UWM The Gift of The Magi by O Henry Reaction Paper I need help in my reaction paper for “The Gift of the Magi” by O Henry.I have the sample of the reaction

UWM The Gift of The Magi by O Henry Reaction Paper I need help in my reaction paper for “The Gift of the Magi” by O Henry.I have the sample of the reaction paper and I have the story. SAMPLE STORY AND REACTION PAPER
SAMPLE STORY
The Bread
by Wolfgang Borchert
Suddenly she woke up. It was 2.30. She thought about why she had woken up. Oh yes! In the kitchen
someone had bumped against a chair. She listened in the direction of the kitchen. It was quiet. It was too quiet
and as she ran her hand over the bed beside her, she found it empty. That’s what it was, that’s what had made it
so especially quiet: his breathing was missing. She got up and groped her way through the dark apartment to the
kitchen. In the kitchen they met. The time was 2.30. She saw something white standing by the kitchen cabinet.
She turned on the light. They stood facing each other in their shirts. At night. At 2.30. In the kitchen.
The bread plate lay on the kitchen table. She saw that he had cut himself some bread. The knife was still
lying beside the plate. And on the tablecloth there were bread crumbs. When they went to bed at night she
always cleaned the tablecloth. Every night. But now there were crumbs on the cloth. And the knife lay there.
She felt how the cold of the tiles slowly crept up her body. And she looked away from the plate.
“I thought there was something here,” he said and looked around in the kitchen.
“I heard something, too,” she answered and at the same time she thought that he really looked pretty old
already, at night in his shirt. As old as he was. Sixty three. During the day he sometimes looked younger. She
really looks old, he thought, in her shirt she looks pretty old already. But maybe that’s because of the hair. With
women it’s always because of the hair at night. It makes them so old all of a sudden.
“You should have put on some shoes. Barefoot like that on the cold tiles. You are going to catch a cold.”
She did not look at him, because she could not bear that he lied. That he lied after they had been married
for thirty nine years.
“I thought there was something here,” he said once again and again looked from one corner to the other
so senselessly, “I heard something here. That’s why I thought there was something here.”
“I heard something, too. But it was probably nothing.” She took the plate off the table and flicked the
crumbs off the cloth.
“No, it was probably nothing,” he echoed uncertainly.
She came to his aid: “Come on. It must have been outside. Come on to bed. You are going to catch a
cold. On the cold tiles.”
He looked towards the window. “Yes, it must have been outside then. I thought it was here.”
She lifted her hand to the light switch. I have to turn off the light now or else I will have to look at the
plate, she thought. I cannot allow myself to look at the plate.
“Come on now,” she said and turned off the light, “it must have been outside. The rain gutter always
bangs against the wall when it’s windy. I’m sure it was the rain gutter. When it’s windy it always rattles.”
They both felt their way across the dark hallway to the bedroom. Their naked feet splashed on the floor.
“Yes, it’s windy,” he said. “It’s been windy all night.”
As they lay in bed she said, “Yes, it’s been windy all night. It was probably the rain gutter.”
“Yes, I thought it was in the kitchen. It was probably the rain gutter.” He said that as if he were already
half asleep.
But she noticed how false his voice sounded when he lied. “It is cold”, she said and yawned softly, “I ’m
crawling under the blanket. Good night.”
“Night,” he answered and added, “yes, it is really pretty cold.”
Then it was quiet. After many minutes she heard that he was chewing quietly and carefully. She
breathed deeply and evenly, on purpose, so that he would not notice that she was still awake. But his chewing
was so regular that she slowly fell asleep because of it.
When he came home the next evening she pushed four slices of bread over to him. Before he had only
been able to eat three.
“You can go ahead and eat four,” she said and moved away from the lamp. ‘I cannot take this bread all
that well. Go ahead and eat one more. I can’t take it all that well.”
She saw how he bent deeply over the plate. He didn’t look up. At that moment she felt sorry for him.
“You can’t eat just two slices,” he said to his plate.
“Sure. In the evening the bread doesn’t agree with me. Go ahead and eat! Eat!”
It was only a while later that she sat down at the table under the lamp.
SAMPLE REACTION PAPER
Denial
At first reading Wolfgang Borchert’s story about an old couple and a few slices of bread seems
trivial, especially when cast against the mass murder and suffering of the Second World War. But by
focusing on this small incident, Borchert is able to create a tightly focused drama that explores the toll
hunger and deprivation can take on a person’s character, morality, and self respect.
More pointedly, Borchert’s story is a study in denial, demonstrating the defense mechanisms
people employ to protect themselves from something too painful to acknowledge.
“The Bread” presents a classic case of what current psychologists call “enabling.” Awakened
by a noise, a woman enters the kitchen and discovers clear evidence that her husband has cut a slice
of bread, stealing food from her. Her husband, whom she knows is lying, offers a childishly clumsy
explanation, claiming to be investigating a noise in the dark.
