Thematic Essay On The Gift Of The Magi

595 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on the theme of love in the short story the gift of the magi

“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. Della is a really loving person because of the way she lives. The living conditions that she and her husband Jim have to live in really affect their character. They are a very poor family. For example, the rooms are “Furnished rooms at a cost of $8 a week. There is little more to say about it.” This shows the type of house they live in - very small and not that well furnished. They also have to accept to the clothes that they wear. The author describes the type of clothes that she wears, “She put on her old brown coat. She put on her old brown hat.” Della really loves being Jim’s wife so she has to accepting for the things that she has even if they are had to live with. Being a loving wife really keeps Jim and Della’s love going. …show more content…

They don’t have many material goods to keep themselves happy so they have to be there for each other. For example, when the looking glass in the house was mentioned, it said that “It was very narrow.” Another example of not having good material goods is, “There was an electric bell, but it could not make a sound.” Despite their living conditions, they still really love each other and are proud to be a married couple. To show her love “Mrs. James Dillingham Young put her arms warmly about him and called him “Jim”.” The main problem in the story is that Della and Jim lack of material goods and money. Yet, the love the share really overpowers being a poor

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of The Documentary Waging A Living

    494 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Mary’s household, her two sons and daughter are dependent on her. Mary is head of the household and is currently going through a divorce. Mary is close to losing her house, car, and internet services. She hires babysitters for the days/nights that she has to work. Her children know that times are tough, and continuously encourage their mother. However, her son Quinn is dealing with the divorce and poor living in

    Read More

  • Lizabeth's Use Of Imagery In Marigolds By Eugenia Collier

    485 Words  | 1 Pages

    The short story is set in the period of The Great Depression, and lower classes especially struggled in this hard time. The Great Depression attacked the nation by society class. The lower levels struggled even more than usual. Lizbeth lived in a small rural town with a few members of her family. Her father and mother worked all day and Lizbeth and her brother, Joey, would hang out with other teenagers in their community to waste the daylight. The community always helped each other out but there was this one woman, Miss Lottie who played an important role in young Lizbeth’s

    Read More

  • The American Dream in A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry

    1014 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Youngers are a very poor family, and this shows in the setting of a tiny Chicago apartment with several people living in close proximity of each other. Hansberry also shows how the Youngers are a proud family by the way everything is arranged in the little apartment. Everything throughout the apartment was “selected with care and love and even hope – and brought to this apartment and arranged with taste and pride.” This shows that even though the Youngers do not have much, they are still proud of what they have. In a sense their pride is coming from the fact that they al...

    Read More

  • Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    Family relationships are our first introduction to living with other people. In the novel, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Billy Lynne is part of a small family that lives in Stovall, Texas. He lived with his mother, father, and two sisters. Like most families they were not without drama and were as dysfunctionally close as some families. Billy’s sister, Kathryn states, “Some days I think I am living in a bad country song.” [79] Kathryn is referring to the father’s infidelity and their mother’s crass attitude toward the now disabled provider. A sentiment that that they all share, in some small way in their hearts, but they still loved each other. This was evident through the chapter entitled: “Bully of the Heart.”[74] The scene that was described when Billy arrived for his short visit home was a hallmark moment for the family. The tears and hugs mixed with laught...

    Read More

  • The Rhetorical Analysis Of Tobias Wolff's 'Say Yes'

    877 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the brief introduction of the story, Wolff mentions, “Helping out with the dishes was a way of showing how considerate he was,” (1356) which shows the initial nature of the couple’s relationship—caring. The caring nature of the couple’s relationship is show again when the wife cuts her hand and the husband, “ran upstairs to the bathroom and rummaged in the medicine chest” (1357). These two instances provide the reader with the notion that the couple, especially the husband in this instance, cares for one other deeply. Though this statement seems to be true, the domestic details serve an alternative purpose as well—symbols. When the conversation begins to become more heated, Wolff demonstrates how, “she was piling dishes on the drainboard at a terrific rate, just wiping them with a cloth” (1356). Wolff’s attention to this detail shows how the frustration of the wife is building up and ultimately leads to her stabbing her finger. The water of the sink, “flat and gray” (1357) symbolizes the essence of their conversation—gloomy and going nowhere. Towards the end of the story, the husband cleans the house as it was when they first moved in which symbolizes how their relationship is reverting back to the beginning when they were

    Read More

  • Fun Home Alison Bechdel Analysis

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    She brings light to an issue that divided her family from her father, his “obsession” with fixing up the house. She states, "I grew to resent the way my father treated his furniture like children, and his children like furniture" (14). She believes her father was detached, living his life through restoring old furniture and fixing up the family home, leaving little attention for the family that lived there. She was suspicious of her father’s décor saying, “they were lies” (14). This left much to be desired, often leading her to question whether her father even liked having a family. This feeling is expressed when she says, "Sometimes, when things were going well, I think my father actually enjoyed having a family. Or at least, the air of authenticity we lent to his exhibit. A sort of still life with children" (13). He occupied his life with fixing up his home almost as if he was trying to cover up the problems going on inside himself. Bechdel suggests that the antique mirrors decorating the home were meant to distract visitors from his personal shame. She says, "His shame inhabited our house as pervasively and invisibly as the aromatic musk of aging mahogany" (20). She states that this shame stemmed from her father’s closeted sexual preferences. This would later connect them in a very powerful

    Read More

  • Cohesive Strangers in Tobias Wolff’s Say Yes

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...he couple starts right after the beginning of the story and persists until almost the last few paragraphs when he approaches his wife outside the bathroom. The quarrel begins when the topic of black people and marriage gets brought into conversation while they were washing dishes. This text has an ending that is left incomplete and is ambiguous as to what really happens between the husband and the wife in the end. The story chooses to do this because it is essential to the entire irony of the story. By starting with a cohesive bond and ending with the couple being strangers, the story illustrates that even though you could be married to someone for years, you could still not know who they are as an individual.

