O. Henry is notably known as an American short story writer of the 19th
century. His writings were tender-hearted like the benevolent thinking of him.
Most of his writings are rich in surprising events and behavioural acts of his
characters. The unexpectedness from the events and also from the people could
be observed by his writings.
The Gift of the Magi is the American short story of O. Henry
published in 1905. This story rounds around the life of one couple who have
immense love for each other but they are in financial crisis. Della (the wife)
and Jim (the husband) are living in a small apartment. The struggling life of a
loving couple has been presented by the writer. For Christmas gifts, they both
wanted to give each other the most appealing surprise gift despite their frugal
financial condition. So they have done though. O. Henry has put forwarded the
element of surprising events and intentions in this writing by the amalgamation
of the idea of love bonding between the couple.
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“ONE
DOLLAR AND EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS. That was all”. In the era of economical troubled time of the 19th and
early 20th century, the empathetic and sympathetic condition of the couple
could be observed by the following lines:
“She
had put it aside, one cent and then another and then another, in her careful
buying of meat and other food”.
Della seems to be counting money by keeping the consideration of
home essential groceries, and so makes the budget for their livelihood. But, on the contrary, they have super deep
love affection for each other.
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Unconditional love affection between husband and wife is the
pompous theme of this sweet and tender short story. By setting aside their
frugal condition, the couple seems to praise each other throughout the reading.
Love – Where the healing begins, while the troublesome ends, is a perfect
bonding between them.
Tomorrow
would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a gift.
Della and Jim are on the love mission to give each other the most
special gift. Both the husband and wife have their highly appealing and special
things with them, Jim’s ancestral watch and Della’s long brown shiny hair. When
they had no other choice to get the money for gifts which they wanted to give
each other, then they decided to sacrifice those special belongings. Della
sells out her long hair for the sake of money and so Jim does, by selling his
ancestral watch. Della buys the golden chain for Jim’s watch as a Christmas
gift for Jim. And at the same time, Jim seems to buy beautiful hairclip for
Della’s long lavish hair.
“But let me speak a last word to the wise of these days: Of all who give gifts, these two were the most wise. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are the most wise. Everywhere they are the wise ones. They are the magi”.
The certain mentioned last line of this short story connotes the
most precious message that if people do some special things for each other just
for the sake of happiness and to give a surprise, then they are not foolish at
all. They are the real wise ones because they have the most heart. A beautiful
heart is a priority over a rational mind.
The story bursts into sentimental tears when they both seem unaware of each other’s sacrifices. There comes O. Henry’s writing approach that is; the philanthropy element for the love among humanity, families, couples, and friends. Unconditional love is the supreme power over financial problems, mental stresses, and all kinds of troublesome issues. His writing is also fairly to be seen as the most perfect example of lovability, sacrifices, and surprising happenings and plots, aptly.
The story is analyzed by Emaan Afroz, one of the team
members at the SOL Community.
