Assignment in Analysis the Gift of Magi

Assignment in Analysis
the Gift of Magi

1. Give a very short summary of the story

2. Speak on the title of the story. What religious myth is alluded to by the title? What implicit information does it convey?
3. What categories (implicitness, emotiveness, intertextuality) of fictional text is realized in this story? Identify linguistic means representing these categories. Give examples from the text.
4. Interpret the sentence “…life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating”. What stylistic device is used here? Give your feedback.
5. Define stylistic devices and comment on their functions.
6. Find poetic details and discuss their functions.
7. Identify allusions in the text. What is the role of the allusions (religious and mythological) in revealing conceptual information of the story?
8. How does the end of the story containing the author’s meditations reveal the conceptual information of the story.

The major theme of the story is the endless love and the sacrifice, as the main characters sacrifice their precious things for one another. Another theme of the story is wealth and poverty: while financially poor, Della and Jim prove to be emotionally rich. The love they have for each other overshadows their poverty.

The title of the story is symbolic. According to the story, the magi were wise people. The title of the story refers to the three magi (the three wise men, kings) who came to see Jesus several days after his birth. They brought the Christ child expensive gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gifts the magi gave to Jesus are wise too. These gifts must have been the smartest, best gifts anyone could have chosen. And according to the narrator, that makes the two characters in this story – Jim and Della – just like the magi: they gave each other the wisest gifts of all.
The story goes about a young couple who are short of money but desperately want to buy each other Christmas gifts. Unbeknown to Jim, Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch; while unbeknown to Della, Jim sells his own most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jewelled combs for Della's hair. Jim and Della though called “foolish children”, but their gifts are compared with those of the magis’ which are said to be the wisest. The events in the story take place in New York City in a very modest apartment and in a hair shop down the street from the apartment. O. Henry sketches the flat with just enough detail to convey it’s image: cheap, sparsely furnished, broken mailbox and doorbell. Everything was grey: Della “looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard”. It is also a case of asyndeton because the conjunction “at” in “walking a grey fence” is omitted. From the “gas” which Della lights and gadgets she has: a stove and curling irons, it can be said that the story is set about the time O. Henry wrote it – the first decade of the 20th century).
From the very first line of the story we notice the usage of such graphical means as capitalization: “ONE DOLLAR AND EIGHTY-SEVEN CENTS. THAT WAS ALL. AND SIXTY CENTS of it was in pennies”. It is used to draw our attention to the main problem – lack of money. The usage of the pronoun “one” instead of “her” in the following sentence: “Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied” give an utterance a more general character and underline Della’s state when she had to ask money. It was hard for her and she found herself in an awkward situation. There is an epithet: “silent imputation of parsimony”. It also stresses that though Della was strong by her nature: she was “bulldozing” but she was also timid. The inversion: “Three times Della counted it” underline how thrifty and careful Della was. There are constant repetitions of the phase: “one dollar and eighty-seven cents” which stress Della’s hopelessness. A repetition of adjectives “grey”: “…looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard” helps to create the atmosphere of sadness. The phrase “life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles” describe the reality of life”.And this example of Alliteration,which is the repetition of the same or similar sounds “s” in this phrase. The periphrasis: “mortal finger” stands for “person, human being”. It emphasizes the hopeless case of the family. Archaic usage of “thereunto” means “to that”. The usage of metonymy is noticed in the case when the surname “Dillingham” substitutes the word “card with the surname”. A nominative sentence “Her Jim” increase the dynamism and flow of Della’s thoughts. In the following sentence the case of inversion can also be noticed: “Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length”. It underlines Della’s emotions and wish to act quickly. Hyperbole occurs when the narrator describes the prized possessions of both characters. Firstly he compares Della’s hair with “Queen of Sheba” and how envious she becomes after seeing Della’s hairs despite Her Majesty’s jewels.
There is an allusion from Bible about Queen of Sheba and King Solomon and their wealth, jewels and gifts which are nothing in comparison with Della’s hair and Jim’s watch. Inversion is used in the following sentences: “Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out of the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy”. It underlines how proud the Dillinghams where of their possessions.
Simile is used to describe Della’s greatest possession her hair: “Della’s beautiful hair fell like a cascade of brown water”. Her hair is a wavy as it is like a cascade, its colour is like brown water.
The metaphor: “tripped by on rosy wings” describes the mood of Della. She was happy, she was ready to seek for a present for Jim. The fob that had Della bought had “meretricious ornamentation” – epithet, used to describe the beauty of her present, but at the same time it was valuable and simple: “Quietness and value--the description applied to both”. Inversion in the sentence: “Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 78 cents” helps to show how unwilling Della was to give money, how thrifty she was. She would have better bought Jim a new overcoat and gloves – a practical thing, but she was a romantic figure, she valued Jim and she wanted to give him something special. The usage of oxymoron “properly anxious” underline that this fob is also a practical thing. Inversion: “Grand as the watch was” emphasize the refinement of it.
Repetition of the conjunction “or” in the sentence: “I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less” indicate Jim’s release from his trance. With the help of epithet Della’s vanished hair is described as “coverted adornments”, to emphasize that now when she got those combs she lacked her hair, now it seems even more precious for her than those combs.
So,”The Gift of the Magi” by O.Henry include allusions, imagery, metaphors, similes, hyperbole, alliteration and the different types of irony that occur throughout the story.