How does the author develop the theme of the short story?
In the story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry the author starts the story by saying “one dollar and eighty-seven cents.”. This is indicating that whoever the story will be talking about, does not have much money. He later on introduces the main characters, Dallia and Jim, and tells us what their most prized possession is. Once they come into the story it tells us that Dallia has hair “rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters”. She was trying to find Jim, her husband, the best Christmas present so she can be “worthy of the honor of being owned ” by him. But she only has one dollar and eighty-seven cents she can’t really get anything with just that. So she goes to “Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” to get her hair cut off and sell her hair for twenty dollars. And Jim did almost the same thing, he sold his gold watch that had been passed down for two generations, so he could get her the combs she had been wanting for a long time. It shows that they both truly love and care for each other enough that they both sacrificed the most valuable thing in their life so they could get each other a wonderful Christmas present that the other had always been wanting to get. And that is how he created the theme, being that you sacrifice the things you most love for the ones you most love and care for.
I completely agree with you. Like how you said they almost did the same thing for one another I agree because in the story as you said they both sacrificed their most prized possession for one another. Also I agree with how the author introduced the them to us. How you went through and said that he first intruduces that dallia only had a dollar and eighty seven cents and then he tells us who dallia and Jim are is exactly how I saw it. Also how you told us why she wanted to buy a gift for Jim so badly I agree with because in the story she talks about how she really wants to get him something to show how worthy she was of being owned by Jim.
ReplyDelete