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The Gift of Magi
The Gift of Magi
The Gift of Magi
MAGI
By: O. Henry
Characters:
o DELLA YOUNG: A girl who cut her hair to buy a watch chain as a
Christmas gift for her husband.
o James DILLINGHAM YOUNG (JIM): He sold his watch which was passed
on from his ancestors to buy a comb as a Christmas gift for Della.
o MADAME SOFRONIE: An owner of a salon shop that brought Dellas hair.
Setting
o In a cheap apartment, during Christmas time
o Shabby little couch
o Broken letter box
o Broken door bell
Plot
Theme
o Love
In this story, it shows how much Della and Jim love one another and how
powerful and valuable their love is.
o sacrifice
In this story, it shows that both of them are willing to sacrifice their most
precious things to make their love ones happy.
o Wealth
In this story, it shows that it doesnt matter how much something worth, but
it depends on the effort of the person giving it.
Point of View
o Third person point of view
The author
Education
o He left school at 15 and trained to be a pharmacist.
o By the age of 19, he had a license to be a pharmacist.
o He had a racking cough that worried him since his mother and
grandmother died of tuberculosis.
o He decided to move to Texas because it has a dry and healthy climate.
o He carries a small dictionary in a pocket and a book of poems in the
other everywhere he goes.
Personal life
o In 1887, he married Athol Estes, which had connections and helped him
find work as bank teller in Austin.
o In 1894, he worked for the bank and started The Rolling Stone, a
humorous weekly newspaper.
o In 1896, he was arrested and charged with stealing funds, he fled to
Honduras, but returned to Texas several months later to take care
of his wife that was dying of tuberculosis.
o While awaiting trail, he had his first short story published.
o In 1898, he was convicted and sentenced to five years in federal
prison.
Personal life
o When he was released 3 years early, he changed his name to O. Henry.
o He spent the rest of his life in New York city.
o Most of his stories come from his real life situations.
o Some of his famous stories were After Twenty Years, Cabbages and
Kings, The Four Million.
o In 1907, he remarried and he had an unhappy life because he has a bad
health and he had no money.
o He still continue to wrote more short stories (7 0f them) until he died
in 1910.
Bibliography:
O. Henry. (2006-2015). (J. Welsh, Producer, & The Florida Center for Instructional
Technology, College of Education, University of South Florida) Retrieved October 25,
2015, from Lit2Go: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/authors/127/o-henry/
O. Henry Collection. (2015, October 20). (The University of North Texas Libraries' Digital
Projects Unit) Retrieved October 25, 2015 , from Portal to Texas History:
http://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/OHENRY/
Henry, O. (1984). After Twenty Years. Davis Publications.
Bilal, H. A. (2012). DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF THE GIFT OF THE MAGI.