True Love In O. Henry's The Gift Of The Magi

The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry, opens up with a young couple, Jim and Della Dillingham Young. Della has all of $1.87 when the story opens up. Jim is only making $20 a month which is reduced from what he used to make. Used to Jim was making $30 a week, but recently his salary has been cut back to $20 a week. Della, his wife and the hero of this journey is making $8 a week for furnishings. She is collecting spare change to save up for a Christmas present for Jim. Just as the Magi, or wise men, made sacrifices for baby Jesus, Jim and Della would make sacrifices for each other. For Jim, his most prized possession is his gold pocket watch. Since his salary has been recently reduced, Jim will eventually be forced to sell his most prized possession in order to try and keep his other most prized possession, his wife, happy. Della’s most prized possession is her hair. She would end up cutting her hair off in order to get Jim a good Christmas …show more content…
Both Jim and Della sell their most prized possessions (other than each other) to show how much they love each other. That is the definition of true love. Giving up something that you love for someone that you love. Sacrifice is yet another one of the prominent themes throughout The Gift of the Magi.
Wealth is another common theme throughout The Gift of the Magi. Not wealth in the sense of money, but wealth in the sense of value. Jim and Della value many things such as each other. Jim also values his gold pocket watch, and Della values her hair. Wealth to Jim and Della Dillingham Young means value not money. They do not have money, but they do however have each other. Wealth to all of us should be value instead of the worldly possessions that we pursue daily. We try daily to fit a camel through the eye of a needle, when we should know that it is not