Dealing with the themes of love and sacrifice, O. Henry’s ‘The Gift of the Magi’ was published in 1905. The story focuses on a young couple Della and Jim, who sacrifice important things to buy each other Christmas gifts.
Della only has $1.87 saved to get any presents- due to a cut in her husband pay-check and a significant amount of that money going towards rent, she couldn’t save a lot more money. Heartbroken, she decides to sacrifice the one thing both of them take great pride in- Della’s luscious, extremely long hair. She searches for a shop and immediately stops at the sign “Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds”.
She sold her hair for $20 and brought a thoughtful gift- a platinum fob chain- to represent Jim’s simplicity- to match his watch which was his prized possession . She was nervous about how Jim will react to the haircut.
When he returns, he takes a couple of minutes to adjust to Della’s decision- not that he minded the haircut; he asks her to unpack the gift he bought for her- when she does she instantly starts sobbing as it is an embellished comb. And when Della hands Jim his gift- he cannot attach it to his watch because he sold the watch for her gift.
O. Henry titles the story ‘The Gift of the Magi’ because he equates this exchange of gift with that of the Magi gifting Baby Jesus, in the biblical story of Christmas.
The narrator concludes that Della and Jim’s gift exchanger is far purer and that they are wiser than the Magi because their gifts contain the added value of love and sacrifice.
Written in the third-person omniscient narrative style, ‘The Gift of the Magi’ is a straightforward story, focusing on a pellucid theme- the excellence of this story lies in its simplicity.
Comments