Analysis

  Plot
Plot is artistic arrangement or a design of events in a story or plot could be interpreted
the main events of a play, novel, movie, or similar work, devised and presented by the
writer as an interrelated sequence. Plot can be found in the beginning of the story or in
the end of the story. But usually plot can be found in the beginning of the story. In
pursuance of Frey’s tag pyramid a plot of story consist of exposition, complication, rising
action, climax, falling action, and resolution or denouement. Exposition is introducing of
character in the story. And it can be interpreted starting of the situation in the story and,
beside of introducing of character in the story exposition can introducing of setting,
background, etc. complication is introducing of conflict in the story. There are two kinds
of conflict; first is external and the second is internal. External conflict happens between
character, and the character and society. Internal conflict the inner conflict is within a
character. Here, there is the situation/new character/changes of personality/changes
from one of character in the story. Rising action is continuation from complication
means that cause of what is causing those changes in the story. Climax is the peak of
the story. It can be like take a decision/ action for conflict. Falling action is when the
moment in the story is going to be cleared. The last are resolution when story has
happy or good ending and denouement (when story has sad ending).

In “The Gift of The Magi”, the expostion happens when the main character is introduced.
There was a woman named Della. She was counting her money and realized that it was
not enough to byu a present for Jim, her husband. She felt really sad that the next day
would be Christmas and she still did not know what to do. She really wanted to buy Jim
a present.

After exposition, the story goes on to rising action. It happens when Della was totally in
deep confussion about what she could do. She only got $1.87 as the result after she
had saved every pennies for months. She knew that $1.87 would never be enough for
such a great present. She cried for a while but then she found out that she had to take a
risk. It is told that Della had an extremely long brown hair. She immediately went out of
her house and searched for any store that would buy her hair. While she was walking
through the street, she suddenly stopped since she read a sign said “Mme. Sofronie.
Hair Goods of All Kinds.” She rushed into the store, met a woman named Madame
Sofronie, and asked her if she wanted to buy her hair. Madame Sofronie then examined
her hair and quickly told Della that her hair was worth $20. After Della got the money,
she went to a store where she finally found the right present for Jim. It was a simple
platinum fob chain, and she thought it would be perfect for Jim’s watch. The chain
reflects the simplicity and quietness of Jim. Della bought it for $21 and got back home
with her 87 cents.
The rising action always lead the story to the climax. The climax in this story happens
when Jim finally went home from work. Seeing his wife’s hair cut off, he suddenly just
stand still at his place without being angry, surprised, or disapproval. He asked his wife
to make sure that her hair had been really gone. Della cried and told him that she cut it
off and sold it.

The climax goes down to the falling action. The falling action in this story is when Jim
took out a package from his coat and spoke to Della. He seemed to feel alright. He did
not mind about Della’s short hair. He asked Della to unwrap the package to make Della
understand why Jim was like that at the first time he saw Della. She opened the
package and cried hysterically. It was a set of comb made of pure tortoise shell with
jewelled rims. It was all that she had dreamed for long time. After that, Della gave Jim
the chain that she bought, and asked him to try it on his watch. However, Jim did not
obey that. He threw himself on a couch and smiled.

The ending of the story can be considered as resolution since Jim and Della were
happy in the end. Jim finally told his wife to put the presents away for a while and stated
that they were too nice to be just a present. While sitting on the couch, he told Della that
he had sold his watch to buy the comb set for Della. Now, Jim asked his wife to prepare
the dinner for them both.

  Characters
Character is personality or attitude for a person in story. The types of character are
divided into two categories there are role and personality. from role are divided into two
major and minor characters. Meanwhile from personality, there are flat, round, static,
dynamic, stock, hero, anti-hero, and allusion.

There are major and minor characters in the story based on their roles. Della and Jim is
the major characters. Della is considered to be the major character since she is the one
who appears from the beginning until the end of the story. It seems that the beginning of
the story is telling about Della’s confussion to buy present for Jim, her husband until she
finally did a sacrifice in order to be able to buy a nice present. Meanwhile, Jim can be
also said that he is major character as he is another person who has a relationship with
Della, the first major character. Jim also has interactions with Della that create a good
flow of the story. Besides, there is actually one minor character. She is Madame
Sofronie who was the woman buying Della’s hair for $20. The reason why she is the
minor character is that she only appeared in the middle of the story for a moment.

The next explanation is based the characters’ personality. There are only three kinds of
characters, which are flat, dynamic, static, and stock characters. Della is dynamic
character in the story since her physical appearance changed in the end of the story. In
the beginning, it is described that she has a beautiful long brown hair. It looked like a
brown waterfall. However, she cut off her hair in order to buy a present for her husband,
so her hair became very short. Besides, Della is a flat character since her way to
interact with other characters throughout the story tends to be the same from the
beginning until the end.

Next, Jim can be considered as a flat and static character. Jim’s way of talking remains
the same since he only appeared almost in the end of the story. He is static character
because his physical appearance did not change at all. The last kind is stock character,
which is Madame Sofronie. She is considered as stock character since she tends to be
the only complement character.

  Setting
The definition of a setting in a story is where the story takes place and when the story
happens. Every story has a setting. Moreover, setting it is not only about place. Year,
day, month, in the morning, or even the story shows a time such as 00.00 these are
include setting and the name of those are time setting.
In “The Gift of The Magi”, the story takes place at Della and Jim’s house, Madame
Sofronie’s store, and the store where Della got the chain for the present. It took place at
Della and Jim’s house when Della was counting her money to buy a perfect present for
Jim, and when Della and Jim were finally meeting and talking about their presents in the
end of the story. Next, it took place at Madame Sofronie’s store when Della finally
decided to cut her hair off and sold it to Madame Sofronie for $20. Lastly, there was one
store when Della finally found the platinum fob chain to be the right present for Jim.

The time setting of the story is considered to be in a Christmas Eve since it was
explained that Della was confused about what she was going to buy Jim’s Christmas
present on the following day. Specifically, it was in the afternoon when Della was
counting money, going to Madame Sofronie’s store, and buying the fob chain for Jim’s
watch. In the end, it seemed to be in the evening when Della and Jim finally met and
talked about their presents.
  Point of view

Definition of point of view is the position of the narrator which is relation to the story, as
indicated by the narrator’s outlook from which the events are depicted and from the
attitude towards the character. There are two types of narrator, which are participant
and non-participant narrator. Participant narrator takes a role in the story. It tells the
story from the first person point of view and uses the pronoun “I” while non-participant
narrator does not take any role in the story. It only tells the story from the third person
point of view and uses the pronoun “she”, “he”, “it”, and names as well. Non-participant
narrator is also divided into three branch, which are omniscient or all-knowing, limited
omniscience, and objective.

The narrator of “The Gift of The Magi” is non-participant. It uses the limited omniscience
third person point of view. The narrator tells the story by using the pronoun “she”, “he”,
“it”, and names to mention all the characters and other things. It is considered to be
limited omniscience as the narrator only knows all about the major characters, which
are Della and Jim. The narrator explains the physical appearance and all the feelings of
Della and Jim.

  Theme
As definition theme is the central idea or ideas explored by a literary work. Usually
themes of the story have more one theme. Themes of the story could be themes of
death, themes of revenge, themes of action and many more. It can be said “The Gift of
The Magi” has the theme “Sacrifice sometimes can be pointless.” I could tell that since
Della’s sacrifice to cut her hair off to buy the chain for Jim’s watch became pointless
because in the end, Jim told Della that he had sold his valuable watch to buy her a set
of comb. Unfortunately, Della’s hair was now very short. In conclusion, their sacrifice
does not make any result.