Not only do “The Gift of the Magi” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” both show the theme that the best gifts are received through actions, they also both develop the theme through symbolism. In the story, “The Gift of the Magi”, when Della was explaining to James as to why she cut her hair, Della clarifies, “‘Maybe the hairs of my head can be counted,’ she said, ‘but no one could ever count my love for you.’” (O. Henry, 5) This shows that Della’s hair symbolizes her love for James, and how it meant more to her than her most valued possession. By stating, “‘no one could ever count my love for you,’” demonstrates that even though their love cannot be seen, their love was eternal and her love will never succumb to anything else, especially
Alone with his dog Max on Mount Crumpit, poor Grinch hated the entire idea of all the Christmas bliss. He had a repugnance for all that participated in such holiday because of the countless rejections he received from the Whos as a child. Many Whos including the Mayor of Whoville himself would ridicule him for lack of better appearance making the Grinch feel remorseful and unfit for the Whos’ standards. For this reason, he stayed far, far away from the Whos and anything pertaining to them. No one quite realized the reasonings for the Grinch’s cold-hearted tendencies and rather just came to the conclusion that his heart was just two sizes too small. So the Whos continued on with the life and the holidays without any thought of the grumpy
Twas the night before Christmas, two creatures on trial, one who is cheap, and the other who is vile. The Grinch from Dr. Seuss’s, How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol are head to head against each other to be the meanest this Christmas. The Grinch is a putrid green monster who lives up in a deep, dark cave, hating all cheer. Scrooge is a miser who hates all human life and never buys anything that’s not cheap. The Grinch is meaner because he goes down to Whoville, rips everything with holiday cheer away from the poor Whos, and doesn’t even care, he just smiles with hatred to Christmas. He does all this just for the fun of it.
Heroes have fascinated the masses for years; this is displayed in comic books, movies, and myths that trail back farther than five thousand Before Common Era. The question that goes through all minds at some point, however, is what makes a hero? Joseph Campbell wrote his theory of "The Hero’s Journey" in which he describes the path the hero will tread and the trials and tribulations ahead of them. That is not to say that there are not multiple ways to go about a hero tale, there are various kinds of heroes, which all change the story. There are tragic heroes, classic heroes, epic heroes, and more. In the film The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington fits Campbell’s archetype of the Hero’s Journey tragically, as he enters the
Although a sociologist can look at Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch that Stole Christmas in all three of the major theoretical perspectives, the main one expressed is symbolic interactionism. The Grinch that Stole Christmas is a story about a “who” who was not considered to be part of their “whoville” society due to the fact that he not only looked different from the rest of the people, but he acted in different ways than their norms. The story is merely about how the Grinch hates the “whos,” because of how they treated him; until, a little girl named Cindy Lou Who gains a curiosity for the Grinch and wants to give him another chance to be a part of their society. Throughout the story both of the main characters develop a deep connection to each other. Upon viewing the story from a symbolic interaction perspective view, I discovered how the story thematically symbolizes an important part of Christmas by giving people another chance; meanwhile, focusing on the relationship between the main two characters help them regain faith, and while the setting symbolizes their society’s purpose.
Halloweentown is a fantasy land overflowing with ghosts, vampires, and witches. Jack is the leader of this town and is known as the “Pumpkin King”. Jack realizes he has grown tired of the same routine, and is faced with an identity crisis.
Whether or not you consider Ron Howard's version of Dr Seuss's classic How The Grinch Stole Christmas comical, yet disgraceful, there's no ignoring the little green monster's reign over the box office. The movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas starring Jim Carrey, was released in November of 2000, reaching a gross high of over $200 million in the U.S alone (The Numbers). However, I feel that this version has over exaggerated the original story, and I will back this up by showing many examples of how Dr. Seuss’s classic turned into a marketing, franchise frenzy.
