eng 125 week two paper - Running head The Gift 1 Theme in...

Running head: The Gift 1
Theme in “The Gift of the Magi”
Brandon Imhoff
English 125
Professor Corey King
February 19, 2012

The Gift 2
Theme in “The Gift of the Magi”
O. Henry’s most beloved short story, “The Gift of the Magi,” is the story of a married
couple, Della and Jim, who forsake their most prized possessions in order to buy their spouse
something special for Christmas. The couple is poor, and simply do not have the money to buy
anything nice without first selling the only things they have of any worth—his watch and her
hair. Because the two decide to sell their most prized possessions in order to buy the other one a
Christmas present, we can see the theme of selfless love and sacrifice existing quite strongly in
this story.
From the very beginning of the story, we learn how Della has been sacrificing for a long
time in order to buy a Christmas gift for her husband Jim. The author tells us that she has
“Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the
butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing
implied” (in Clugston, 2010). Della has had to shame and embarrass herself over and over again
in her dealings with those merchants with whom she does business in order to bring home a
penny or two in an effort to save enough money for Jim’s present. In reference to this scene,
social scientist Tai An-Lin says “Only the poor family could understand that it was hard not to