Literary Elements In The Gift Of The Magi - 2148 Words

Authors use literary elements to enhance their writing through details to describe a scene in the author’s writing, or use language to elevate the story. â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† by O. Henry and â€Å"The Necklace† by Guy de Maupassant, both use many literary elements to give their writing more depth. â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† uses irony throughout the story when Della and her husband, Jim, both do not have enough money to buy each other gifts for Christmas. â€Å"The Necklace† uses a lot of detail to show what Madame (Mme.) Loisel dreams of at the beginning of the short story. â€Å"The Necklace† is one of the many short stories that use literary elements to elevate the story and keep the reader engaged in the author’s writing. â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† by O.†¦show more content†¦O. Henry uses a lot of detail throughout his writing in â€Å"The Gift of the Magi†, to clearly describe small pieces that would be meaningless if they didn’t have as much emphasis put into them. O. Henry writes about Della’s hair, and in the story, he describes it as, â€Å"So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters,† (O. Henry 117). Not only does O. Henry use the words rippling and shining as words to describe her hair, but he doesn’t use very simple words like wavy hair. Imagery and details go hand in hand if they are shown through the description in the text. O. Henry portrays her hair as a waterfall of brown hair cascading down. Details make something like Della’s hair impact the story by, showing how important her hair was to her and her husband. Situational irony is another element that is present throughout the short story. Della and her husband both buy each other gifts for Christmas at the end of the story. Ironically, Della and her husband bought each other gifts for what they gave up: Della bought her husband a wrist watch strap and Jim sold his watch to buy Della the combs she wanted for her hair. In the short story, Jim is seen grieving about the fact that she had cut her hair off, â€Å"I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on,† (O. Henry 121). The ending is situational irony because the reader was expecting that Della would buy herShow MoreRelatedThe Gift Of The Magi853 Words   |  4 PagesHow far can a couple go in getting a gift for their love ones on Christmas day? â€Å"The Gift of the Magi† is mainly about a young married couple who doesn’t have enough money to buy each other Christmas gifts. Having only one dollar and eighty-seven cent Del la, one of the main character, decides to sell her hair for only twenty dollars. This gives Della an opportunity to buy her husband, Jim a gift. Meanwhile, Jim who also is buying Della a present is having trouble with money, he decides to sell hisRead MoreIrony In The Gift Of The Magi Essay734 Words   |  3 PagesIn O. 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