Themes In The Gift Of The Magi

A gift has to come from the heart and have value. Not of how much it cost but, of how important is it to you. The theme of a story is a general statement that goes beyond the storyline. The theme of “ The Gift Of the Magi,” written by O. Henry is that love is the greatest gift of all. They show this theme by showing how much they do to make each other happy. Della cuts her hair to buy Jim a present for Christmas. She only had one dollar and eighty- seven cents. Della asked a lady in a store if they cut hair for money and they said yes. She got in a chair and her hair was cut off for twenty dollars. With that money, she bought Jim a gold chain for his watch. This is stated in the story “ Tomorrow would be Christmas day.” It showed that the …show more content…
He wasted the money he saved up and spent hours looking for a special gift for Della. This is stated in the story “ I sold the watch to get money to buy the combs.” This shows that Jim sold his most valuable possession to get Della a gift. The second citation in the story is “The magi brought valuable gifts but, that was not among them. My meaning will be explained soon.” This shows that Jim wanted to explain to Della why he was a little sad that she cut her hair. But, he didn’t find her unattractive even though she thought she would less attractive in Jim’s eyes.The last citation in the story is “ Let’s put our Christmas gift away and keep them a while. They are too nice to use now.” This means that Jim wanted Della to put away her and his gift until they can use it fully one day. When Della’s hair grows back she can use her combs and when Jim buys a new watch he can use his gold …show more content…
This is stated in the story “ This private welcoming world is home, and it’s made of their love.” This shows that their home is built on love, that’s what makes it a private welcoming world. The second citation in the story is “ Something fine and rare and sterling – something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim. This shows that Della is completely dedicated to Jim. She spends a great deal of time just thinking about what to get him. In her eyes, Jim is someone very "rare and fine," deserving of something special. Della would do anything for him even spend a long time looking for a special gift for Jim. The last citation in the story is “ She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends a mammoth task.” This means that Della's love has "ravaged" her – it's cost her dearly. As the narrator admits, repairing the damage is a "mammoth task." Della's not only given up something she loved, she's also potentially made herself less attractive to Jim to make him