevant to what many readers have experienced in their own lives; the inevitable stresses, sacrifices, and joys of the holiday season.

Similar to “The Cask of Amontillado,” O. Henry includes dramatic irony so the reader becomes emotionally connected to the story and pities its characters throughout “The Gift of the Magi”. It is known that both Jim and Della sold their most prized possessions in order to buy each other a Christmas present. The first instance of dramatic irony is when Della opened her present revealing an exceedingly thoughtful gift from her husband. “White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! A quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all comforting powers of the lord of the flat. For there lay The Combs- the set of combs side and back that

Near the end, the Jim says, “Let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They’re too nice to use now. I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our dinner” (Henry, pg. 6). When Jim finds out Della bought him a gold chain for his watch by selling her hair, he realizes they both care for each other so much they would give up their favorite things for the other person. The author used this to perfectly to show how two people will give up almost everything in order to show they love the other person. During the last paragraph the author discusses how foolish they were, but contradicted himself by saying, “But let me speak a last word to the wise of these days: Of all who give gifts, these two were the most wise” (Henry, pg. 6). The author is saying Della and Jim’s presents to each other were not the combs or the chain, it was their sacrifices they made for each

The gift of the magi by O. Henry and the sesame street version have many similarities such as how both of the relationships had been extremely close, and how they had sacrificed their belongings so the other could have a marvelous present, even though both had not have that much money at the time. Another similarity that the magi and the video have in common is they would do anything so other would have a outstanding Christmas. While there is many similarities there is also many differences. In the magi, Jim and Dell (main characters) were not able to receive their hair and pocket watch that they had once sold, but in the video they had received their prized possessions that they had once sold.

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

“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.