The gift of the magi notes.docx

Summary The story begins the day before Christmas with a young woman named Della sitting at home counting her savings. The home she lives in with her husband, Jim, is a cheap, furnished rental apartment. When they first moved in Jim was earning more money, but the couple has fallen on hard times an...

Summary The story begins the day before Christmas with a young woman named Della sitting at home counting her savings. The home she lives in with her husband, Jim, is a cheap, furnished rental apartment. When they first moved in Jim was earning more money, but the couple has fallen on hard times and now live in poverty. Della has been putting money aside after buying groceries for many months. She is sad and anxious because despite her efforts, she has not saved enough money. She had been hoping to buy Jim something special for Christmas with her savings. Della begins to cry on her couch as she realizes she does not have enough money to buy Jim a Christmas present. After she stops crying, Della cleans up her face and looks out the window lost in thought. She suddenly catches a glimpse of herself in the dingy mirror on the wall and gets an idea. She lets down her long brown hair and looks at it for a little while. Della's hair, notable for its beauty, is her prized possession. She puts on her old coat and hat and visits a shop that buys and sells hair. The shopkeeper, Madame Sofronie, agrees to cut and buy Della's hair. Della spends the rest of the day going around the city looking for the perfect gift for Jim. His prized possession is a gold pocket watch that has been passed down through his family. She wants to buy him a nice chain to go with it, something special and rare. Eventually, she finds the perfect platinum chain. It costs all the money she got from selling her hair, plus most of her savings. Della goes home feeling very excited to give Jim his present.    When Della gets home, she tries to style her new haircut as best she can. She worries that Jim will be angry and will no longer think she is pretty. When Jim sees Della has cut her hair, he gets a strange look on his face. Not knowing what it means, Della goes to him and quickly explains that she sold her hair to buy him a Christmas present. In response, Jim hugs her and tells her he loves her no matter what her hair looks like. He then gives her a Christmas present: a set of jeweled tortoiseshell combs she'd once admired in a shop window. Della loves the present, but she bursts into tears when she realizes she is unable to use Jim's thoughtful gift. As Jim comforts her, she reassures him her hair will grow back quickly. She then excitedly gives him the platinum watch chain. Jim laughs and reveals he sold his prized watch to pay for the combs. The narrator concludes the story by praising the couple for their selfless gifts of love, calling them even wiser than the three wise magi who brought gifts to the baby Jesus on the first Christmas Eve. **Value is subjective.** Della's hair and Jim's watch both symbolize their individual ideas of what is valuable. Della's pride in her hair is extensive. She views her hair as more valuable than the Queen of Sheba's jewels. Cutting and selling her hair is the equivalent of giving away her greatest treasure. Della's awareness of the sacrifice she is about to make is explicit as the color drains from her face when the idea of selling it first occurs to her. She enacts her plan quickly, leaving her no time to second-guess what she is about to do in order to make the loss sting less. The scene in the hair shop where Madame Sofronie coldly evaluates her hair's worth suggests that its monetary value cannot match its emotional value to Della. Della's self-worth is wound up in the value of her hair and once it is gone, she frets that Jim will no longer find her beautiful. Similarly, the description of Jim's watch as an object even King Solomon would envy reveals how much it's worth to him. Its sentimental value is also greater than its monetary value since it's a family heirloom passed down from his father and grandfather. The fact that both characters give up their most treasured possession to please the other proves that what they each value most is the other's happiness. **Love is a driving force.** The story mostly follows Della's perspective, and her love for Jim drives her actions along with the plot. It is significant that the story opens with Della's despair over not being able to afford a gift that she sees worthy of Jim. In Della's mind, the gift she gives Jim must be special and rare because it symbolizes her love for him. It is Della's love that drives her to sell her hair even though it is her most prized possession. Although Jim's quest for a suitable gift for Della plays out offscreen, his love for Della also drives his decision to sell his most prized possession, his watch. The fact that he buys her the combs because he once saw her admire them shows his attentiveness to his wife's happiness, and the way this translates into action. When he hears Della try to soothe him over her haircut, he immediately snaps out of his shock to reassure her that his love for her is not dependent on how her hair looks, seeming almost offended at the implication. These details are juxtaposed beside descriptions of their poverty to imply that the couple's love remains unaffected by their poor financial status. It is not their finances that drive their behavior, but their love for one another.  **Love conquers all.** The story uncritically presents the idea that Jim and Della's love can conquer the huge obstacle that is their dire financial straits. Both characters are blissfully happy with the other, even though they have sold their prized possessions only to be left with useless, and possibly painful, reminders of those items. While Della and Jim's love is unquestionably genuine, the idea that love is all they need to survive is at odds with the reality that the strains of poverty can break even the happiest, most compatible couples. The reason Jim has lost a third of his income and the length of time the couple has been living in poverty is not revealed. In addition, Jim and Della's youth prove that their story has not fully played out and the moral of their tale cannot possibly be known. The fact that the story ends abruptly when Jim reveals he's sold his watch implies the narrator does not have a response to the lingering questions about what will happen to the items, nor what will happen to Della and Jim. This lack of context reveals a lack of depth behind the central message that love conquers all. The lesson, while a positive one, is simplistic and lacks nuance. **Della Dillingham Young** A young housewife who struggles to afford a Christmas present for her husband, Jim. The story's protagonist, Della is kind-hearted but impulsive. She loves her husband deeply, and prides herself on her long, beautiful hair. **James Dillingham Young (Jim)** A young husband struggling to support his wife, Della. Jim is caring and good-natured and truly loves his wife. He is the proud owner of a valuable pocket watch that has been passed down through his family. **Madame Sofronie** A shopkeeper who buys and sells hair. Madame Sofronie is cold and detached in her business dealings.