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Wealth In The Necklace And The Gift Of The Magi

Decent Essays

Another theme that can be found in these two short stories are wealth. In The Necklace, wealth is a theme that the author uses when he describes Mathilde’s history, fantasies, and jealousy against wealthy people. The author talks about Mathilde’s history and how she lacked wealth. The narrator, writes “She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born by a blunder of destiny in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no means of being known, understood, loved, married by a man rich and distinguished” (Maupassant 1884). This shows that Mathilde is born to be luxurious, but instead is born into a low class family. It has been established that Mathilde wants a lot more than what she has. Mathilde fantasizes about wealth. The …show more content…

Because of the issues with wealth Della has to save money penny by penny, the couple has to live in a low class flat, and the couple is insecure about living in poverty. Della has to save money whenever she gets the opportunity to. The narrator narrates, “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied” (Henry 1906). This shows that Jim and Della are extremely poor. It’s very challenging for them to save up a small amount of money such as “One dollar and eighty-seven cents” (Henry 1906). Della has to embarrass herself because she has to act cheap to obtain pennies from various vendors of all sorts. Because of the lack of wealth, the young couple has to live in a low-class flat. The narrator explains the living conditions of the couple by using imagery, “A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad” (Henry 1906). This signifies that the young couple live in a very underprivileged flat. The story teller uses certain words such as “beggar” to show how poor the couple is. The couple is insecure about living in poverty. The narrator claims, “The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D” (Henry 1906).The quote talks about Jim’s salary and how it has decreased. They think about how they look to others, and they're presently so poor that they're even humiliated to have a name that may sound

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