preface
In the Western scriptures, there is a story that when Jesus was born, three astrologers from the East, possibly farther afield in the Two Rivers Valley, the wise men saw the miracle, that is, the stars in the sky, and were guided to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, and finally offered him gold, frankincense, and dynamite, that is, representing the meaning of kings, priests and prophets, and using these three gifts to represent the threefold identity of Jesus. These three wise men were called Maggie, and their act of giving gifts to the living Jesus became the fashion for gift-giving later Christmas. And here O'Henry uses the title of "Maggie's Gift", and must have read the Gospel of Matthew, but this does not mean that the story is about religion, but on the contrary, this story is a story that completely reflects the lives of the people at the bottom, there are no kings, priests, prophets, and no miracles, only the noble gifts sent by the three oriental sages with full love.
Life is made up of crying, sobbing, and smiling, with sobs making up the majority. - O'Henry, "Maggie's Gift"
Author and inspiration
Like many American writers of the nineteenth century, O'Henry deeply experienced the evils of society, grew up in the lower classes, saw all kinds of people, and witnessed the oppression of people by the society of the time. But fortunately, O'Henry once had a happy love marriage experience, which may also be the prototype of this story. O'Henry's first wife, Athol Estes, married O'Henry at his worst, and after finishing secondary school, the nineteen-year-old girl was willing to elope with O'Henry, who was twenty-five years old and had nothing at the time, to spend his troubles with him, but unfortunately, O'Henry was eventually involved in the economic case and forced to leave his country, Estes died of illness, and O'Henry did not even return to see his beloved wife. Eventually, O'Henry's second failed marriage and eventually the life of an alcoholic who began to degenerate were more or less influenced by the factors of his and Estes' tragic love affair.
And because of this, "Maggie's Gift" can be understood to a certain extent as a kind of mourning for his deceased wife, the story was published exactly ten years after the death of his wife, and at this time O'Henry has not yet started the second marriage, it can be said that there is a kind of "ten years of life and death are vague, not thinking, unforgettable" meaning in it, perhaps the story itself is based on the real things of O'Henry and his first wife, which may only be known to the late O'Henry himself.
Maggie's gift
The story itself is simple, Della and Jim end up selling their most valuable things in order to give their beloved each other a valuable gift at Christmas, and eventually find that what they bought also lost value because the other party sold their most valuable things, Della sold his long hair but received a comb from Jim, Jim sold his watch but received a bracelet from Della, and finally the story ended in the O'Henry-esque ending after Jim smiled when he learned the truth.
The story conveys a pure and unwavering feeling, both sides can selflessly dedicate to each other, although the final gift seems to be worthless, but the sincere and affectionate love behind the gift is eternal and priceless.
However, there is a slight gap between reality and ideals after all, one year after this article, O'Henry began a second marriage, but only one year O'Henry divorced, and finally O'Henry also died of illness in his self-abandoned and sinking life, ending his short life of forty-eight years.
Sometimes we need to have a good view of life, including good love, precious family affection, but real life is not always so, those pure and beautiful things do not always exist, even thousands of miles away from what we think, but at this time, if we can continue to move forward with a firm heart, it may be a good way, Roman Rolland's heroism, the protagonist's desperate and final turn in "How Beautiful Life" is the same. Perhaps, as in this article, "Life is made up of crying, sobbing, and smiling, and sobbing accounts for the majority." "Life is full of helplessness, perhaps just like in the story Jim, even if he works hard, he can only sell the gold watch to buy a hairbrush for his beloved, and finally finds that the gifts he has worked hard and money to buy have become worthless, and this is just like those moments in our lives that are constantly choking, but the protagonist finally chooses to smile lightly, I think this is what he sees behind the difficult life, some of the things that are worthy of his smile. Perhaps here you can cite the "How Beautiful Life" that was rated as the greatest inspirational film of the century as an example, the protagonist after seeing the angel showed him the world without him, the protagonist realized that he was so important, so many people have been happy because of themselves, and finally found the confidence in life, and finally came out of the predicament after accepting the help of the people he had helped. And here we may see that the codes that really affect people's happiness are neither gold watches nor hairbrushes, but whether you feel love, whether you have ever given your love to others, and have been sincerely recognized by others, and are willing to give the same for you.
Maybe life is not easy, and beauty is so rare and difficult to find after all, but maybe when you learn to love people sincerely, you are already closer to happiness than others.