The Gift of the Magi Review

Author

• William Sydney Porter wrote The Gift of the Magi; he was born in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1862, whenever he wrote he used the name O. Henry.
• He was the second child of Dr. Alegernon Porter and Mary Jane Porter; he was called Will as a kid.
• His dad did not have a medical degree but was considered the town's doctor.  O. Henry's early life coincides with the Civil War, in which his father worked at the field hospital outside Greensboro.
• His mother died after the birth of their third child in 1865; his grandmother, Ruth Porter, raised him with the help of his aunt Evalina, who ran the school he attended.
• Aunt Evalina was the one who made O. Henry love reading; there is a quote by him that says "I never have time to read now, I did all my reading before I was twenty."
• O. Henry's education ended when he turned 15 because he went to work in his uncle's pharmacy, which was a meeting place for men to talk about daily issues; Will got ideas for characters from these men.
• O. Henry was sent to Texas in 1882 to recuperate from a hacking cough; he stayed on a huge sheep and cattle ranch that was run by Lee Hall and his brothers; he spent his time reading, drawing, and writing.  Two years later he moved to Austin and worked as a pharmacist and a bookkeeper.
• He married Athol Estes in 1887; he met her working for the Land Office in Austin.
• Athol's family didn't approve her relationship, so she escaped with O. Henry; it was she who encouraged him to take his writing seriously.
• Athol and Will had a daughter, Margaret, but soon Athol became sick with tuberculosis.
• In 1894, O. Henry gathered $250 from his friends and bought a used printing press to begin working on his weekly paper, the Rolling Stone.  He would draw and write for it on his day-job (bank teller).  The writings were humorous or about current events.
• O. Henry escaped to Honduras to prevent being arrested for stealing money from a bank in Texas, but he returned because Athol was very sick; Athol died and he was arrested the year after.  He stayed in an Ohio prison and continued to write under the pen name O. Henry.
• In 1898 he sold his first story, "The Miracle of Lava Canyon."
• O. Henry was released in 1901; he went to Pittsburgh to reunite with his daughter and wrote monthly stories for magazines and newspapers.
• A magazine editor suggested he visit New York City; he arrived there in 1902 and the city became his home for many productive years.
• By 1904 books of his stories began to be published.
• In 1907, O. Henry married Sara L. Coleman, who had been a friend of his in his childhood at North Carolina.  She reintroduced herself in a letter; they began to write and ended up married after O. Henry proposed in her first visit to New York.
• The lived in Long Island with Margaret, but two years later Sara returned to North Carolina.
• He died alone and poor of cirrhosis of the liver when he was 48 (1910) because of his heavy drinker habits.
• His life has an ironic ending because the church where his funeral was held scheduled a wedding for the same time, so his funeral had to be hurried to hold the wedding.
• O. Henry was buried in Asheville, North Carolina.
• Today, the most renowned annual collection of new American short stories has his name,the O. Henry Awards.

Vocabulary

1. instigate - (verb) to stir up; provoke
2. vestibule - (noun) a small entryway within a building
3. agile - (adj.) able to move quickly and easily
4. falter -  (verb) to hesitate from lack of courage or confidence
5. ransack - (verb) to search or examine vigorously
6. prudence - (noun) the use of good judgment and common sense
7. ravage - (noun) serious damage
8. assertion - (noun) a statement
9. coveted - (adj.) greedily desired or wished for
10. chronicle - (noun) a record of events

Summary

• The story begins on Christmas Eve; Della only had $1.87, of which 60 cents was in pennies she had saved one at a time by bulldozing the grocers.
• We learn the furnished flat's rent is $8 per week and that the family's income had been cut from $30 to $20.
• There was a card in the vestibule that read "Mr. James Dillingham Young", the Dillingham looked like a D.
• Della cried because she needed to get a gift for Jim. but did not have enough money.
• There was a pier glass in the apartment through which Dela has mastered looking at herself.
• The James Dillingham Youngs each had a prized possession; Jim's was his gold watch that had belonged to his father and grandfather.  Della's was her long, brown hair on which she loved to put.
• Della went out with her old brown jacket and hat and stopped at a shop that had a sign that read "Mme. Sofroine. Hair Goods of All Kinds"; she sold her hair here for $20.
• Della went out and found a present for Jim; it was a simple platinum fob chain for his watch that cost $21 because Jim's watch's chain had never been up to par with his golden watch.
• Jim comes home early, as always, and is in shock when he sees Della.
• Della gives him his present, and he gives her his, which were beautiful, tortoise shell, jeweled combs.  Unfortunately, Della cut her hair to afford his gift, so she couldn't wear the combs.
• We also find out Jim had sold his watch to pay for the combs.
• The story ends telling us how wise the magi were when giving gifts to Jesus.

Characters

1. Della Young - Slender woman, wife of Mr. James.  She had long brown hair which she cut for $20 to buy her husband a gift.  Her prized possessions were her combs she wore on her hair.
2. Mr. James Dillingham Young - Della, his wife, called him Jim; he was 22 years old.  His prized possession was his golden pocket watch which had been passed on by his father and grandfather.
3. Madame Sofroine - Owned a hair goods shop; bought Della's hair for $20.