Narration and the vocabulary

The story is narrated as if someone were telling it to you aloud. There are lots of sentences that aren't really sentences, like the opening one: "One dollar and eighty-seven cents". There's no verb or action in that sentence; it just states a sum of money. We need more information about what that sum of money "means" or "does" in order to understand the sentence. We get that information in the next sentence: "That was all". Although the second sentence at least has a verb, it's also technically not a complete sentence: the subject, "that," is unspecified, and only makes sense given the previous sentence. Looking at those first two sentences clues us in on how the story's style tends to operate as a whole: lots of short sentences that often depend on other sentences in order to work. This technique has a way of weaving together the story across individual sentences and gives it a flow that would be broken apart by writing in more complete, self-contained sentences. It's typical of the ways we tell stories when we speak. This style keeps listeners hanging on from one sentence to the next. It also prevents them from getting lost in overly long sentences. Since when you're listening to a story you can't go back and read a sentence again, it's important that you don't get lost. If you get caught on a particular sentence it might make you lose the thread of the whole story.

Vocabulary of text combines colloquial words to add the informality and emotiveness of the character’s speech and to indicate social and speech peculiarities of the main heroes. Also, there are some idiomatic expressions such as “platinum fob”, “meretricious ornamentation”, “truant schoolboy” etc.. The usage of nouns, adjectives and also the adverbs are dominant. As it is thought, author tries to define nouns with adjectives, and define the verbs with adverbs as a result, he reaches a well-prepared , easy to read story for his readers. Details in descriptions may be considered as a result of these major word class usage, however the author does not avoid using minor ones such as prepositions and conjunctions. These are also often used. Dialects and slang also take place in the text.

Main characters and plot

The main characters we meet in the extract under analysis are Della and her husband Jim. Della is the loving, warm, selfless, and occasionally hysterical heroine of the story. Della's financially poor. She spends all of her days in a cramped flat, as "mistress of the home". In other words, she's a homemaker. Della basically lives for one person: Jim, her husband. She's spent a lot of the time leading up to Christmas just thinking of what to get him. Jim's job is not so great. He's the only breadwinner for the Dillingham Young family and it seems he works long hours, but his salary is low. And it recently went from bad to worse: whereas he used to make $30 a week he's now down to just $20. He and Della are struggling just to pay the expenses of their small flat. So if Jim happens to seem a little tired, serious, overworked, and perhaps a tad underweight, there's a good reason for: “He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.” The one thing that keeps Jim going is his love for Della. Why does Jim love Della so much? Probably in part because she loves him so much. 

The plot runs as follows:

1)                          initial situation(the story's opening sentences confront us right away with the problem: Della only has $1.87 to buy a Christmas present, and it's Christmas Eve);

2)                          a conflict - Della sells her hair. The conflict is supposedly the moment where the "problem" in the story appears, but this story began right from the first with a problem. The point of conflict actually solves the first problem and replaces it with a second. By selling her hair, Della gets the money to buy Jim a great present, eliminating the first problem through decisive action;

3)                          a complication - Jim is shocked by Della's short hair. When Jim arrives, he doesn't seem to react well: he stares at Della and can't seem to process that her hair is gone. But it doesn't look like he's angry, so much as simply shocked. Della can't quite understand what kind of reaction he's having, nor can we;

4)                          a climax – “Combs!” When Della opens Jim's present to find the combs, we understand why Jim was so shocked. Although the climax doesn't fully "predict" the ending, it is the first half of the twist;

5)                          a denouement - presented with his gift, Jim calmly reveals (with a smile) that he sold his watch to buy Della her combs. So her present is useless too;

6)                          a conclusion - in the narrator's final paragraph, which is definitely a "zoom out" of epic proportions, the narrator tells us that it doesn't really matter that Jim and Della's presents turned out to be useless. They are the wisest givers of all - in fact, they're the magi. We leave feeling satisfied and happy.

