Theme Makes a Story Have Purpose

Author’s Note: This is my theme essay. I am writing about the theme in the short story The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. I had found a website (http://www.americanliterature.com/short-stories) that had a bunch of short stories by various authors. This one was a recommended one, and it wasn’t sad and didn’t have anything to do with horror, so I decided to use that one for this essay. It had about three themes that all came together to make the story what it is.

What is it like to give something away to make someone else happy? You must feel a sense of pride that you did the right thing. In life, people sell things they hold dear to themselves to buy something for someone they love. In the short story The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry, it’s exactly like that, but the two people end up getting Christmas presents for each other that wouldn’t make sense to use anymore. The definition of love is "a deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person.” In The Gift of the Magi, the two main characters possess a love for each other that is so strong that they are willing to sacrifice their greatest treasures for each other, with no regrets.

There are many themes that would be accurate to describe the short story The Gift of the Magi, but poverty is one of the major ones. The characters were poor, and couldn’t afford a gift for each other without having to sell something they hold dear. The fact that they were poor was something that they feared, because they really wanted to give gifts that Christmas. Della and Jim were poor but still decided that they would spend every penny they could afford to buy gifts.

Sacrifice is another theme in the short story. The two characters sacrificed something that they could’ve gotten trouble about to afford gifts on Christmas Eve. Sacrifice is a common theme within short stories and books. The fourth book in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer which is called Breaking Dawn, one of the main characters sacrifices her “humanness” to be with the one she loves. Sacrifice is a theme that is found in many texts such as plays, books, short stories, and poems. The main thing about the theme ‘sacrifice’ is that it’s normally one person sacrificing themselves or something they hold dear to be with someone they love. In The Gift of the Magi, it’s both of the characters sacrificing something for love.

Sacrifice is a theme in the story, but here is another: Love. The two characters felt that they needed to buy each other gifts for the holiday because they loved each other. Here is a direct quote from the story: “She had a habit of saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please, God, make him think I am still pretty."” Della felt that because she cut off her hair that Jim wouldn’t think she was pretty anymore. Eventually, when Jim came come and they exchanged gifts, they still loved each other.

In the story, the two characters would sacrifice their most precious things to make each other happy. The man, Jim, gets the woman, Della, a set of combs for Christmas. The conflict is that she cut off all of her long hair to get him a watch, and he sold the watch that had been in his family for a while to get her a set of combs for her long hair. Basically, the gift that Della received were combs, but she had sold all of her hair so she couldn’t really use the combs anymore until her hair grew out. Generosity is a theme in The Gift of the Magi because they were generous enough to sell their only prized possessions to make each other happy. Della and Jim didn’t regret selling their only possessions to get each other gifts, because they felt that their love for each other was more important than having long hair or an expensive watch. All themes that I mentioned were accurate for the story: Poverty, sacrifice, and love.

A Sneak Attack on the Trojans

Author's Note: This is my two-paragraph response to "The Trojan Horse". I wrote the two paragraphs based on the questions that we looked at and discussed in class.

The fact that they were playing a big trick on the Trojans, and that they were hiding in the giant horse and ready to attack the whole time was the sneaky part of the whole story. The conflict of the story was basically the war. The whole war was over the 'most beautiful woman in the world' (that's what she was known for). The conflict was resolved because of the smart Greeks playing a trick on the Trojans. They brought the giant horse into their city without the Trojans realizing that they were being tricked into letting the Greek army into their city. Once they were in the city and most of the people were drunk or sleeping, the Greeks came out of the sculpture and attacked the town, therefore resolving the whole war and conflict of the story.

I have seen this tactic before, but not in the way of sneaking a giant wooden horse into a city. That specific tactic couldn't be used nowadays, because we don't have those kinds of wars anymore, where one side interacts more with their enemies. But the thought could be used nowadays because in computers, a virus can come without you knowing, opening the doors so other viruses can affect your computer too. That's not the only way the Trojan Horse tactic is seen nowadays, because it is also seen in things like TV shows. Let's say a person in a movie tries to get to know another person more and more, and when the other person trusts them enough, they sneak in and attack them (in most TV shows or movies, they try to kill the person for revenge or money).

Which One to Believe?

Author’s Note: This is my essay about the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Once I finished the book and the movie, I had so many questions about it, I did a little research and decided that I wanted to write an essay about it.


Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a book that’s hard to figure out. There are two confusing stories that makes you think twice about the whole story. The first impression of the book is, “Oh. A tiger and a man have to survive on a boat together. So what?” But after you read it, and more you think about it, the more confused readers seem to get about the storyline or plot. Yes, the book is about a man who gets stranded at sea on a boat with some wild animals, but there’s a twist at the end that leaves you wanting to know more. The movie recently came out, also, so people have seen the movie too. But the real question is which story is true?

Yann Martel makes the book seem so unrealistic and so untrue. But towards the end, the main character named Pi reveals another side of the story that makes you think twice about the book. There’s the animal story, which is basically the main story throughout the book. Pi’s family gets on a boat with all the animals at their zoo, and when the ship sinks, Pi gets on a lifeboat. He is soon joined on the lifeboat by a zebra with a broken leg, an orangutang, a nasty hyena, and, of course, a tiger. The majority of the book is about the animals trying to survive each other. The hyena kills the zebra with the broken leg, and then the orangutang eventually gets killed by the hyena too. Out of self-perseverance, or revenge, the tiger kills the hyena until it’s just the tiger and Pi. Pi has to learn to cope with the hungry and confused meat-eater. That's the part that most people find hard to believe.

