1

Vanessa Rodriguez

Mrs. Wold

ERWC

15 January 2020

The Gift of The Magi Revision

The short story, ​The Gift of the Magi, ​By O. Henry, is a literary tale, depicting the

celebration of Christmas between a young couple, facing the conflict in which they do not have

enough money to buy each other a gift. However, this short story dives further into the

underlying meaning and worth, thus, O. Henry conveys and develops the message in which love

is more valuable, and holds greater sentimental value than a materialistic item ever could. The

usage of dramatic yet meaningful tone, followed by hyperboles, and an underlying persona of

disappointment, allows O. Henry to successfully evoke his message within his audience.

To begin with, the short story opens with Della, counting the money she has, soon

coming to the disappointing and unfortunate conclusion that she only had one dollar, and

eighty-seven cents. With this money, Della would put it towards buying a gift for her lover, Jim.

The portrayal of this scene in which O. Henry displays to us, strategically corresponds with the

Pathological appeal of rhetoric, used to ultimately evoke emotions of sadness and

disappointment, similar to what Della feels once finding out she lacks sufficient funds to provide

Jim with a materialistic gift. This approach used in his writing allows the audience to

sympathize, therefore further strengthening the message by stating “ Tomorrow would be

Christmas day and she had only $1.87 to buy Jim a present.” (O. Henry Paragraph 6). This
 2

further develops the pathological appeal by provoking emotion through the audience fully

understanding the income in which Della has, to provide Jim with a gift. Therefore, the audience

realistically understands the dilemma in which Della is facing.

Moreover, the author uses Irony to develop bold storyline by making the ironic twist

between the two characters. “Now there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs

in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and

his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair.” (O. Henry Paragraph 9). This following quote

describes the greatest personal belonging to each, which is showing how the author conveys a bit

of irony to lead us into this theme. However, later in the story both of our characters end up

selling their belongings in order to provide the other with a gift which further contributes to the

theme. This formally fits the story in addition to the theme showing us the love they have for

each other through this selfless action. “ It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design,

properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation-as all

good things should do.” (O. Henry Paragraph 17). The audience further understands the sense in

which the author uses protrusively uses the strong vocabulary to show us the elegance of the

present as well as having the audience to easily adapt and see the situational irony of her

purchasing something for Jim. The irony of the story plays a huge role in the storytelling of this

in order to fully show the audience the message needed to be spread. This additionally adds to

the theme by displaying how materialistic items are meaningless in comparison to something that

is real, such as the love and care for one another.

Furthermore into the story we see the author take on many forms of tone in order to

formally give us our theme. Having conveyed the selfless traits that both Jim and Della have,
 3

gives off this deep tone and persona of overwhelming effort and love. This is displayed through

Della feeling it not to be enough to buy something of which Jim should deserve. This makes her

lead into more tones of absolute selfless behavior throughout the story showing us her love and

care for Jim, offsetting any other tones of disappointment that Della has, which gives us the

compassionate tone throughout this short story. “ ‘Jim Darling’ she cried, ‘don’t look at me that

way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through christmas without

giving you a present.’” ( O. Henry Paragraph 26). This quote offsets another tone with more

anxiousness as to whether her love was worth it which strongly supports as to why the author’s

theme.

Ultimately, O. Henry conveys and develops the message in which love is more valuable,

and holds greater sentimental value than a materialistic item ever could . Della ironically cut off

her hair, which was her most prized possession, all to give Jim a christmas present, as for Jim

sold his watch to get Della Beautiful combs for her hair. This conveys the selfless tone and

depiction of the characters, offsetting the initial disappointment they felt, in addition to the

pathological rhetoric. O. Henry’s commitment to the portrayal of selfless behavior amist Jim and

Della, in addition to the tones depicting caring and loving personas, while evoking emotion

within the readers due to his use of dramatic and situational irony, it is certain O. Henry has

effectively and thoroughly conveyed the message in which love is more valuable, and holds

greater sentimental value than a materialistic item ever could