Three Symbols In O. Henry's Poem

O. Henry once said, “The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet unknown fate.” The poem goes a lot a deeper than the words on the page, the items and decisions within it really make you see things differently. Three symbols really stuck out to me; adolescence, sadness, and timelessness.
The first symbol that really stuck out to me was when Della chopped off her knee length hair. The story cites, “Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.” She had obviously not cut her year since she was a young girl, so for her to cut her hair for her beloved husband is like her putting away her past and giving it to Jim. Another quote that adolescence shines through is “Cut it off and sold it,” said

Della. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?” Della is still her without her hair, she just looks different and in a way she is without her childhood and it is with him. Now this is not all the symbolism in this beautiful story of the Magi.
In modern time there is a lot of worry, maybe taking a big position at work, but in 1905, your worry was caused by not being able to afford a gift for your loved one. To really understand the mood of the is story; O. Henry says “She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard.” The gray cat reaches out farther than a simple organism in a story, it is also there to represent sadness of dear Della. Money is one thing that was once hard to possess, as shown in the story, “Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.” Today, $1.87 might buy you a piece of bubble gum, maybe, just imagine trying to buy a gift for someone special with that kind of money. One would be worried about the deadline being the next day and not having the money you needed to complete the very special task for a very special someone. The story is not all filled with worry, there is a point where worriness becomes happiness, or possibly timeless.
Everyone always finds that one person who makes their lives feel so timeless and joyful, Jim just shows Della in a unique way.

Jim and Della are obviously head over heels for one another, this is easily shown, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.” Jim sold his most prized possession so Della could get the gift she had always dreamed of; the combs. His watch being sold out of love for her, makes their love timeless; no watch, no time. O. Henry makes Jim’s love for the watch clear in the text, “Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Young’s in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair.” Time had always been on his arm, but for Della his feelings didn’t time, his love for her was timeless. Jim and Della have timeless love.
O. Henry is a very inspirational person, in “The Gift of the Magi,” he makes the story go a lot deeper than the words on the page, with a little something called symbolism. One thing he really specializes in is symbolism, certainly with adolescence, worriness, and timelessness in this story. Symbolism plays a huge role in the narrative, a role so big that without it, the story would be quite dull. Without symbolism, this story would not have half the meaning it does now, when you dig into the story, you discover how much Della and Jim really love one

another.