Instead of confronting her husband, the wife changes the subject, abruptly scolding him for not
wearing shoes. When her husband haltingly explains that he heard a noise, she quickly agrees,
enabling his deception. To leave the scene of the crime—the kitchen with its signs of his betrayal—
she urges him to come to bed. Even when she hears him chewing the stolen bread, she remains
silent.
In helping him lie, in going along and playing dumb, the wife is masking her pain and anger. It
is a form of denial, a way of wishing this theft not to be true. This behavior is common in spouses who
discover their partners are unfaithful or parents who encounter a child’s drug abuse. The wife
certainly must feel betrayed on many levels.
First, her husband was stealing food from her. Suffering severe hunger, he evidently did not
ask for more bread or even discuss it with her. Instead, he stole. Second, when caught, he did not
admit his guilt but lied. She must feel anger at this betrayal and perhaps disgust at his weakness, his
inability control his hunger and his failure to muster the courage to tell the truth and apologize.
The wife’s final gesture is a wordless confrontation, letting her husband know that she is aware
of his theft. Guilt-stricken, her husband cannot look her in the eye and asserts that she needs to eat
more than two slices. The wife lies, claiming to have digestion problems. Her inability to sit at the
table, however, reveals the extent of her anger. After decades of life together, the couple can only
communicate with shared acts of deception.
Borchert’s point is that hunger will drive one to steal from a loved one, to break the trust and
love that held a couple together for almost forty years.
Questions for Review and Writing
1. What is the student’s thesis? Is it clearly stated?
2. Does the student provide enough support from the story?
3. The student introduces a psychological term. Is it suited to this essay?
Should it be better explained?
4. Do any passages need expansion? Are there needless details that should be deleted?
5. How would you improve this commentary? Do you have an alternative interpretation of the woman’s final
gesture?
The Gift of the Magi
By
O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
One dollar and eighty–seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it
was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the
grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned
with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.
Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty–seven cents. And
the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch
and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life
is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first
stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per
week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word
on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter–box into which no letter would go,
and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring.
Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name “Mr. James
Dillingham Young.”
The “Dillingham” had been flung to the breeze during a former period of
prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when
the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of
contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James
Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called
“Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already
introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag.
She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a
gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and
she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been
saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty
2
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
dollars a week doesn’t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had
calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her
Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for
him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit
near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.
There was a pier–glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you
have seen a pierglass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person
may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal
strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being
slender, had mastered the art.
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her
eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty
seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in
which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim’s gold watch that had
been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. Had
the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have
let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her
Majesty’s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all
his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his
watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.
So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a
cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself
almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and
quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two
splashed on the worn red carpet.
On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl
of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out
the door and down the stairs to the street.
3
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Where she stopped the sign read: “Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All
Kinds.” One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame,
large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the “Sofronie.”
“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della.
“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take yer hat off and let’s have a sight at the
looks of it.”
Down rippled the brown cascade.
“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
“Give it to me quick,” said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed
metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else.
There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of
them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design,
properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by
meretricious ornamentation—as all good things should do. It was even
worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be
Jim’s. It was like him. Quietness and value—the description applied to
both. Twenty–one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home
with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly
anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he
sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that
he used in place of a chain.
When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence
and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to
work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is
always a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammoth task.
4
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close–lying curls
that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at
her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.
“If Jim doesn’t kill me,” she said to herself, “before he takes a second
look at me, he’ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what
could I do—oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty–seven cents?”
At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying–pan was on the back of
the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on
the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she
heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned
white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying a little silent prayer
about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please
God, make him think I am still pretty.”
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and
very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty–two—and to be burdened
with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of
quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in
them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor
surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she
had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar
expression on his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.
“Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut
off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without
giving you a present. It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I
just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say `Merry Christmas!’
5
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful,
nice gift I’ve got for you.”
“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not
arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.
“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well,
anyhow? I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?”
Jim looked about the room curiously.
“You say your hair is gone?” he said, with an air almost of idiocy.
“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you—sold and
gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you.
Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden
serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall
I put the chops on, Jim?”
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della.
For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential
object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year—
what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the
wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among
them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the
table.
“Don’t make any mistake, Dell,” he said, “about me. I don’t think there’s
anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could
make me like my girl any less. But if you’ll unwrap that package you
may see why you had me going a while at first.”
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an
6
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to
hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of
all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.
For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della
had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure
tortoise shell, with jewelled rims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful
vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had
simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of
possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have
adorned the coveted adornments were gone.
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up
with dim eyes and a smile and say: “My hair grows so fast, Jim!”
And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, “Oh, oh!”
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly
upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a
reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.
“Isn’t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to
look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want
to see how it looks on it.”
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands
under the back of his head and smiled.
“Dell,” said he, “let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ‘em a
while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the
money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.”
The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who
brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving
Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones,
7
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And
here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish
children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the
greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these
days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of
all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they
are wisest. They are the magi.
THE END
8
Created for Lit2Go on the web at etc.usf.edu

Purchase answer to see full
attachment