The Gift Of The Magi Literary Analysis

In, “The Gift of the Magi”, there are many symbols including the chain symbolizing love and money, the watch symbolizing money and family, and Della’s hair which symbolizes beauty, love, and money. The first piece of text evidence is that the chain symbolizes love and money. Della is trying to find the perfect Christmas present for Jim with the little money they have. To gather more money, Della cuts off and sells all of her hair. While Della is looking for a present, she comes across a stunning chain that would go perfect with his watch. Della stops and thinks, “Quietness and value-Jim and the chain both had quietness and value,”(Henry 3). The chain symbolizes love and money. It symbolizes love because she sold her most prized possession to buy that

She must really love him if she is willing to do that. The chain also symbolizes money because, that chain was expensive and so if Jim wears the chain with his watch, people will believe that their family has more money than they actually do. Another piece of text evidence is one that talks about how the watch symbolizes money and being rich. In the story, “The Gift of the Magi”, the couple has a little amount of money. The only object that s valuable to the couple is Jim’s watch. Della states, “Though the watch was so fine, t had never had a fine chain,” (Henry 4). The watch symbolizes money and family. This is because since the family has little to no money, having the watch is a representation of the money they used to have. Also, it symbolizes family. This is because the watch has been in their family for many years. In the story, it is explained that the watch used to belong to Jm’s father. Jim wearing the watch, shows how much hs family and his family history means to him. The last piece of symbolism is Della’s hair symbolizing beauty, love, and money. At this point in the story, Della just got back from the grocery store. She had a remaining one dollar