What Is The Hidden Message In The Gift Of The Magi

Stories usually have hidden meaning put there by the author to entertain the thoughts of those patient enough to dig deeper into the hidden message. Messages in stories are expressed in various ways. An example is O. Henry’s story The Gift of the Magi. O.Henry, in his story, uses a few themes to describe the story and the characters. He does this to get the reader engaged in the story and want to read more. Authors use literary elements to convey multiple messages in a variety of ways to their audience. Every story is a quest. This means that the main character(s), or the questor(s), are trying to accomplish something or gain a better self knowledge. When the character is first introduced, he is first starting the quest, usually not knowing the end game. This is shown when Della is in the window, wondering what she could do that would mean a lot to her husband Jim. Then the questor starts the voyage where they run into obstacles and symbolic dragons. In the story Della runs into the problem of not having enough money to buy a gift. She decides on getting Jim a chain for his watch to replace the cheap piece of leather he uses on his pocket watch; eventually to only finding one chain of its kind around town. Quests always come to an end before a new one begins, but not before the questor solves their problems they ran into on the way. In order to solve her problem and get money, Della consults someone about how much money she could get from selling her hair. After