The most recognizable and frequently anthologized stories in American literature

“The Gift of the Magi” remains one of the most recognizable and frequently anthologized stories in American literature. In its time the tale was extremely popular, both commercially and critically, and O. Henry was called the “Yankee Maupaussant.” Today the story is considered juvenilia and has not garnered much serious critical attention. “The Gift of the Magi” initially appeared in one of O. Henry's best-known collection of stories, The Four Million, which was published in 1906. Among his most famous stories are: "The Ransom of Red Chief", "The Cop and the Anthem", "A Retrieved Reformation", "The Duplicity of Hargraves".

The short story combines several themes. The basic one is theme of love. Poverty is also a prominent theme, as Della saved her money for months to buy the platinum watch chain, but she still had to cut and sell her beautiful hair. The descriptions of the environs and the couple's clothing also underscore the indigence of the characters in the story. As O. Henry was categorized as a realist, “The Gift of the Magi” has been perceived as an authentic, anecdotal look at lower-class American life near the turn of the century. The story is also thought to exemplify the author's interest in the elements of surprise and trick endings, as the impact of the mutual sacrifice is not revealed until the conclusion of the tale.

From the point of view of presentation the text is third person narrative to evaluate or narrate this story( “She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.”

“He looked thin and very serious.”). 

Christmas Gift Traditions

The traditional justification for continuing with the Christmas gifts and gifting tradition lies in the story of Magi bearing gifts for the new born infant Jesus, and the fact that Christ, the lord was a providential gift from to mankind. 

The history of Christmas and the tradition of Christmas gifts predate the birth of Jesus Christ. Ancient historic evidence indicates that the early European pagans marked the longest night of the year popularly referred to as the Winter solstice as a feast to herald winter. Livestock were slaughtered and preserved and eaten throughout the winter. Romans feasted for 9 to 10 days in December in honor of the agriculture deity and the Germans celebrated solstice to honor the deity Oden. It was only in the 4th century that the church set the date of nativity as Christmas day and that heralded the era of Christmas celebrations, gifts and joyous festivity.

Christmas is a festival that helps people to come together and enjoy. Family get together, parties and feasts are a part of Christmas celebrations. Families clean their homes and decorate it in a traditional manner. They use wreaths, twigs, flowers and lights to decorate homes. The activity of buying a Christmas tree is special and the entire family enjoys it. Once, the tree is brought home, everyone gets into the mood of decorating it with ornaments, tinsel, and so on. The entire atmosphere is full of gusto and festive fervor. The kids enjoy gifts and visit of Santa Claus while the elders love to spend quality time with family during the Christmas holiday season.

Exchanging gifts is an important tradition followed during Christmas. During pagan times, high ranking ministers in the Roman Empire gave gifts to the Emperor at the feast of Kalends. St. Nicholas was known for giving gifts to kids. Santa Claus brings gifts for children during Christmas.

The tradition of giving and receiving gifts is a well known tradition of Christmas. All the gifts are kept below the Christmas tree. They are opened on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Traditionally gifts were in form of fruits, nuts, toys and so on. With passage of time, gifts too have undergone a change. Toady we see modern gifts in form of electronic gadgets, home and kitchen appliances, clothes and so on. The gifts are given as per the receiver's likes, hobbies and passion. The requirement of the person is verified before giving a gift.

In 1800, we could see stores in England and America started selling Christmas gifts. People used to go for shopping gifts for their loved ones. There were many critics of this tradition of giving gifts as they thought it was commercialization of Christmas. The Christmas gift is given to a person whom you love and respect. The price and size of the gift does not matter, the feeling with which the gift is given is more significant. There are people who give handmade gifts during Christmas. Everyone loves those gifts as they are prepared from some one's hard work and efforts.

Today, Christmas gifts are given in form crockery, cutlery, gift baskets, tickets to a drama, event and adventure sports and so on. Gift basket is the best Christmas gift one can think of. You can give a gift basket filled with fresh fruits, dry fruits and nuts. A wine bottle, wine glass, cheese, chocolates is another gift basket of great use during Christmas. Gift giving is a tradition to show your innermost feelings to the person who is receiving the gift.