The Gift of the Magi
Essay Preview: The Gift of the Magi
Report this essay
“The gift of the Magi” by the amazing author O. Henry, is a Christmas short story that is beloved all over the world. Written in 1906, “The Gift of the Magi” is probably his greatest piece. The story contains many of the elements for which O. Henry is widely known, including poor, working-class characters, a humorous tone, realistic detail, and a surprise ending. The selfless love and sacrifice in the short story makes it a popular realistic Christmas and also my favorite story. The persons worth comes not with the money he has or the gifts he made, but with the sacrifice he is willing to make for a loved one.
The first sentences confront us right away with the problem: “Della only has $1.87 to buy a Christmas present, and it is Christmas Eve”. This is short exposition of the story. After the first paragraph the author give us more information about the situation. Della and her husband Jim are poor; she loves him more than anything else in the world. Also, she needs to buy him the perfect Christmas present, with $1.87. When Della sold her hair, we also learn the other most important fact for the story: her hair and Jims gold watch are the only important possessions that the couple had.
The point of view of the story seems to be omniscient. Its told in the third-person, and only follows Della. We dont see what Jim is doing during the story, because that would ruin the surprise ending of the story. The third-person point of view also helps the readers to see how big sacrificed each of them make for loved one. Also helps the reader to feel as if they are inside the head of the character and knows all hers thoughts and reactions.
Della is the main character in the story and her mission is to find her beloved husband the perfect Christmas present. She is the character with whom we most identify. We suffer with her as she tried to buy, the man she loves, a good present. We also feel the weight of the sacrifice she makes. She cut and sold the only valuable thing she had: her hair. On other hand, Jim sold his only valuable thing too: his golden watch. Because Jim and Della both face the same challenge and respond the same way, they are both protagonists. On the other hand, the poverty and the luck of money are against them. That is the antagonist at the story. The climax is in the end of the story, when Jim stepped inside the door “His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression on his face that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for”. Della opens Jims present to find the combs. Then we understand why Jim was so shocked. After that, she gave him the present she bought for him. Della was so excited and asked him for his watch. He told her that he sold the watch to buy her nice present. Then both of them realized that they made