    Read More

  • Everyday Use

    1245 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mrs. Johnson, the mother, is described as, “a large, big-boned woman with rough, man-working hands” (6). She tells some of her capabilities including, “I can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man. . .I can work outside all day, breaking ice to get water for washing; I can eat pork liver cooked over the open fire minutes after it comes steaming from the hog” (6). This description informs readers that Mrs. Johnson has learned all the ways and traditions of her ancestors and knows how to survive from day to day. She and Maggie’s lives in the small home represent a simple, unsophisticated way of life. Dee, on the other hand is described as, “[light-skinned], with nicer hair and a fuller figure” who “wanted nice things” and “had a style of her own” (7). The clothes Dee wears and the phrases she uses to greet her mother and sister show that she has no real understanding of her background and where she comes from. This shows Dee to be materialistic, complex, and lead a life where heritage is looked upon as a trend and not for what it really represents.

    Read More

  • Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Each window Jeffries observes contains a plot which portrays a different view of marriage. At first, the newlyweds show a relationship full of joy and happiness with much hope for the future. The husband is shown as he carries his bride over the threshold as they enjoy their first moments together in their new home. Then the blinds are pulled and thus sexual relations are implied. As ti...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

    974 Words  | 2 Pages

    But as the poem goes on, you come to realize that there is a hidden secondary situation taking place. The more obvious parts of the poem is the two parents having sexual intercourse, and the child feeling all alone in their big house. Once the child comes into the parent’s room, we actually get to see them transform into the loving parents that they are. The author illustrates the exact moment in when the child barges in on his parents love making session. “But let there be that heavy breathing / … and make for it on the run- as now, we lie together, / after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies” (Kinnell (917). For some readers, it may be easy to see and comprehend this surface situation. The child is the product of their being, and this poem is about the love the whole family shares. The author uses euphemisms to display an image of affection and compassion versus a nasty and indecent love. Kinnell’s main focus is on the love and devotion between the parents. He conveys his focus through such words like “after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies / familiar touch of the long-married” (Kinnell 917). The act of their gentle and quiet love is what wakes their

    Read More

  • The Cranes

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    Although their love has endured through many years, it has come to an end in the story. All throughout the story the couple is reminiscing about their life and while they are there are some odd details that are strewn throughout.

    Read More

  • The Veldt Literary Analysis

    616 Words  | 2 Pages

    For example, Ms. Hadley said, “I feel like I don’t belong here. The house is the wife and mother now and nursemaid.”(Bradbury 4). The reader can easily see how much the home compromised the family’s life. Clearly, they could not function in reality. The mother later said, “Can I give a bath and scrub the children as [well] or quickly as the automatic bath can? I cannot.”(Bradbury 4). The mother obviously felt disconnected from her children. These quotes and other events in the story, reveal to the reader that the perceived perfection of having all that a person wants can nonetheless be unfulfilling and

    Read More

  • Theme Of The Tortilla Curtain

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel, the women look at their individual housing situations as a giant disappointment. To explain, even though Kyra and Delaney housing situation brings both families closer together and they each have their own separate house, there is still that need to have an even bigger and a much better living condition for their families. Although, Kyra and Delaney both agree with their significant others dissatisfaction with the current situation that they find themselves in. I also believe that yet again the significant of this goes back to the American Dream and how we as Americans strive to make better in our life.

    Read More

  • Analysis of O'Henry's Short Story, The Gift of the Magi

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    O. Henry’s short story “The Gift of the Magi,” is about a couple who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. The story takes place on Christmas Eve in a furnished apartment at eight dollars a week. I feel that the narrator mocks Jim and Della for being poor. “It did not beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.” (O. Henry 165). Della and Jim’s income shrunk from thirty dollars a week to twenty dollars a week causing them a great deal of financial problems. They both are troubled that Christmas is tomorrow and they cannot afford to buy each other a nice gift. Jim’s gold watch and Della’s hair play an important role in the story.

    Read More

  • Privacy and Marriage in To Room Nineteen, by Doris Lessing

    1468 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the story “To Room Nineteen” written by Doris Lessing the protagonists, Susan Rawlings, privacy was intruded which lead to her suicide. Before Susan married she had a comfortable life with a great career however she was forced to give that all up. In her commentary “In Room Nineteen-Why Did Susan Commit Suicide? Reconsidering Gender Relations from Doris Lessing’s Novel, Wang Ningchuan and Wen Yiping Write: “Marriage for Susan had become a turning point from equality to subordination. The first fault that Susan made after marriage was her voluntary dispossession of her private property, the flat. And then she renounced her job for being expectant. The both symbolized her unintelligent relinquish of material or economic independence, withdrawing her into an inferior or subordinate social position. Nominally, it is due to Susan's reconciliation toward marriage. Ontologically, the reconciliation was surrender to her gender identity, that it was natural for a marital woman not being an individual” (67). She would stay at home and take care of her children, yet she longed for them to grow up so she can have some time of her own. She would tell herself “Soon the twins would go to school, and they would be away from home from nine until four. These hours in Susan's eye; would be the preparation of Susan’s own slow ema...

    Read More

More about Thematic Essay On The Gift Of The Magi

Open Document