The Gift of Love
Daniella Lobo-Rauch
Professor: Jeffrey White
English Comp II
11 December 2014
The Gift of Love: the wisest of all.
Written in the first decade of the twentieth century, “The Gift of the Magi” is one of O. Henry 's most famous stories. It is included in The Four Million, his first collection of short stories, published in 1906, and has been anthologized many times since then. According to Kathleen Wilson, ("The Gift of the Magi." Short Stories for Students) the story contains many of the elements for which O. Henry is widely known, including poor, working-class characters, a humorous tone, realistic detail, and a surprise ending. We can better understand the meaning beyond the story when we look into the author’s personal life. O. Henry had a tough life throughout his teenage years, landing jobs that weren’t necessarily his choice—pharmacist’s assistant, ranch hand, and bank teller. However, his early decisions gave him plenty of material for his stories later on. That is exactly what we see when we read “The Gift of the Magi” – an example of O. Henry’s mastery of the sentimental story with the surprise ending. His stories are known for “their persuasive sense of humor, their quick, chatty beginnings, their confidential narrator, and, of course, their inclusion of one of several types of surprise endings” says Rena Korb ("An overview of 'The Gift of the Magi '.”) I suppose the story between Della Young and Jim Dillingham, a young married couple that is willing to sacrifice their most-prized possessions for a Christmas gift demonstrates just that -- an affirmation of unselfish love.
O. Henry’s short stories were compared to some other short stories that were written at that time, 1905, by great writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Both writers have similar ways of playing with words that captivate the reader’s attention right at a first glance. As we can observe in “The Gift of the Magi,” O.
Professor: Jeffrey White
English Comp II
11 December 2014
The Gift of Love: the wisest of all.
Written in the first decade of the twentieth century, “The Gift of the Magi” is one of O. Henry 's most famous stories. It is included in The Four Million, his first collection of short stories, published in 1906, and has been anthologized many times since then. According to Kathleen Wilson, ("The Gift of the Magi." Short Stories for Students) the story contains many of the elements for which O. Henry is widely known, including poor, working-class characters, a humorous tone, realistic detail, and a surprise ending. We can better understand the meaning beyond the story when we look into the author’s personal life. O. Henry had a tough life throughout his teenage years, landing jobs that weren’t necessarily his choice—pharmacist’s assistant, ranch hand, and bank teller. However, his early decisions gave him plenty of material for his stories later on. That is exactly what we see when we read “The Gift of the Magi” – an example of O. Henry’s mastery of the sentimental story with the surprise ending. His stories are known for “their persuasive sense of humor, their quick, chatty beginnings, their confidential narrator, and, of course, their inclusion of one of several types of surprise endings” says Rena Korb ("An overview of 'The Gift of the Magi '.”) I suppose the story between Della Young and Jim Dillingham, a young married couple that is willing to sacrifice their most-prized possessions for a Christmas gift demonstrates just that -- an affirmation of unselfish love.
O. Henry’s short stories were compared to some other short stories that were written at that time, 1905, by great writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe. Both writers have similar ways of playing with words that captivate the reader’s attention right at a first glance. As we can observe in “The Gift of the Magi,” O.
Cited: "The Gift of the Magi." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Kathleen Wilson. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 67-82. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Dec. 2014. Bellman, Samuel Irving. "Gifts of the Magi: Overview." Reference Guide to American Literature. Ed. Jim Kamp. 3rd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1994. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. Eckley, Wilton. "The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, 1906." Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Ed. Thomas Riggs. 2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 1999. 835-836. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Dec. 2014. Kennedy, X.J., and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Southern California: Pearson, 2012. Print. Korb, Rena. "An overview of 'The Gift of the Magi '." Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 15 Oct. 2014. Marks, Patricia. "Henry, O." Critical Survey of Short Fiction: American Writers. Ed. Charles E. May. 4th ed. Vol. 2. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2012. 882-887. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Dec. 2014.