The Magi Comparison

In the two stores, “The Gift and the Giver” by Brent K. Ashabranner and Russell G. Davis and “A Rich Man’s Son” the authors discuss the importance of giving to others and showing gratitude for the gifts received.

“The Gift Of the Magi’, short story, by O Henry. “The Gift Of the Magi’ is based on a couple who don't have enough money to buy their significant other a christmas present so they do what they have to do and seek their most desired treasures with a twist at the end. O Henry, the author of “The Gift Of The Magi”, uses irony and symbolism throughout the story to impact the reader. Irony is a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one accepts and is often amusing as a result. The couple in “The Gift Of the Magi’ is Della and Jim Dillingham.

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

Have you ever wondered if wishes could be granted? If you have, you probably thought of everything you could get with them. Being rich, unlimited wishes, fame etc. Well in “The Monkey’s Paw,” written by W.W Jacobs, you wouldn’t want to make a wish. This story takes place in England. In this story, a family named the whites has a chance to increase their fortunes with an magical object, a monkey’s paw. This magical paw from India has the power to grant three wishes from three separate men, the downside of this paw was that the wisher would have to pay the price. The simpson’s give the same message in their parody, but in a way different way. In the parody, it imitates “The Monkey’s Paw,” in a dramatic way. The parody takes place on a halloween night, but in a dream. Homer finds a magical monkey’s paw at a shop that has the power to grant four wishes. As you can already see, even though the parody gives the same message, it has it’s own differences to the original story as well. These two versions share both differences and similarities.

It can be argued that Christmas as a holiday is far removed from the way it was first envisioned. That said, there are certain element that many people share or celebrate making it an arguably complex holiday. As the preeminent children’s author of his generation, Geisel serving heavily on the minds of his young readers helped shape what Christmas means for many people with his narrative How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. Though at the surface the work is a simple morality tale that promotes unity over consumerism, it has subtle nuances that make the work interesting on several

Firstly, A Christmas Story changes the style of the framed narrative. In the story, Ralph Parker is looking back on his childhood after a woman expresses her opinion on “disarming the toy industry.” However, the movie opens inside Ralph’s childhood with an adult Ralph as the narrator. This change does not take away from the story, though. It allows the audience to be put right into the action of the story rather than making the audience wait for something to happen that causes the narrator to look back on their life.

Christmas is recognized by the general public as a time to celebrate family and give gifts. Which it is, but gifts can go way deeper than physical objects. This is exhibited in a book, The Greatest Gift, and a movie, It’s a Wonderful Life. In 1943, Philip Van Doren Stern wrote the Greatest Gift. It tells the tale of George, a person who is about to kill himself but is then shown what the world would be like without him and realizes he shouldn’t kill himself. Unable to find a publisher for it, Philip put the story on his Christmas cards and mailed them to friends. A couple of his publisher friends thoroughly enjoyed it and made the move to publish it in a newspaper. This caught the attention of film director Frank Capra. He decided to fill in

On Christmas Eve was a Tradition. They told the story almost Perfectly, stopping to Discuss if it was this word or that word, and if they said the lines in the right Order. It made for a Interesting night.

One example Payne uses to illustrate the difference in the two types of giving is the Toys for Tots

Conflict is opposing actions, ideas, and decisions that hold a plot together. Clugston (2014) states “Conflict is the struggle that shapes the plot in a story” (4.1 Plot, para. 4). Conflicts are also encountered in most of the literature we read for pleasure. It can create personal connections and instill deeper meanings to our experiences as we read, especially if we can relate what is read to our personal life.

The main point in both texts is that everything that is offered needs to be returned with something of equal or greater value. In Mauss’s text, he focuses on how humans have typically been obligated to give, receive and reciprocate gifts. He uses examples of the competitive gift-giving of the Northwest Native-Americans, the obligatory gift-giving of Polynesian cultures, and the religious gift-giving of the Eskimos to emphasize how this is one of the foundations of human culture. Lee’s text follows a similar strand. He argues that giving something means you will get something in return whether you want it or not. He showed this in his story, he gave ox got a lesson on humbleness. Together these texts show an interesting perspective on the concept

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

Religious beliefs soon formed new values as the importance of gift giving became a ‘tradition’ among religions. In most religions helping others who could not help themselves was already a steadfast belief. As people’s values of wanting to help and give to others started to intertwine with the calendar holidays many people started to look for newer and better gift ideas for their loved ones and soon strangers as well. Christian’s predominantly could be found buying minuscule little gift items, such as notebook paper, pencils, and ribbons, for the homeless children, their families and the poorer community that could not provide for themselves during the holiday seasons.

The Journey of the Magi by TS Elliot centres around one of the three Wise Men who travelled to Bethlehem shortly after his birth bringing him gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

“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.