Sacrifice In The Gift Of The Magi

In "The Gift of Magi," Della and Jim sacrifice their prized possessions for each other and for love. Irony is represented in this story when Della and Jim both get each other gifts that mean a lot to each other. However, what they did not realize is that when Della cut her hair to to buy Jim a chain for his watch, she was unaware that Jim was going to sell his watch to buy her combs for her hair. The irony of their gift exchange is monumental as their unconditional love for one another took over for their own personal possession. Jim exclaims, “I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first." The magi which are described as wise men also signifies irony because Della and Jim's presents were more than wise. They represented that a gift does not need to be expensive to have value. A gift can be more meaningful just by the thought.

In "The gift of the Magi" and "Bert and Ernie's Christmas", both show various similarities and differences. The first similarity was they both were short on money and on time, causing them to trade their treasured possessions for money in order to buy a gift for their loved one. One difference in " The gift of the Magi" there status was husband and wife, while in "Bert and Ernie's Christmas" they were just friends. Despite their different relationship status, in both stories they gave up their prized possessions for each other, not knowing they needed their belongings in order for them to properly use the gifts they had received. As an example in "The gift of the Magi" the wife, Della, sacrificed her hair to buy her husband a

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 short story (The Gift of The Magi) was written by O. Henry. O Henry full name William Sydney porter, he wrote many short stories and one of his best-known stories is (The Gift of The Magi). The story is about a woman named Della who saves up for to buy her husband Jim to buy him a Christmas gift. She saves up and on Christmas day she has one dollar and eighty-seven cents to buy Jim a gift. she sells her hair and gets 20 dollars for it and buys Jim a gold watch chain for his nice gold watch he owns that has been passed down from generation to generation. Jim sold his watch to get Della the chair combs she loved. In the end the all loved one another and didn't care about the gifts. In the story (The Gift of The Magi) one literary theme is imagery they use biblical, visual, and tactile imagery.

The comparison O. Henry makes between the story of Jim and Della and that of the Magi is rather relevant as the Magi were the ones who are credited with being the origins of the “giving nature” of the Christmas season. In this story, we see a man and a woman so blinded by love that they are willing to make ultimate sacrifices for the happiness of the other. Similar to the Magi, Della and Tim put each other before themselves and through their generosity and considerable lengths they both went to achieve that generosity is something more admirable than any materialistic gift they could ever offer each other, thus making the uselessness of their gifts irrelevant.

Italian Early-Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli’s “The Adoration of the Magi of 1475,” is interesting overall for its visual composition, and the narrative going on within that composition. As far as introductory details, the work probably falls into the religious painting genre, but with elements also found in Renaissance pastoral landscapes, such as the presence of Roman ruins and a muted, earthy color scheme. The work consists of tempera on wood panel, and is a fairly large 44 in x 53 in

“Gift of the Magi”, short story by O’Henry, and Gift of the Magi, directed by Lisa Mulcahy, is about a young newlywed couple that sell their most valuable possessions to get each other what they want for christmas, yet discover the true gift they got was love. The conflict in Gift of the Magi has many differences and yet few similarities. The conflict between both the short story and film is that Jim, the main male protagonist, and Della, Jim’s wife, struggle to purchase gifts for each other for christmas. In the short story, Della gets her hair cut off to buy Jim a chain fob for his watch, and Jim sells his watch to buy combs for Della.

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

The Gift of the Magi is about a married couple who are very poor. They both give up and sell their most prized possessions to get something special for their mate for Christmas just to make them happy. The story shows sacrifice. It gives great examples of what it means and how it is shown. Sacrifice is shown for what it is.

The Gift of the Magi follows Della and James “Jim” Dillingham Young. The young couple lives in a time of economic hardship, leaving them with little money in the holiday season. Della had “one dollar and eighty-seven cents… [with] sixty cents

Selfless according to the Oxford English Dictionary means, “concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than with one's own.” In today’s world it is very uncommon to find people that are completely unselfish. In the story The Gift of the Magi there is a couple who are both exceedingly concerned about the other rather than themselves. I admire this trait and I feel that it is more suitable to be unselfish in a relationship since it shows the other how much one cares and it helps form a valuable relationship between two individuals.

In O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi,” a married couple, Della and Jim is struggling financially. Della is very upset because she does not think she will be able to buy a gift for Jim on Christmas. When Christmas day comes, Della tells Jim, “I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift.”(O. Henry 51-52) Because Della loves Jim so much, she decides to cut her hair. She uses the money to buy him a watch fob for his heirloom watch. Little does she know, Jim is just as thoughtful and caring. After giving Jim his gift, he tells Della, “‘I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs.’”(O. Henry 53) Jim’s love for Della is so strong. He sells a very expensive heirloom to buy his

Throughout “The Gift of the Magi,” Della has been characterized as caring and selfless. One quote to support this theory states,“Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she only had $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.” (Maupassant 261-262) This quote demonstrates that Della is caring because it shows that Della saved everything she could in order to purchase a gift for Jim. Della had worked extra hard in order to purchase something for Jim, but in all that work, only came $1.87 from which to buy a gift. Della cared strongly about Jim so because of that she worked hard to save money, but didn't have enough for him. Della also didn’t mind working harder for Jim because she loved him so much. Another quote to prove that Della is selfless is, “‘Will you buy my hair?’ asked

“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.

“True love is about sacrifice for the sake of the ones you love. “ In The Gift Of The Magi by William Sydney Porter, also known as O.Henry, the couple, Della and Jim James Dillingham Young, each had their own special trait or article of theirs that they prized more than anything else. Della prized her beautiful long brown hair, that had been grown just past her knees. Jim prized his gold watch that had been his grandfather’s, then his father’s and now his. They find it upon themselves to buy a valuable gift for each other for Christmas, and with only $1.87, Della sells her hair to buy a platinum chain for Jim’s watch. That would have worked out well if Jim hadn’t sold his watch to buy tortoise shell combs for Della’s hair, which she sold. They both liked each other's gift and the thought that was put into it, and although their gifts may not be able to be used at that time, they still shared their love. The theme of the story is, love means sacrifice.