Stray and The Gift of the Magi
At first glance, “Stray” and “The Gift of the Magi” do not appear to be similar texts. One story is about a little girl who finds a puppy and struggles to convince her parents to keep it. The other is about a wife who struggles to find enough money to give her husband a Christmas gift worthy of him. However, after deep analysis, it is clear to see that both stories share common ground, especially in theme. “Stray,” by Cynthia Rylant, is about a little girl who finds a stray puppy that wandered to her house in the winter. Her parents do not have enough money, so she fights to win their respect and make them believe that she has enough responsibility to take care of the puppy. The largest problem, however, is
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With her family’s lack of money, Doris, the protagonist, can only hope that her parents will let her keep the puppy. Many times, she is disappointed and succumbs to sorrow, all because of money. A time when this happens is when she begs for her mother to not let her father take away the puppy. In this scene, Doris’s mother tells her to act more grown up about the situation: lack of money. “...Shook her head, ‘You know we cannot afford a dog, Doris. You try to act more grown-up about this’” (Rylant 3). Furthermore, she also learns this when she tries to convince her parents to keep the puppy and ends up praying to the weather. In this occasion, Doris realizes that she does not have any more power or authority over the situation, and prays to another force that has no control. “‘I figure she’s really smart,’ Doris said to her mother. ‘I could teach her things.’ Mrs. Lacey just shook her head and stuffed a forkful of sweet potato in her mouth. Doris fell silent, praying the weather would never clear.” (Rylant 2). This evidence suggests that Doris has given hope of convincing her parents. Finally, Doris learns that that that lack of money can make people desperate to own what they know they cannot have, and fall into helplessness. when she is mourning in her room the taking away of the puppy. In this scene, the lesson is introduced. “...If she would ever in her life have …show more content…
In the beginning, Della sees that she doesn’t have enough money to buy her husband, Jim, a present. She falls on the bed and cries. “There was nothing to do but fall on the bed and cry. So Della did it.” (O’Henry 1). This shows her helplessness towards the situation. Another occasion is when Della decides to sell her hair to the store in order to buy her husband, Jim, the watch chain. “‘Will you buy my hair?’ asked Della. ‘I buy hair,’ said Mrs. Sofronie. ‘Take your hat off and let me look at it.’ Down fell the brown waterfall. ‘Twenty dollars,’ said Mrs. Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel its weight.” (O’Henry 3). In addition, Della is making a grand sacrifice by cutting her hair. It is one of the two things in her relationship that has any great value. Finally, at the end of the story, Della prays that Jim would still think that she was pretty without her hair. Della is regretting having cut her hair for a moment and is helplessly praying that her husband still loved her without her hair, and appreciated her sacrifice. “She often said little prayers quietly, about simple everyday things. And now she said, ‘Please God, make him think I’m still pretty.’” (O’Henry 4). The message is also clear: Della’s lack of money makes her helpless and causes her to make the sacrifice of selling her
While Doris Goodwin’s mother and father were a very important part of her life growing up her sisters were just as important. She talks about how while Charlotte, her oldest sister was not around as much as her other older sister, Jeanne she was still very important to her. She goes into detail about a shopping trip that was taken with the oldest and youngest siblings and how after the shopping trip to Sa...
She didn’t know if the dog had diseases, problems, anger, or anything, yet her first reaction to the dog was to bring it inside. On page 17 the text says, “Doris trudged through the yard, went up the shoveled drive, and met the dog. ‘Come on, Pooch.’” She went up to the dog, and let it inside without caring about diseases, problems, anger, or anything wrong with it. She did not know where the pup came from, and never thought twice about leaving it in the street, and that proves that she is a sweet person because she doesn’t care where you come from, she gives love to anyone in
"I'm too old to keep a dog," she says to the dogcatcher as he is leaving with a brown fice that showed up on her doorstep. "Besides, I'm slowing down," she says to her son during lunch. The stereotypes of the elderly are influencing Mattie's life. She is telling herself not to do things because of her age whether or not she is physically able to do them, simply because people associate age with inability and dependence upon others. Her family and friends are expecting and encouraging this dependence.Elaine and Robert, Mattie's two unmarried children, along with other family and friends, are encouraging her to be what they expect a seventy-eight year old woman to be. They talk about how she needs to get rest because she is slowing down and can't keep going as steady as she seems to think. When she decided to try and help a young juvenile, Wesley Benfield, become a better person by taking him to church and offering him to stay the night with her, Robert thought that Mattie was sick.
