Important Themes and Biblical Symbolism in O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”
The Young’s are a very poor couple living in New York City. James and Della Young are both scrambling to get the other something for Christmas but, neither have enough money. Even though both of the Young’s decide to give up what is most precious to them for the other, both do it out of selfless love for one another. The young couple both lose in the end what is most precious to them. However, both do receive the ultimate gift from each other and that is the gift of unselfish love which is worth more than any physical object. The title “The Gift of the Magi” completes the true meaning of the story by comparing this unique gift of love the Young’s have with the love that Christ had for his people. The multiple themes of O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi” are crucial to the reader’s understanding of the decisions made by the two main characters. The three main themes of generosity, love, and poverty ties the story together to show the reader what the best gift of all truly is.
The reader can infer that this story takes
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They are talking about one of the two things they are proud of and that is Della’s hair that is now mostly gone. Della says “Maybe the hairs of my head could be counted, but no one could ever count my love for you.” Jim responds by saying “Nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less.”(Henry 5) These two short quotes from the story show us that the Young’s have a true love that is rare to find and that neither care about the gift but that they get to be with each other and wanted to make the other happy on the special holiday. Henry says at the end of the story he has told a story of two children that are not wise but then calls them wise out of all who give and receive gifts, they are the real magi’s (Henry 6). Magi’s were the wise men that came to see baby Jesus bearing gifts for
A poem which evokes a mood of pity in the reader is “Assisi” by Norman MacCaig. In this poem, MacCaig recounts an experience that shaped his own life while visiting the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi in Assisi, Italy. While the church is known for it’s outstanding beauty and priceless artwork, the poet discovers a beggar with severe physical disabilities begging outside the church. MacCaig then exposes the irony of the church constructed to celebrate a man devoted to poor, is now a symbol of hypocrisy. Instead of being a lasting monument to the original and noble philosophies of St Francis. Norman MacCaig evinces pity within us by effectively applying techniques such as vivid imagery, emotive word choice and contrast.
In “Christmas 1910” Robert Olen Butler uses plot to illustrate that sometimes the things a person thinks they need, they already have. In the beginning the protagonist Abigail is shown as being lonely. The only thing she has in her life is her horse, Sam. She spends all her time with the horse, the horse is her only companion in life at this point. Abigail loves Sam, yet she longs for something more. Robert Olen Butler uses the plot to illistrate how lonely Abigail feels, and how she longs for someone in her life to love and spend time with.
O. Henry is a very inspirational person, in “The Gift of the Magi,” he makes the story go a lot deeper than the words on the page, with a little something called symbolism. One thing he really specializes in is symbolism, certainly with adolescence, worriness, and timelessness in this story. Symbolism plays a huge role in the narrative, a role so big that without it, the story would be quite dull. Without symbolism, this story would not have half the meaning it does now, when you dig into the story, you discover how much Della and Jim really love one
Lots of people have received gift that is not particularly favored. Those people know exactly how Ana and Dori feel. Ana is a character in Erin Fanning’s “The Quinceanera Text”. Dori is a character in Rachel Vail’s story “Good Enough”. Both of these characters received disappointing gifts, but later the girls realized how much these present represent the love the families show towards the young ladies. “Good Enough and “The Quinceanera Text” have similarities and differences such as author's tone and types of characters.
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
The short story The Gift has many layers with in itself on different topics. The topics of discrimination, feminism, friendship, tradition, and power all can be seen in this story. Many literary devices can be seen in the story also. Such as: theme, metaphor, tone and symbol. This story unlike most as that I couldn't predict what was going to happen that made the girls leave the school. Just as it says in the beginning paragraph "No one expected Merceditas Cáceres, on the day Carlotta Rodriguez was expelled from the Sacred Heart, to hang her silk sash from the doorknob, drop her medal of the Congregation of the Angels in the alms box, and walk out through the schools' portico arm in arm with her friend, head held high and without deigning once to look back, with that gesture of paramount disdain so commonplace in those of her social class." (Ferré) Just like no one in the story would have expected the main characters to do this, during the story I could not figure out why they would have done it.
