Self-Sacrifice in O.Henry's Gift of the magi and Rabindranath Tagore's Essay

Self-Sacrifice in O.Henry's Gift of the magi and Rabindranath Tagore's The Cabuliwallah - Essay Example O’Henry was praised as a valued US Southern writer who recorded the reality of the south of his time in his stories. His personal history is almost as interesting as those of his characters, and nearly as ironic, While many know his real name, few know his real history, since fact and fiction have become totally entwined, and the "legendary O. Henry †¦ is very different from the real William Sydney Porter. In his bit of autobiographica, which he published in the New York Times, April 4, 1909, Porter himself contributed to this legend." (Paine 351) Writing was probably a very good career for OHenry at that time, because he spent more than three years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and he was reclusive type in any case. It is not that he never went out, but he seldom revealed anything terribly personal about himself("Federico and the Magis Gift." 70-70). He is known for the interesting twists in his stories, the most famous of which is probably The Gift of the Magi. In the story a young couple were very poor each sacrifices their most precious possession in order to buy a beautiful gift for the other. The poignant irony is that each gift it is bought to accompany the precious thing that the other sacrificed. In the wifes case she had her long hair cut in order to buy a beautiful platinum watch fob for her husbands gold watch. The husband, in his turn, sold his gold watch to buy her some very expensive combs for her hair. I was found it rather sad that he actually sold the watch. I wouldve preferred that he pointed, since it was a family heirloom. Her hair will grow back, and they pawned watch could be redeemed. Rabindranath Tagore was born into a privileged family in 1871 and died in 1941 before the final split up of India. He was a fierce nationalilst, but was known to criticize Gandhi for being a bit too extreme. He did not