"The Gift of the Magi" by O'Henry

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, to the reader, O'Henry's short story ,"The Gift of the Magi", is the most amazing story he has ever read; its irony and concept were beautiful and real. The author points out that this short story shows him that all you really need is the feeling of love; you don't need gifts because they can turn around and 'bite you' in the long run. The paper relates the story of the "The Dillinghams who are not very wealthy, but deeply in love, and who sell their treasures, her hair and his watch, to give each other a Christmas gift."

From the Paper:

"So Jim walks in and stares and stares at Della, not because he is mad, but more like a shocking kind of look. You'll never believe this. Della explains why she had done what she did, reason being she wouldn't be able to live if she didn't get her husband a present for Christmas. Jim was in no way mad at her, but like I said, just in shock. Jim pulls out a package of his own, and remember she bought him a chain for his wristwatch, and she cut all of her hair off for that chain, he pulls out a top of the line comb set as a gift for Della. That's when Della realizes the look he had on his face was for a reason. The two, I feel are in disbelief and decide to just put the gifts away and continue on to eating dinner because the gifts were to valuable to just be presents for one another."

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