A selfless act is good but good is not an act done for recognition. To Nathan, part of friendship is giving of oneself without receiving. The Templar shows his selflessness when Nathan offers the Templar riches for rescuing his daughter from a fire, but the Templar declines any praise with anti-Semitic insults, “Permit what, Jew?” (211). The Templar’s refusal, although harsh, seemed to affirm the goodness Nathan saw in the young man, “A modest greatness would hide behind the monstrous, merely to escape admiration” (212). The lengths the Templar went to in order to save a life is a testament in itself of his goodness, far more powerful than his insults, "I find it strange that such an ugly spot [on Templar’s robe], soiled by the fire, bears better witness than a man’s own lips” (212).
In this chapter Reyna is reunited with her father, however she is disappointed of their detachment. Even though, she has complicated relationships with both of her parents with the inclusion of this scene the reader learns of the relationship between her and Mago. To Reyna this sisterhood bond is valuable and fundamental to Reyna’s growth. Due to the emotional distance between Reyna and her parents the siblings foster a stronger bond as an act of resilience against their complex relationships with their parents. Taking in consideration the achievements of Reyna Grande as an author, aside of growing up in poverty and the difficult relationship with her parents is an act of personal resilience. By sharing her story Grande can foster community resilience for those that find representation in her work. Also, due to her vulnerability and act of letting the reader into her healing process, her narrative creates a sense of empathy in the reader and for those with similar experiences solidarity and
The literary fiction “A Visit of Charity” is a deceptively simple story. Marian, is a young Campfire Girl, who dutifully visits an “Old Ladies’ Home” (122) to gain points for her charity work. Although, one would expect at first that Eudora Welty’s story would be all about charity, care, and being noble in the process of doing so. A closer look at the characters’ real motives, along with the settings and imagery reveals that the visit becomes one of selfishness which blinds people to the real needs of others, rather than being truly charitable and noble.
Through the eyes of Nick Carraway, which in this case substitutes the narrator as well, the author depicts the majestic life of those who, by pure coincidence or happenstance, were born more advantageously than the rest of society. Their life is full of riches and placed in a fairy tale decorous. However, despite all that, their life is not a fairy tale in the least. On the contrary, it is far from that.
The story “The Gift of the Magi” tells the story in only a good light. There is a darkness the story does speak upon, Jim and Della were the complete opposite of wise they were imprudent. The characters are poor but still want to get each other gifts for christmas with money they got from selling what they held closest to their heart. Jim regrets buying Della combs because hasn’t got any hair to comb. “But if you’ll open that, you may know what I felt when I came in.” Love can be bad if there are miscommunications and poor decisions. If a relationship has a poor future is there really a relationship in the first place. Jim wants to let the gifts be forgotten as they had poor communication and neither could use there gifts. “let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while” (Henry para.40) Being in a relationship can cause you to make bad decisions. A relationship should be built upon two pillars respect and knowledge. If a relationship has only respect then it will slowly crumble and fall leaving only the ruins of a somewhat bright
Later in the story, the narrator builds the theme of religion by indirectly revealing a strong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. This devotion is taken t...
The irony of the stories ending is even though their gifts was not wise because they both cannot use them but they sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house, which is their true love for each other, making it the wisest. They are the Magi.
"What say you? can you love the gentleman? This night you shall behold him at our feast; Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face, And find delight writ there with beauty's pen; Examine every married lineament, And see how one another lends content; And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies Find written in the margent of his eyes. This precious book of love, this unbound lover, To beautify him, only lacks a cover: The fish lives in the sea; and 'tis much pride For fair without the fair within to hide: That book in many's eyes doth share the glory, That in gold clasps locks in the golden story; So shall you share all that he doth possess, By having him, maki...
There are four types of love in this world, philia, eros, agape, and storge. Philia is the love of friends. Eros is romantic love. Agape is unconditional love. And storge is the love of family. In the four stories “A Secret for Two”, “The Gift of the Magi”, “Thank You M’am”, and “Too Soon a Woman” they all portray a type of love. This essay will show you how each of the stories portray a type of love.