O. Henrys Themes of Sacrifice and Symbolism:

The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf

In a New Yorker profile of the American short story writer O. Henry, author Louis Menand (2021) describes the staggering output of the author at the peak of his career, writing as many as a short story a week for magazines. Born William Sidney Porter in 1862, O. Henry was a pseudonym, and like many of his characters, O. Henry harbored a secrethe served five years in prison for embezzlement when he was working at a bank (Menand 2021). Porter began writing in prison, and once released, writing short stories for magazines became the primary source of his income. Although very successful, like many of his characters, he was often in need of money, and the need to write popular and pleasing stories was a major source of his literary inspiration (Menard 2021). In 1904, he published 66 stories, and the early 20th century saw the publication of some of his most famous works, including The Gift of the Magi and The Last Leaf. Both stories 1. feature struggling characters facing difficult circumstances, 2. draw heavily upon the use of symbolism, and 3. have surprise endings that highlight the theme of the importance of sacrifice for love that are both poignant and profound in a way that continues to engage readers.

The Gift of the Magi refers in its title to the gift of the wise men to Christ of various apparently useless gifts (except gold) which reflect their adoration of the Christ child. In this story, a young couple named Della and Jim are scrimping and saving just to make ends meet. Dellas one crowing glory is her beautiful hair, and she sells it to get enough money to buy a gold watch chain for her husband, only to learn that Jim sold his valuable watch to buy her the beautiful tortoiseshell combs she longed for to adorn her hair. This exchange underlines the symbolic truth that it is the thought behind the gift rather than the gift itself, which is important. Each sold the most valuable thing he owned in order to buy a gift for the other (Henry, 1906, p.6). The sacrifice was the greatest gift, versus the material worth of the gifts, their sacrifices symbolized. Although these characters are poor, they find solace in the love they share from one another. Similarly, The Last Leaf tells the story of a couple, Sue, and Johnsy, two struggling artists who are devoted to each other; but when Johnsy becomes ill with pneumonia, she is convinced that she will die when the last leaf of an old tree near their apartment sheds all its leaves. It will fall today, and I shall die at the same time (Henry 1905, p.16). Later, after...

Behrman, a painter who painted a leaf on the wall to retain the illusion that the tree was still holding on, despite adversity. In terms of characterization, the protagonists of these stories are not struggling against human antagonists, but against invisible forcesin The Gift of the Magi, poverty, while in The Last Leaf, depression brought forth by an illness.

Sacrifice is a theme which is present in both stories, even though both are, for the most part warm-hearted and uplifting in the ways they end. In The Gift of the Magi, Della and Jim are willing to make sacrifices for one another of the dearest material possessions...

…for Sue.

According to Menard (2021), O. Henry was critical in developing the medium of the short story as a way of telling a story which emphasizes the ending, versus other aspects of the story, versus plot or characterization. O. Henry offers little in the way of details about the characters previous history and is very minimalistic about the social world he describes (Menard 2021). The ending is the point of the composition (Menard 2021). The ending causes the reader to question everything he or she believed about the characters before, just as Della and Jim question what it means to give something valuable to one another and Sue questions how she viewed Mr. Behrman and Johnsy views how she evaluated her own life and future.

O. Henrys style has often been called sentimental, particularly because of stories like The Gift of the Magi, which, some critics have attempted to reduce to a very simplistic understanding of that it is the thought that counts when giving a gift, versus giving a gift itself (Menard 2021). This does not consider, however, the extent of what both members of the couple give up for one another, even though a practical person might suggest that it would have been better if the couple had given one another simpler gifts. The Last Leaf has likewise also been characterized as an extremely implausible tale (Mambrol 2021). After all, Johnsys miraculous mental recovery seems to occur overnight and comes at a very high price to her rescuer. But the gifts of the characters to one another take on a memorable symbolic truth because of the shock the ending conveys, and the symbolism of the gifts in affirming the need to honor the intention behind every gift and to uphold a spirit of hope ensures that the stories continue to…