Free Essay About Love And Happiness – Comparison Of ‘"The Gift Of Magi" And “The Pursuit Of Happiness”

O Henry wrote the short story ‘"The gift of magi" whose main themes are fixed on love and sacrifice. In the story, the couple Della and Jim, loved each other and wanted to buy Christmas gifts. But their poor financial situation prevented them from fulfilling their plans easily. It was then, without finding any other way to buy a gift that Della decides to sell her knee-long hair and buys him a platinum watch chain which she believed he would love. When Jim saw her in the new form he is shocked. Because Jim had bought her favourite fancy hair clips selling his watch.
“The pursuit of happiness” directed by Gabriele Muccino in 2006 is a film that portrays how important is family, sense of belonging, dreams, success and happiness in one’s life. We can see that the hero who is seen along with his son throughout the movie has to go through a lot of losses in his life, but it is only the sense of belonging that energised him to move on and even survive. He faces loneliness when his wife cheats and leaves. Added to that, financial struggles knock him down. In spite of all this, he strives to achieve his dream job in order to lead a life of success and happiness.
In the short story, the themes and emotions are more relations oriented. When the couple sacrifices what they value the most, in order to make their significant other happy, we can see real love and its representation through the sacrifice. In the movie, the themes are relationship based, society based and individual based. The relationship between the father and son are based on love and feeling of belongingness. Those are real feelings that stick them together at times of adversity, betrayal and loneliness. From the societal view, the father who was once in good financial position becomes poor due to the different setbacks. Then, he desires to become a respectable member of Wall Street who is wealthy enough not to worry about the next day. There is a spark in the father, which he teaches his son too, that prompts him to try hard to realise his dreams. His belongingness to the son gives him more responsibility to take care of him, while he keeps his dream to belong to the group of successful stockbrokers. These help him to make use of every chance he gets in his life. He states the relevance of patience while trying to reach a goal. In fact, the sense of belonging gives him happiness and success.
When we compare both the works we can see that both are having the underlying strong themes of love and happiness. The love between the couple prompts them to sacrifice their happiness. When they do so, they are gifted back by happiness from their respective lovers. It shows that the gift of love is more precious than any other gift that can be handed over between people. Whereas in the movie, the love for anything or anyone generates the sense of belongingness. That itself makes one happy. Moreover, having dreams about one’s own future or for the sake of loved ones make one committed enough to strive for accomplishing the dreams however rocky that seems. With devoted hard work and perseverance, success can be ensured coupled with happiness. In such cases even the process of trying for success can bring happiness.