What Is Ironic About The Gift Of The Magi

"The Monkey's Paw," deals with a family's unwillingness to accept things as they should be. They desired more and paid the dire

An implied paradox in the story “The Gift of the Magi” by William Porter is that the main characters, Della and Jim Young are both poor and rich. They are poor in material things,but they are rich in love. The author uses irony in the story to show this. The beginning of the story introduces Della and explains that the couple does not have much money; her husband, Jim’s wages have been cut and it is almost Christmas time. She sees a perfect gift for Jim, a chain for his watch which was a family heirloom passed down from his father.

The story "The Gift Of The Magi" and the Sesame street video were different and similar in various ways. One difference is the presents. Della and Jim sold A watch and Dellas hair for money to buy gifts, on the other hand Bert and Ernie traded their most valuable things so they could get a gift for each other. Also one similarity is before there presents, They are both a poor family with no money and can barley get food but they still want to have a good Christmas so they need money. Another Difference is the ending, In the Sesame Street ending Bert and Ernie got their Ducky and paper clip collection back while on the other Della didn't grow her hair back and Jim didnt get his watch back. The last similarity is they

In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” Della and Jim is a young married couple who love each other very much. Della makes a sacrifice of cutting her long and beautiful hair so that she could have the money to buy her husband a chain for his watch. This is contrasting to “A Doll’s House” because in the story Nora instead of telling her husband what she wants for Christmas she asks Torvald for money so she can buy herself a gift. Jim does the same thing as Della did he sold his watch that was passed down from his grandfather and his father so that he could buy a comb set for Della for her beautiful hair. The personal sacrifices that each made was similar to a sacrifice that Nora made she borrowed money illegally so that her husband and dying father could be spared the stress of having to deal with the borrowing and lending of money. (Porter).

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

After reading both The Gift of the Magi and Saboteur, I found they both have awful types of irony. The irony in The Gift of the Magi contained a dramatic irony, a situational irony, and a verbal irony. The irony in Saboteur only contained a situational irony and a verbal irony. No matter what purpose you choose, you should use this purpose to accomplish something.

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.

The effect of irony in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi” is to reveal character traits and to provoke the reader into analyzing them. Situational irony is used to show how loving both Jim and Della are. For example, Della states, “… I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have live… without giving you a present,” and Jim later voices, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.” After buying what they thought would be the perfect gift for each other, they found out that, for the time being, the gifts were useless because the combs were for Della’s now cut off hair, and the fob chain was for the the watch that Jim sold for her. This reveals how they loved each other so much that they gave up their most prized possession

O. Henry is known for writing and including irony in his writing. In the story, “The Gift of the Magi” He used irony when Della sold her hair to buy her husband, James a watch chain for his watch to replace his leather watch chain for Christmas, but her husband James sold his watch to give Della some beautiful combs for her hair, but both the hair and the watch were gone. They were both very poor and so they had to earn money quickly so they sold their most prized belongings for gifts for each other. The Irony in the story was that they had both bought new and improved accesories for their most prized possessions but for them to afford them, they sold their own prized possession and so when it was time to receive their gifts, They had already lost what they needed for the gift. Della lost her hair for the gold watch chain and james lost the watch for the turtle shell combs.

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

Irony is when the outcome contradicts the expectation and is an effective literary tool when used by authors, therefore having an understanding of irony can enhance the reader’s experience. Often there is a surprising plot twist in the story that can elicit an emotional response from the reader ranging from sorrow to amusement. O. Henry and Daniel Keyes are two, American authors well known for masterfully incorporating irony into their works.

Della is willing to cut her gorgeous and flowy hair so that she can afford a Christmas present for her husband Jim. Della’s hair is admired by everyone, but she would have felt guilty if she did not get Jim a present. When Jim is standing before Della and her shortened hair, she gives him a fob chain. Also, Della explains to him that she, “couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving [him] a present” (Henry 264). Della has an altruistic disposition whereas Madame Loisel has a selfish and greedy personality.

Making a sacrifice for another human being is one of the most powerful indications of love. Love and sacrifice go hand in hand and where one is found the other is not far. In the short story “The Gift of the Magi” by author O. Henry, the author uses allusion and his voiced opinion to convey irony to show the true value of sacrifice and love in gift giving.

“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.

Situational irony is another element that is present throughout the short story. Della and her husband both buy each other gifts for Christmas at the end of the story. Ironically, Della and her husband bought each other gifts for what they gave up: Della bought her husband a wrist watch strap and Jim sold his watch to buy Della the combs she wanted for her hair. In the short story, Jim is seen grieving about the fact that she had cut her hair off, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on,” (O. Henry 121). The ending is situational irony because the reader was expecting that Della would buy her