Reagan Lagunas: What Is A Gift?

What is a gift? Is it how much money you spend or how much time you give? Would it change based on the person giving? Or is a gift a gift? Does it matter whether it is given willingly or by force? These answers, while they may have a specific universal answer, are personally answered subconsciously, giving everyone a different answer. The dictionary definition may be different than your answer that may be different than mine.
“A thing given willingly to someone without payment; a present.” This is the dictionary definition of a gift. By this definition, almost anything can be a gift. If it is given without expecting something in return, and it is given willingly, then it is technically a gift, but there is a catch. This is only the denotative definition of the word gift. What do people really consider a gift? What comes to mind when they hear the word present? …show more content…
When comparing this connotative definition to the true definition, you don’t see very many similarities. Lagunas’ definition is about a feeling, love, rather than a physical gift that would normally require reimbursement. “I think that a gift is putting effort into loving someone,” said Mrs. Evans. Like Lagunas’ personal definition, Evans main point in her definition is that a gift is to be love-filled. Kate Vicknair, similar to Lagunas and Evans, thought, “A gift is a selfless act of making someone happy by objects or time.” While not using the same words, Vicknair has about the same idea. If the point of a gift is to make someone happy, then you would need to love the person to want to give them a gift. After seeing these responses, a pattern is starting to reoccur. Love seems to be the main point in a