The Lessons Learned from The Gift of The Magi

To become wealthy is a dream for many people because they think as you get more money, and then you can get the better life quality. However, I found the wealth is not only the most important thing for humans, but also being happy and giving others happiness are important. I heard someone said “It is shameful to depend upon silver and gold for a happy life.” I learned two things in the story “The Gift Of The Magi” which is wrote by O. Henry, and these two things totally changed my view of the world. The first thing I learned in the story is sacrifice such as giving. Secondly, I learned about receiving is also a hard lesson. A contented mind is a perpetual feast.

Concepts of Giving and Receiving - the Main Themes of the Novel

The story is about a couple that are not really rich, and they relinquished what they have, even though they sold their favorite stuffs, they have each other. I was really taken by how the author had the readers feeling how foolish and misguided Della was but landing on the final statements of how wise they were. Give from your heart and it does not matter how much you have. They love each other and sacrifices one’s thing, and it explains that the true love can make us sacrifice for who we love. Giving is a way that shows how much we care about others, and there is no scale for love. Although the gifts that Della and her husband bought for each other were not able to use, they confirmed the truth of love. The couple in this story reminds me of my grandparents, they have so much love for one another, and they never put themselves over others. Sometimes they get so run down from helping others they have no choice but to take a day for themselves and relax. Nonetheless, the gift of giving has a great feeling that not everyone experiences fully, I feel as if everyone should feel it before their life ends. Moreover, giving is a great lesson that I learn in this story.

We get actual gifts or blessings on holidays, and we always get helps from other people. Receiving is actually easy for everyone, yet it is difficult to be grateful and content of what we receive. In the story, after the couple got their gifts from each other, they didn’t blame each other although they felt shock at the first, and they hugged each other at the end. It doesn’t matter that how much cost from the gift or how useful it is. The gifts and the assistance from others are stand for the mind. For example, I used to get birthday gifts from my parents when I was a child. Once, my mother bought a gift that I don’t like it, and I started to cry on the family gathering, and I also hit my mother. Now I think I was immature, and I feel sorry to my mother. She was suffering when I was borned, so I should be appreciate for everythings she gave me. In conclusion, don’t judge others by what they gave to you. There’s no one have obligation to help you or being kind to you. Be grateful when you receive some from other people. Receiving is not harder than giving, but it is still one of the conducts of life.

People often view giving as an obligation rather than they want to make someone happy. Likewise, people also take for granted that someone is to just give them something. The story taught me a lots. I was a person who only care about myself, and didn’t like to pay for others. Also, I used to complain a lot about my family is not that rich. After reading this story, I changed my mind of the value of the world. It is a great reminder of the importance of giving and receiving. Hope I can always tell myself to be cherish happiness and gratitude on giving and receiving.

Final Thoughts

I learned how to tell a story by writing an essay, and it is not too difficult for me to write a two pages essay, but I know that I still have to work on writing, to make it longer and more professional. Also, I not really sure about who’s said the quote in my first paragraph, and I couldn’t found the information on the internet too, so I didn’t put it to the works cited. I think I will grade myself between A and B, I followed the MLA format, and I tried my best to write a clear structure, and I also did the outline before I started to write it.