The Gift of the Magi, by O. Henry

Film (minute 1:28:43) 

SUMMARY

This is a very romantic story. It’s, of course, a love story, but also a story of self-sacrifice.

A married couple lived very poorly. The husband, Jim, was a mere worker, and his wife was a housewife. They lived in a cheap flat in the big city. Christmas was near, and each one wanted to give their partner a present, but neither of them had enough money to buy the gift they would like. So, they have to contrive something to get the money. Della, the wife, wanted a chain for Jim’s pocket watch, a trinket the Jim loved very much. Jim had only a strap to hold his watch. But the chain was too expensive, and the only idea she got to get some money was selling her own hair. Della had a mass of long, beautiful hair and was very proud of it, and Jim adored it. But she sold it, and then she could buy the chain.

For his own part, Jim also had to do something to get some cash for the present he wanted to buy for Della. He also sold something he loved very much, and, with the money, he could buy a set of combs for Della's beautiful hair (here with "combs" we mean convex combs to adorn a woman’s hair, not the tools to arrange one’s hair).

But now you can imagine the wife’s disappointment when he saw her present. And until the end of the story, we won’t know what Jim had to sell to buy the combs, and, you know: having read some of O. Henry stories, we must have the suspicion that it will be another surprise.

But, besides surprises, the story has a morality. For you, what is it, this morality?

 

QUESTIONS
-What are your habits about presents? 
-What do you know about the Three Wise Men? Are they historical figures?
-And what about Santa Claus and Saint Nicholas?

-Do you think the couple of the story are being romantic or only irresponsible? Are there any other, cheaper, ways to be romantic?

-Our couple is a bit traditional. Nowadays, how can one be chivalrous without being sexist?

-What differences could you find between the original story and the film adaptation?

VOCABULARY

bulldozing, parsimony, flop down, lookout, sterling, pier-glass, hashed, fob chain, sly, truant, dog, quail, wails, tresses, singed (/singd/), manger

Fusilli, by Graham Swift

FUSILLI, by Aurora Ledesma

SUMMARY

The story begins with an unnamed man shopping in a British supermarket called Waitrose, two weeks before Christmas. While he is in the supermarket, he thinks about how he and his wife Jenny, had decided not to celebrate Christmas that year. They had also ignored Remembrance Day because of superstition. As he walks through the aisles, he remembers a call a month ago, from his son Doug, who was a soldier deployed to Afghanistan. The man was anxious to talk to his son. Doug advised his father to try the “fusilli” variety: “You should stick with dried” “Fresh is a scam”.

Now the man thinks that he and his wife will never eat fusilli again. It is revealed that Doug has died, and the call was the last time his father had heard his voice. Doug was in a mortuary in Swindon, waiting for the coroner’s decision. It was pretty clear now that they couldn’t have Doug before Christmas.

In the pasta aisle, while he is remembering the call, he sees a woman with two children. The woman is a bit stressed because her noisy children were screaming and out-of-control. He looks at the mother and thinks, “She doesn’t know how lucky she is”.

In the end of the story, he decides to buy the fusilli and puts it close to his chest. The pasta isn’t to eat, but it is some sort of memory for Doug.

 

ANALYSIS

In this story, the narrator goes between the present time and the past. The short narration is structured around the feelings and thoughts of a father who has just lost his son. Therefore, loss and grief are the most important themes. It shows us the difficult life of a father who is trying to accept the death of his son, who has been killed in the Afghanistan war. The man is also shown to suffer from multiple emotional conflicts. He wants to remember his son, but, at the same time, he is terrified of thinking about him. He also remembered when his son was a kid in the days when Christmas was coming, looking for a gift to give him. He also wondered if the toy gun he once gave Doug, as a Christmas gift, indicated that Doug would end up going to war. He constantly reconsiders his past actions and thinks he could have prevented his son becoming a soldier or even prevented his son’s death.

This story tells us what happens to the one left behind and how they deal with grief. His grief makes him question everything. Maybe, if he hadn’t been angry when his son called, his son wouldn’t have died.

 

The story deals with several themes, such as:

-The loss of a loved one and grief. Is it possible to become happy again after having lost a person you love as dearly as parents love their children?

-The meaning of wars in a distant country for families, no parents should live to see their son or daughter die. However, in times of war, young men and women, sometimes have to pay the heaviest price and sacrifice their lives to protect others.

-How superstitions influence us.

-The consumerism and all the products for sale a long time before the main holidays (Christmas, Halloween…)

QUESTIONS

What do you think about Christmas? Do you understand people who doesn’t celebrate it? What is your opinion about Bank holidays or days’ celebrations?

What do people do on Remembrance Day? When is it? Why there were “little boxes of poppies”?

What is it your method of shopping in a supermarket?

What can you say about Helmand?

What is your opinion about taking part in a foreign war like a soldier or like a Blue Helmet?

What kind of conversation can you have with a person that is in the middle of a war?

What do you think of giving toy weapons as a present for children?

“The kids were doing only what kids do”. How true is this sentence? (Boys will be boys)

When did you know that your children could give advice to you?

Why did the writer choose “Fusilli” for the title?

 

VOCABULARY

aisle, mince pies, poppies, supermarket run, dithering, scam, fads, splashing out, Waitrose, Tesco's, mortuary, traipsing, Mothercare, marauding, goat, brats, knobbly

TWO WORLD WAR I POEMS

In Flanders Fields, by John McCrae

Strange Meeting, by Wilfred Owen