Skip to main content

Why does the narrator compare Della and Jim to the Magi in "The Gift of the Magi"?

Della and Jim are compared to the Magi because, like the original three kings, this young woman and young man have sacrificed valuable and precious possessions of their own and given them willingly. All their acts are made from pure love and adoration.


O. Henry injects his authorial comment that Della and Jim "are the Magi" at the conclusion of the story after noting that



...two foolish children in a flat...most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house.



At this point O. Henry draws parallels between the three wise men and the young Dillinghams as they all have unselfishly given away their most precious gifts. And yet, the author declares that the young couple are the wisest of them because they truly understand the meaning of love that asks for nothing in return. Indeed, they are "the Magi."  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more