Analysis The Gift Of The Magi
Analysis The Gift Of The Magi - Real name was William Sidney Porter (1862-1910). American short story writer O. "The Gift of Teaching" is a story by Henry. His stories are characterized by satire, a raucous narrative style, occasional sentimentality, and surprising twist endings. All of these have become signature features, and "The Gift of Teaching" embodies them to some extent.
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Analysis The Gift Of The Magi
But what does this Christmas story mean? O. Before proceeding to the summary and analysis of Henry's story, you may want to read The Gift of Teaching. In a separate post, we will discuss some of the main topics of the "gift of teaching". It's Christmas Eve.
Jim and Della are a couple living in a modestly furnished apartment in New York. They have some money. The story begins with Della angry because she only has one dollar and eighty-seven cents to spend on her husband's Christmas present. The narrator tells us that the married couple has a property that they are proud of.
For Jim, it's a gold watch that belonged to his father and before that to his grandfather. Della's prized possession is her beautiful hair. Della goes to the woman who handles the hair supply. This woman agrees to buy Della's hair for twenty dollars. With the newfound money, Della goes to buy a platinum fob chain for Jimmy's gold watch.
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It cost him twenty-one dollars, and he was just eighty-seven cents worldwide. When she gets home, she starts curling her hair to look pretty. When he gets home, Jimmy is surprised by his wife's actions, but when she explains why she cut her hair, she hugs him and gives him the gift she bought him: two precious tortoiseshell combs that she had long admired in a shop window.
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The combs are useless to her until her hair grows back, but she can at least give them to Jim... But in the end, Jim tells Della that he sold his gold watch to pay for the expensive combs he bought her. Now she has two combs but no hair to use them and a platinum fob chain for a gold watch she no longer has.
O. Many of Henry's stories - most of which are five or six pages long - are notable for their ironic twists, and The Gift of the Master is a good example of this common feature of his work. In order to buy each other their dream Christmas present, young Jimmy and Della donate the items designed to complement their gifts: Della's (sold) hair comb and Jimmy's (sold) watch chain.
As the narrator observes in the last stanza: The witches, you know, were wise—wonderful wise—and they brought gifts to the baby in the manger. They invented the art of Christmas gift giving. If they were wise, their gifts were wise, and they might carry the privilege of exchange in case of duplicity.
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Here we lamely tell you the eventful story of two idiots in an apartment who gave away the greatest wealth of their house to each other. But O. Henry invites us not to laugh at their stupidity, but to celebrate their sacrifice. Indeed, it was not foolishness, but wisdom that caused them, as the narrator points out in the final words of the story: But let the wise men of today have the last word, these two were the wisest gift-givers.
Of all those who give and receive, they are the wisest. There are wise men everywhere. They are magicians. So, in a sense, at the end of "The Gift of Teaching" there are two surprising twists: O. The trademark plot that characterizes most of Henry's stories and the narrative "twist" with which he subverts our initial reaction.
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Have a good laugh at the unfortunate turn of events just described - and make the moral point that Jim and Della gave each other "useless" gifts but acted unwisely. That's all well and good, but it's important to note that the narrator doesn't explain why he thinks Jimmy and Della were the "smartest" of the gift-givers.
The "wise man" here suggests the Magi, the Zoroastrian astrologers who visited the infant Jesus in Matthew's Gospel and brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh: hence the story's title. But what makes Jim and Della smart? Why didn't O. Henry tell us? Was it because he wanted us to decide for ourselves, or did he think the answer was completely obvious?
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The latter is more likely. Given the Christmas setting of The Teacher's Gift and the fact that Jim and Della love each other and treat each other well despite not having the money to buy the finer things in life, this love is real. More important than property.
When it comes to Christmas and buying gifts for our loved ones, it's the thought that really counts. But there is little more to The Gift of Teaching than that old adage that reduces the story to a sentimental fable about "giving is better than receiving" and "money is more important."
Both of these statements are relevant to the plot, but what is relevant is the element of sacrifice made by the two characters and their response to learning the consequences of this. So Jimmy happily removes a gold watch that has been passed down through the male line for three generations, while Della happily loses her hair (which takes months to grow back, despite her protests) as someone else's most desired gift.
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But in a twist of the story, they realize that their personal sacrifices - made for the love of others - were in vain. But they rejoice in this, not because of the gesture of receiving a gift, but because of the great price it has cost someone else.
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Love, says O. Henry, is giving up what you love most to show the extent of your devotion to those you love—those you should love most. In other words, the moral of the "gift of teaching" is not "better than receiving," but "giving and losing are important," because receiving them is impractical.
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Word Count: 813 Set on Christmas Eve, The Teacher's Gift explores the concepts of wealth and generosity in the context of gift giving and receiving. The title is a reference to the biblical Magi, also known as the Three Wise Men or the Three Kings, who go to Bethlehem to pay their respects to the baby Jesus Christ.
They presented him with gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and fell on their knees in reverence and adoration. This presentation of gifts began the Christian tradition of exchanging Christmas gifts. Although biblical scholars continue to debate the specific symbolism of the Magi's gifts, they generally represent Christ's dominion over the mortal and divine realms, with gold representing the earthly wealth of kings and frankincense representing Christ's sacrifice.
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