Theme Of The Gift Of Magi

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The Gift of the Magi is a short story by O. Henry (the pen name of William Porter), published in the New York Sunday World in December 1905. Its primary theme is love and giving. The gift of magi is centered on the theme of love for a wonderful couple comprising Della and Jim young. As a young couple, they are still great lovers. Della is a young wife and despite their economic hard times where they do not have sufficient money to cater for their needs, Della still loves Jim and is ready to sacrifice by saving in order to buy him a good Christmas present (Henry). This is a great show of appreciation to her fiancée especially at a special festive season.
William Sidney Porter was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on September 11, 1862. He was a short-story writer who often used the common and mundane as backdrops to romanticism; for example, the life of everyday people in New York City (Britannica par. 1). He was most known for his surprise endings, and The Gift of the Magi is an excellent example of his concluding twists. The Gift of the Magi is about a young married couple, James and Della Dillingham Young.
The story started off with an amount: one dollar and eighty-seven cents—sixty cents of which were in pennies. Those pennies were the product of Della's haggling, wheedling, and begging with the merchants they dealt with regularly. A penny off here for too-ripe tomatoes, perhaps, or two pennies off the meat there that had been on the shelf too long. It was the day before Christmas, and Della was worried about what present to give her husband. After months of scrimping and saving, she only had one dollar and eighty-seven cents to spend on a gift, and this was clearly not enough.
Della was still for a moment when she realize...

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... gift of love overrides any material gift that one can wish to posses (Eggert). Thus is why he goes further to compare them to the wise men who took their gifts to Jesus in order to be counted as having also taken gifts to the new born baby. The whole affair is full of love, sacrifice and generosity from both partners.
Wealth is important in any happy society. This is however a relationship that is developed in trust and perseverance. It is a tough time for the Young family to cope with the tough economic hardships but the rock of their love is tested yet they remain strongly committed to making one another happy. Just like the Magi, in their wisdom, chose the best gifts to give the King of Kings, Della & James chose to give the best of themselves. What they sacrificed so they could give each other something beautiful became more precious than the gifts themselves.

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