THE GIFT OF THE MAGI

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (1906)

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry (1906)

Introduction

"The Gift of the Magi" was written by O. Henry, and it is one of the famous collections of literary pieces in the American literature. In that era, the tale was very popular, and O. Henry was known as "Yankee Maupaussant." The Gift of the Magi was one of the best collections of stories and was published in 1906. This paper focuses on the literary elements that contribute to the larger narrative themes of the story “The Gift of the Magi.”

On the eve of Christmas, a young married lady named Della wanted to give her husband Christmas gift, particularly a platinum chain of his watch. However, she does not have money to buy a gift thus; she had decided to cut and sold her long hair so that she can buy a gift for her husband. On the other hand, her husband, Jim unaware of this fact returned to their residence got shocked to see that his wife hairs were no long as they were. Although, he also sold his treasured watch to buy a pair of tortoise-shell combs for his wife. Della was so touched by his husband's care, and promised him that she will again grow her hairs as before then presents him the chain for his watch. This story ends with a narration of praising the young couple's love and sacrifice (Rollins, 1914).



Discussion

In this short story, the theme of sacrificing, love, feminist, and poverty was prominent. The young couple sacrifices their most precious and important obsessions. For instance, Della sacrificed her hairs, and Jim sacrificed his precious watch for each other. The other theme of poverty is also very obvious, as she was saving money for months ...