Literary Devices In O. Henry's The Gift Of The Magi

Everyday people make decisions just like Della the main character did. What is a perfect gift? And how much (money, time, etc.) are you willing to give up to find something that would really matter to a person that you love? This might even lead you to do something you wouldn 't usually do. Della wanted to buy her husband JIm a very nice Christmas present. She had little to no money to buy him something nice. She was very upset and, made a choice she wouldn’t have most likely made in a million years. Just to buy him a nice gift.
The short story, The Gift of the Magi was written by O.Henry. O.Henry uses many ways to show the theme of how sacrifice can lead you to do things you would never do. O.Henry uses many literary devices to help support

By O.Henry using this literary device it gives the reader a image in their head of what is going on in the story. Della is upset because she doesn’t have enough money to get JIm a good Gift for Christmas. She was standing in front of her mirror and let down her hair. As she looked at it in the mirror she paused and seemed to have an idea and ran to a lady named Ms.Sofronie who buys hair. ”So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, shining like a falling stream of brown water. It reached below her knee. It almost made itself into a dress for her. Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length; Up to the second floor Della ran, and stopped to get her breath. Mrs. Sofronie, large, too white, cold-eyed, looked at her. “Will you buy my hair?” asked Della. “I buy hair,” said Mrs. Sofronie. “Take your hat off and let me look at it.” Down fell the brown waterfall. “Twenty dollars,” said Mrs. Sofronie, lifting the hair to feel its weight. “Give it to me quick,” said Della” ( O’Henry pg 2). This literary device helps prove the theme because, the use of descriptive language of how her hair is shining and a falling stream of brown water gives the reader a image of how pretty it could be. As the author

In conclusion O.Henry uses many great examples of literary devices in the story “ The Gift of the Magi”. By using irony, third person writing and descriptive language, it gives the reader a strong intake and emotion to what they 're reading which makes the theme of sacrifice can make you do things you wouldn 't normally do very strong. Both characters made huge sacrifices they probably wouldn 't have thought of doing in a million years but ended up doing it anyways to make one another