Theme Of Poverty In The Gift Of Magi

Decent Essays
One dollar and eighty-seven cents you get you a lot of stuff in the 1900s. For instance, a pound of chocolate for 34 cents, 10 movie tickets for 5-10 cents, and even a man’s dress shirts was one dollar. The problem is that one dollar and eighty-seven is not enough for Della, and it is Christmas Eve. But Della and Jim would do anything to buy the other person a gift that is meaningful. The poor young couple experienced that living in poverty does not stop them from showing how much love they have for each other. In O Henry’s “The Gift of Magi”, the theme portrays that poverty cannot blind true love is shown throughout the story.

Finding a perfect gift for someone on a low budget can be stressful. Della has been saving up money and being
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“Della finished her crying and cleaned the marks of it from her face…Only $ 1.87 to buy a gift for Jim. Her Jim. She had many happy hours planning something nice for him. Something nearly good enough. Something almost worth the honor of belonging to Jim”(Henry 2). Della muses on how she might not be able to buy a gift for Jim. That puts a toll on her because she just wants to make Jim pleased but she can not think of anything get for him. It comes to a point where if she really desperate to purchase him something for Christmas she has a big choice to make. There are two things that are precious in Della’s and Jim’s life is Della’s long hair that reaches down her knees and Jim’s gold watch that passed down starting from his grandfather. Della decides that she would cut her hair in exchange for money. She goes down to Mrs.Sofronie and chops her hair for twenty dollars. Della goes to every store until she finds a chain that was twenty-one dollars and heads home. “‘If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he looks at me a second time, he’ll say I look like a girl who sings and dances for money. But what could I do--- oh! What …show more content…
“Please God, make him think I’m still pretty’” (Henry 4). She sacrifices her love by cutting her hair and buying Jim a gift since she did not have enough money beforehand. Her choice left Jim two ways he can react to this. Become very upset that they lost something that was very important to the both of them or realized that what she did came from her heart and that she really loves him. Real true love cannot be hidden behind the amount of income that is made. When Jim gets home and sees Della's hair, and looks at it strangely. “‘Jim, dear,” she cried, “don’t look at me like that. I had to cut my hair off and sold it. I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift”... “Nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less. But if you’ll open that, you may know what I felt when I came in’”(Henry 4,5). Della tears open the paper and see these beautiful combs with jewels that she always wanted, then she

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