The story was written by O’Henry in 1906. The story was centered around a seemingly poor couple who did not have enough money to buy each other the gifts that their significant other deserved. The story took place during Christmas. The Gift of the Magi is like a classic wisdom story in the bible. O’Henrys choice of title depicts symbolism between the three magi that brought gold, frankincense, and mur, to the baby Jesus and the gifts that Jim and Della had given to each other which mainly consisted of selfless love, Della’s hair and Jims pocket watch. This itself ties into the theme of his story. These gifts all entail the act
The grinch was special from the start.the grinch was green love glass for some reason.The green had a crush on martha but there was competition. Agustis bullied him and said you can’t get martha you already have a beard. the next day the grinch had hack marks . Every wanted him so he ran away
When I started learning to write my name we’d recieved a laminated name tag I wrote my name to many times to count till I perfected the writing.
The author of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, used symbolic interaction to describe the Grinch in the movie. Symbolic interaction is the behavior between one another that shows symbols and body language. The movie is about a Grinch who does not like Christmas. The Grinch believes that if he takes the present away from the whos in Whoville that he will ruin the special Christmas spirt that the whos have.
Psychoanalysis by definition, “is a psychological and psycho therapeutic theory conceived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud (McLeod 1). According to Freud, psychoanalysis deals with the concepts of death, sex, and violence. In dealing with psychoanalysis, he determines that there are three parts of the unconscious mind, the ego, the superego, and the id.
With the season, sounding the holiday spirit, the movie that I have chosen to analyze a character that depict a personality disorder and, “enduring patterns of experience and behavior that differ greatly from the norm and the expectations of the individual’s social group”, is Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The character’s behavior that I will be examining is the Grinch and the personality disorder that he acquires to exhibit is anti-social personality disorder. Anti-social personality disorder is one of the four disorders consider appearing dramatic, emotional, and unpredictable. As a person with anti-social personality disorder they tend to not care about other people’s feeling showing little remorse, along with aggressive behaviors. Generally, individuals start showing signs of this disorder early on in childhood as early as six years old, and include symptoms of impulsivity, behavioral problems, callous social attitudes, and lack of feeling for others. Antisocial personality disorder implies that the person does not conform to social norms and tend to little or no respect for the law.
The twists and turns of the plot as it unfolds within O. Henry 's “The Gift of the Magi” are what simply captivate the reader in such a short amount of pages. The story of Jim and Della on a cold Christmas Eve at the turn of 20th century America is centered around what is remarkably relevant to what many readers have experienced in their own lives; the inevitable stresses, sacrifices, and joys of the holiday season.
Stories of love and sacrifice abound in literature. Perhaps one of the most well known stories among teens and adults is the tale of a poor, young couple struggling to find the perfect Christmas gifts for each other using their very limited means. They each manage to get what they think is the perfect gift for the other, but only accomplish this by selling a prized possession which effectively makes the new gifts impractical. This bittersweet narrative, “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry, illustrates the moral idea that a person, motivated by nothing but love for another, can possess a willingness to give in a self-denying way which necessitates that the reader consider that wealth be measured by something more than having money
“My purpose is to show that in every human heart there is an innate tendency towards a respectable life; that even those who have fallen to the lowest depths in the social scale would, if they could, get back to the higher life…”(Rollins 7-8 ). O`Henry came up with this philosophy when writing his many different, entertaining stories. “The Gift of the Magi” was initially published in 1906 in O`Henry`s second collection of stories. “The Gift of the Magi” is a perfect story to illustrate how people do anything for the ones they love. The main characters each sell their most valued possession in order to buy the other the perfect Christmas present. They each bought the other something to complement their prized possession. Ironically, they had both sold their prized possession to get the other a gift.However, they bought gifts that were now useless to one another. Themes have some aspect of life, general truth, or moral that is shown throughout the story by the author. The themes in this short story really stand out to the reader. The way in which the two main characters demonstrate their selflessness for each other helps to emphasize the three major themes: poverty, love, and sacrifice.