Sacrifice In The Gift Of The Magi

#1 New York Times best-selling author, Karen Kingsbury, says, “You don’t have love without sacrifice; you can’t have sacrifice without love.” Sadly, when it comes to people sacrificing something very dear to themselves for someone else, most people struggle and cannot do it. Although, that is not the case for Della and her husband. Della and her husband, Jim, are characters in the story, “The Gift of the Magi,” written by O. Henry. The two lovers live in a cheap, rundown apartment with little money to spare. When Christmas comes around, both must find ways to buy each other gifts. Through the characters’ actions and irony in the story, the theme is revealed as love can bring determination in someone to make then even sacrifice something of theirs to get the job done.

She was in love with Jim and she wanted to buy him a gift for Christmas but was only able to save one dollar and eighty-seven cents. Della also had beautiful hair that she adored. It states on page 2 that her hair, “fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters.” She ended up cutting all her hair off just so she could gain enough money to buy a proper gift for him. This supports the theme of love bringing out determination because she loved Jim so much that she sacrificed her hair for money. Jim’s actions also support this theme from when he did something similar to what Della did. It states that on page number four, “I sold my watch to get money to buy your combs.” Jim’s watch was Jim’s prize possession that he sacrificed out of love to buy Della combs for her now non-existing hair. Both of these examples of the characters’ actions are things the author uses to reveal the theme of love bringing determination to the point of sacrificing