“She's a good dog, isn't she?”. Doris asking and explaining to her parents how good the dog was. Being lonely makes her feel like she needs a little friend to stay with her. Explaining and explaining, made Doris's parents feel like she was a good dog that was hoping to stay in their
As the novel How to Steal a Dog continues, Georgina, Toby and their mother are now living in a moldy, broken-down house with no water or electricity. This is a slight improvement to their living conditions and was overlooked by the misfortunate events regarding their mother's employment. This motivates Georgina to initiate a plan of stealing a dog to save their financial problems. Moreover, the section of this novel where Georgina's mother got fired really shows how relatable and real the protagonist's situation is. It reminds me of when my father got laid off of his job after working for a company for over 15 years. Not everyone has money and not everyone lives a happy, perfect life. Additionally, Georgina and Toby's relationship is like every
Susie’s mother opened the door to let Molly, Susie’s babysitter, inside. Ten-month old Susie seemed happy to see Molly. Susie then observed her mother put her jacket on and Susie’s face turned from smiling to sad as she realized that her mother was going out. Molly had sat for Susie many times in the past month, and Susie had never reacted like this before. When Susie’s mother returned home, the sitter told her that Susie had cried until she knew that her mother had left and then they had a nice time playing with toys until she heard her mother’s key in the door. Then Susie began crying once again.
”(3) Marie, Jeannette’s mother, completely refuses to take care of her own children. She doesn’t care for her children as any mother should. Any child, even at the age of three, should not be making hotdogs in a hot oven. This act shows how much independence her father has instilled in her.
She talks about how everyone thought she was joking about the child and feeding it hay, but to her there was no love for this child she had. Her daughter Sylvie grew up without her mother’s love and became a wild child, resulting in a child out of wedlock. Granny felt guilty she had not felt the love for her own child and carried that with her daily. Granny had a fear that her granddaughter would turn out the same way, she could already see that she was on that path. Granny loves one thing in her life, her little dog.
Mrs. James Dillingham Young, also known as “Della” in this short story. Della is in her early twenties and is married to Mr. James Dillingham Young known as “Jim.” Della is very thin and seems to move around in a fast paste. “Her hair reached below her knees and made itself almost a garment for her.” (O.Henry 166). Della takes a lot of pride in her hair. “Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty’s jewels and gifts.” (O.Henry 166). Della wanted to buy Jim an expensive gift for Christmas. “Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.” (O.Henry 165).
“The Gift of the Magi” and “The Necklace” are two distinctive stories with differences and similarities. “The Gift of the Magi” is about a couple who each desire to subsidize each other a Christmas gift. They both offer something beneficial in return. “The Necklace” is about an unappreciative; ravenous woman who receives a necklace from a friend. She takes it to a Ball and loses it.
At this point in the story, Della just got back from the grocery store. She had a remaining one dollar
Ms.Gehrsitz “The Gift of a Magi” In the short story “The Gift of a Magi” by O.Henry, a wife named Della and Jim need to get each other Christmas presents for tomorrow, but each of them on has $1.87. Della and Jim both give up their prized position; Della gives up her hair, and Jim gives up his watch to get each other a gift. They both get gifts for their prized possession they sold for money, so they need to wait until Jim gets a new watch and Della grows more hair. O.Henry uses revealing actions, description, and symbolism to show character motivation.
“The Gift of the Magi” Thematic Essay In the short story, “The Gift of the Magi”, the author O. Henry teaches us that love is more valuable than money. Della, the main character, is a very loving person. She really wants to get her husband Jim a Christmas gift. When she finds out that Jim cannot use his gift, she learns that her love for Jim is more valuable than getting him a gift.
She boldly decides to sacrifice her head of hair to a local hair buyer. Only to end up with another struggle, the internal thought of Jim disliking her new hair-style. However, through sacrifice Jim’s love for her was confirmed when he came home to her new appearance and exclaimed, “I don’t think there’s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave that could make me like my girl any less.”(354) Della was shown sacrificing her hair to prove to the reader that, love is shown through sacrifice. It directly confirms the theme in the quote above, because Della sacrificed something she adored, which only resulted in Jim’s reassurance of his love for her because her physical appearance means nothing to him.
It took ten years for Mathilde and her husband to pay off the debt of buying a new necklace. Those ten years were not spent with the luxuries she experienced so many years ago at the party, nor were they filled with the simple things she once owned and despised. She came to know “the horrible existence of the needy. She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism.” When passing her rich friend again in the street, she was barely recognizable. Who she was the day she ran into her friend was not who she was the night she wore that necklace.