The Gift of the Magi

"The Gift of the Magi" -- Bri Mason, Kassie Marsala, Victoria Goodale

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by Bri Mason, Kassie Marsala, Victoria Goodale

Robert Louis Stevenston has said that, “The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish” (Literature quotes). This is accomplished by different authors, even though it may be hard. One example of a writer who has been able to achieve this would be O. Henry. O. Henry was able to write what he meant and affect the reader as he wished in his short stories. The most well know short story that he has written was, “The Gift of the Magi”. A way that he was able to reach these things  was through his themes,  which happened to be love, generosity, and materialism.  When analyzing O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi”, it is seen that the author uses various literary elements to help the reader better understand the themes of the stories.

Characters in “The Gift of the Magi” portray qualities of love, generosity, poverty, realism to life and obstacles people face everyday. O. Henry created a very intriguing main character of beauty and emotion for his protagonist, who happens to be Della Young. She is a selfless, giving character whose main focus in life is her love, Jim. She has beautiful long locks, which is the fairest hair in town and she sacrifices it for Jim’s Christmas gift, this is displayed when the narrator states, “She got out her curling irons and lighted up the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love” (O. Henry). Della tries to mend her elegant hair, in hope that Jim still thinks she beautiful. After, she had sold it to lady Madame for money to purchase Jim’s gift, it shows her love for him and her selflessness as she would do anything in order to get money for him. As stated in the story, “…two foolish...