Dragon, witches, princesses and knights. These are the imaginary friends in so many children's lives. For young adults, those fairy tale characters give way to darker characters and more realistic situations. However, what do they all have in common? They live in short stories. Two short stories that are interesting are "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry and "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant. Della in "The Gift of the Magi" wants to find Mr. James Dillingham Young, Jim, her husband, the best gift for Christmas, but she has just one dollar and eighty-seven cents. Mathilde Loisel in "The Necklace" loses the necklace which she borrows from her friend for good-looking for going to the ball at the Ministry. While there are some obvious similarities, …show more content…
In "The Gift of the Magi", when Della gives Jim the chain and tells him to show the watch, his answer is "let's put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They're too nice to use now" (Henry). Looking back to how they both get the gifts for each other, it is so difficult for them to find something which is perfect for the person they love. After all they have done is for nothing, nobody can tell how hard it is. It is so sentimental for this story. Similarly, "The Necklace" is sentimental too. When Mathilde tells Madame Forestier about the necklace, is also the same time that she knows that the original was "imitation" and "worth at the very most five hundred francs" (Maupassant). She and her husband have a hard time to find the money so they can force for the necklace to replace the original just because they mistakenly think that it is a diamond one. Clearly, the tone for both stories is …show more content…
Both stories show the suffering which comes from the poorness with an occasional tone of sentimental and are written from the third person omniscient point of view. While the similarities are strong, they are different from the response of the characters to their situations and in the tone of mean in one and disappointed in the other. These are great stories, by great authors, which touch the hearts of people who read them because of the truths they display about the response of poor people. Perhaps they will make us all think and become more understanding about our