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The gift of the Magi is one of the most famous short stories of O. Henry

and is always told on Christmas occasion. In the story, in order to describe

the situation of the main characters as well as their feelings, O. Henry uses a

lot of stylistic devices, of which simile, metahor and arado! are most

utili"ed.

One of the most utilised stylistic devices in the story is simile. this device is

reali"ed with the words as, li#e. In the story, simile aears as shining

li#e a cascade of brown waters, her loo# wonderfully li#e a truant school $

boy, leat u li#e a little singed cat. %imile is used here to attract the

reader&s attention and describe something. 'or e!amle, to describe the

aearance, shining li#e a cascade of brown waters is comarison between

the lead female character&s, (ella, her hair and a cascade of brown water, we

can see the beauty of her hair as brown, soft, long, glossy and shiny. The

another comarison her loo# wonderfully li#e a truant school $ boydescribes (ella&s aearance after she sells her hair. %he loo#s young, short

hair li#e a school $ boy. To describe her feelings, the word truant imlies

her feelings at that time) confusion and worry of her husband&s reaction if

he sees her new loo#* or in the comarison leat u li#e a little singed cat

describe her +oyfulness and hainess comared with an innocent little cat.

Metahor is the second stylistic device, to add more descritive meaning. In

the beginning of the story, to e!ress the hidden mood of (ella, O. Henry

uses the word gray three times) %he stood by the window and loo#ed outdully at a gray cat wal#ing a gray fence in a gray bac#yard. gray

e!resses sadness, dullness, which are the same as (ella&s mood.

ventually, the title of the story the gift of the magi itself is a metahor.

The author comares the gifts which is given by the three wise men Magi to

-aby esus to the gifts that im and (ella give to each other. This imlies

that im and (ella, who sacrifice for each other, are the wisest, li#e the

Magi.

The final device is arado! or contradiction. O. Henry uses contradictory

words to reflect the shortage of roerties and oor situation of the maincharacters. some words such as letter bo!, furnished, ier glass seem

to belong to the well/off families, who hardly meet difficulties with their

daily life. However, the writer gives comletely itiful facts after those

words, for e!amle there is a letter bo! but no letter in the bo!, there is a

furnished flat but furnished with ragged and collected furniture, there is a

ier glass but it is so thin and small that only slender eole who master

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the s#ills of observing their reflection in a raid se0uence of longitudinal

stries can obtain a fairly accurate concetion of their loo#s.

%imile, metahor and arado! are the chief stylistic devices that are used

most in the gift of the Magi. These devices lay an imortant role in

e!osing the lively emotion as well as the difficult circumstances of the

main characters, since then, these hel us understand more the story and its

meanings that give us an ac#nowledge of recious values for our life.