Pi’s family weren’t very supportive of him because he couldn’t figure out which religion he wanted to follow. His family couldn’t trust him because he thought that more than one religion was easy to follow. His peers always made fun of his name, so Pi proved himself smart by writing the first hundreds of numbers in Pi, starting out with 3.14159, and continuing across multiple chalkboards in the school, impressing his fellow classmates and earning his dignity. In the scenes towards the middle of the book, when he’s on the boat at sea, Pi seems like he is capable of being dominant towards a strong animal such as a tiger. Pi’s past may relate to why he thinks about the story in two different ways, but it’s hard for anyone except the author to think of how. The reader has to decide which story to believe, and in the book, it tells how Pi has to decide which religion to follow. In the end, he follows multiple religions, which is similar to how the book ends: You can either believe one, or both.

In the book, it tells how the tiger got its name. There was a mixup with paperwork, and the two names were switched, so the tiger got the name Richard Parker. The family who owned the zoo thought it was hilarious, so the name stuck. The author used the name because there were multiple men with the name Richard Parker that have either become cannibals or have become cannibals at sea. The author probably chose that name for that reason, because the author tells how the tiger kills the hyena which killed the other two animals on board, so the name Richard Parker is significant to the details of the story.

Even reading the book and seeing the movie, it’s hard to figure out which of the stories that Pi tells is right. You can believe one or the other, which is sort of how Pi followed his religions. Neither of the stories are correct to Pi, and the author writes how Pi doesn’t really know which one is real, but he does know about being on a boat and having some mammals, animals or humans, on the boat with him. Nobody really knows which of the two stories that Pi tells are true, but it’s up to the reader to figure out which one to believe.

What Did People Do for Beauty?

Author's Note: This is my response to the short story "Ribbons" written by Laurence Yep.

It seems that people do a lot of crazy things to be beautiful. Society makes an image of what modern-day beauty is and people change themselves to be acceptable in society. In "Ribbons," the grandmother's feet were bent in a weird way when she was young so she would look more "beautiful." Back then, the mothers of a five year-old would bend the toes back the toes on their feet so their feet were smaller, and in society then, it was better for women to have their feet that way. Today, women do things to make them more pretty such as piercing their bodies, wearing a lot of makeup to conceal their face, and using damaging products on their hair to make their hair more beautiful. That is similar because in China, mothers bent their daughter's feet back just to make them pretty so they could marry a rich man, which meant having wealth back then in China.

Grandmother didn't want anyone to see her feet because she didn't want anyone feeling the pain that she felt. The daughter didn't understand why she was so crabby at first, but then when she saw her feet, she asked her mom why her grandmother's feet were like that. The mom told her the story, and finally the main character telling the story understood why she didn't want anyone to see. The grandmother didn't like seeing her granddaughter's ballet shoes because they reminded her of the ribbons they used to tie their feet that way, so she didn't like the shoes because they reminded her of the pain. The title is significant to the story because it's ribbons, and the ribbons were used to cause the grandmother pain. 

What Character Am I?

Author's Note: This is a piece I wrote with the "Who am I" writing prompt. If you can't guess it after a while, just comment on this post or talk to me and I'll tell you.

My show first aired on TV in 1965, and it's a cartoon. I always seem to have bad luck wherever I go. I cannot play football, and that's one of the things that I'm well-known for. I also fail at most of the tasks I am assigned, such as directing a play and even finding a suitable Christmas tree. People get mad at me a lot because of these things, and I have a hard time having confidence in myself. 

I have a pet that can't talk but somehow makes everyone laugh. I have a few friends that never understand me. Whenever I need advice, I have to pay 5 cents when the doctor is in. Sometimes, my other friends will try to give me advice, but I never take their advice the right way, and something bad always happens that ends up embarrassing me in front of people. In the end, I always learn to make something good happen out of something bad.

Most people think that I'm bald, but I do have some hair. I wear the same clothes all the time, and so do my friends. One of my friends is a musician, one has to bring his blanket everywhere with him, and one is really dusty. They are all known for those things, just like how I'm known for saying "good grief." every time something embarrassing, frustrating, or confusing happens.

"After You, My Dear Alphonse" Response

Author's Note: This is my response about "After You, My Dear Alphonse" by Shirley Jackson.

"After You, My Dear Alphonse" is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. The story is mainly about stereotypes, and, in this case, racism. A boy in the story brings home a friend for lunch, and the mother is being overly nice because the boy is black. She offers him multiple things like clothes, food, and other things that she thinks that he wouldn't have. She also thinks that his mom and dad have to work as laborers, and she tries to act like she pities him, even though he doesn't have anything to worry about. The mother assumes that because the boy is black, he's poor, hungry, and doesn't have enough money to buy clothing.

In the story, the friend of the little boy is named Boyd. Boyd doesn't understand why the mother keeps offering clothes, food, and other things to him. Towards the beginning of the story, the mother, Mrs. Wilson, sees Boyd carrying the wood that they got, and gets angry at her son, Johnny because he isn't carrying the wood. She thinks that Johnny is using Boyd as a 'slave' because he's black. She acts overly nice and is extra nice to Boyd by offering him a lot of food. This shows that Mrs. Wilson thinks that Boyd doesn't have enough food at his home, so she tells him to eat as much as he wants. Mrs. Wilson also offers Boyd some clothing that the family has because she thinks that Boyd's family doesn't have enough money to buy the necessities like clothing. 

These are all things that shows that Mrs. Wilson is very stereotypical and racist. She doesn't even realize that Boyd refuses the offers of food and clothing because he doesn't need it. She voices her thoughts out loud saying that she's disappointed that he's turning the offers down. People like that don't have to pity people from other races and be overly nice, because it shows how stereotypical they are.