Della's haircut (Simile)
"...curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy" and "he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl" (11).
After returning home from her haircut, Della attempts to curl her new, short hair, which prompts the narrator to compare her to a "truant schoolboy” (11). Likewise, Della acknowledges her resemblance to a “Coney Island chorus girl” (11). These similes evoke the extremity of Della’s visual transformation after her haircut. Without her long hair—the most predominant signifier of her beauty—she now takes on a more immature and less womanly appearance. The imagery of Della’s drastically different, nearly unrecognizable appearance thus draws heightened attention to the immediate, palpable consequences of her selfless sacrifice for Jim's gift.
The Magi (Metaphor)
The story and themes of “Gift of the Magi” revolve around a central metaphor: the comparison of Della and Jim to the magi, who offered gifts to Jesus on the night of his birth. In the closing paragraph, the narrator hails the couple as “the wisest” of all gift-givers and receivers, which culminates with the bold declaration, “Everywhere they are the wisest. They are the magi” (16). While Della and Jim’s sacrifices ironically cancel each other out and render their gifts useless in turn, the narrator claims that their selfless gestures embody the true wisdom and spirit of gift-giving, an art form invented by the magi.
The Queen of Sheba and King Solomon (Metaphor)
The narrator compares Della and Jim’s two most prized possessions—the hair and watch, respectively—to the riches of two famous biblical figures: the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. The narrator claims that Della's hair would devalue the Queen of Sheba’s jewels—if the Queen of Sheba “lived in the flat across the airshaft” (9). Likewise, if King Solomon was a janitor, he would desire Jim’s watch.
Inferring that Della and Jim’s belongings would provoke the Queen of Sheba and King of Solomon's envy, the metaphor illustrates the immense value of Della’s hair and Jim’s watch. Of course, these items are not truly comparable to the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon’s collection of luxuries and jewels. However, to Della and Jim, the hair and watch are the most valuable possessions they can imagine—because of the symbolic, sentimental meanings ascribed to them.
Della's long hair (Simile)
“So now Della’s beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters” (9).
Here, the narrator constructs a more traditional simile to describe Della’s hair. By comparing the movement and shine of Della’s hair to a “cascade of brown waters,” the narrator conveys the remarkable, ethereal beauty of Della’s hair. In turn, the hair emerges as the preeminent symbol of her beauty.
