Button And Button Irony

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How people understand each other shapes their relationship and their views of one another. This understanding between two people is a key principle in forming a bond and truly knowing how each other feel about a certain thing. The two short stories “Gift Of The Magi” and “Button, Button” both feature common misunderstandings between people and how they relate with one another. In the short stories “Button, Button”, and “Gift of the magi” O. Henry and Richard Matheson use irony and a common misunderstanding to show how human relationships are not always what they seem. In the story “Button, Button” Richard Matheson the author uses disagreements and differences in the personalities of the two main characters Norma and Arthur to show a disconnect …show more content…
Henry uses situational irony in his short story “Gift Of The Magi” to show that Jim and Della fail to understand that both of them are willing to give up anything to give each other a gift they feel the other person deserves. At the beginning of the story we are introduced to the main character Della who is looking at a $1.87 and that is all she has to buy her husband Jim a gift with. She is frantically moving around their apartment looking for anything of her’s that she could sell to get some extra money with which to buy Jim a present that would be worth him. She keeps searching but she is unable to find anything and breaks down on the couch in tears. She suddenly jumps up and looks in the mirror she grabs her coat and rushes out the door the story of how precious Della’s hair is told. She goes to the salon and sells her hair to get money …show more content…
In “Gift Of The Magi” Jim and Della misunderstood each other but it was a small misunderstanding and one that was out of the love they had for one another. In “Button, Button” the misunderstanding was on a much deeper and much more personal level Norma was attempting to gain monetarily and paid dearly for it. These two short stories exhibit that there should not be anything done for monetary gain but instead out of the love for another person that is how to truly understand someone and know how they
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