The Gift of the Magi

I found myself with an extra class period for some of my Humanities classes last week (we just broke for Christmas break) and I thought I'd do something a little seasonal. O. Henry's short story The Gift of the Magi made a perfect filler session. O. Henry was William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), an American author living near the end of the nineteenth century. He was famous for his short stories with surprise endings. The Gift of the Magi is among these stories. The story itself can be found here. Below I have posted the questions I gave my class to consider as we talked through the story. If you decide to use this in any way, let me know. I'd love to know what you think of the questions and the discussion they create.
Merry Christmas!

Comprehension
1. Why is Della upset about her $1.87? What does she want to do with her money?
2. How does she feel about Jim? About his watch?
3. What asset does she have with which to get his present? How does she accomplish this?
4. What does Della fear when Jim comes home?
5. What is Jim’s reaction when he sees Della?
6. How does Jim feel about Della? About her hair?
7. What has he purchased for her? How has he purchased this gift?
8. In O. Henry’s opinion, what is the gift the Magi?
Connections
1. Why did the Young’s have the very pretentious name, Dillingham, in their name?
2. Why were they considering dropping it now?
3. Are the Young’s wealthy? How can you tell?
4. Define irony. What is ironic about this story? Briefly describe some other ironic event you have read about or of which you have been a part.
Application
1. What biblical allusions does O. Henry draw from to make his story?
2. Who were the biblical Magi? What gifts did they bring?
3. What parallel does O. Henry draw between the imagery of the biblical Magi and the gifts that Della and Jim offer to each other?
4. Why do we give gifts to each other at Christmas or other times of the year?
5. How do you feel when you receive a gift?
6. How do you feel when you give a gift?
7. What is the most a gift has ever cost you personally?

It's Christmas Time in the City

This is a great video. There are others like it as well. Search for Trans-Siberian Orchestra on YouTube. This is one of those things I'd love to have the time and the money with which to do something like this.

Why Welfare Systems Don't Work

The Puritans had much to teach concerning social action, as did godly Christian leaders from before their time and after. John Calvin, for example, created a "welfare system" in Geneva that upheld the biblical demands to feed the poor and care for the widow and the orphan, and all within the god-given structure of the Church. The Puritans understood the value of working for the common welfare of the community and men like William Ames instructed believers to have a "living religion" not one that was mere empty words. Works of piety and charity were often commended by the Puritans. As recently as the nineteenth century, Thomas Chalmers, through his tireless actions, reduced Glasgow's welfare budget needs to nothing by the careful and directed actions of the local church.
Modern welfare movements will fail for a couple of reasons. For one thing they are trying to do the impossible. Contrary to modernist assumptions Christ has told us that we will always have poor people among us. Therefore any attempt to eradicate poverty through welfare systems or socialism is doomed to failure. Another reason, however, is that the wrong agency is doing the deeds. It should shame us that the state is doing the deeds of the local church. The state was not meant to feed the hungry or clothe the naked. This is the job of the Church and to the extent we have let the state get involved, we have abdicated our responsibility.
Until the Church stands up and takes responsibility for mercy ministry, we will continue to see the state's destructive policies tearing families apart. Many families never make it out of poverty or abject living conditions through state welfare systems. That is because they come devoid of proper instruction. Part of mercy ministry is instruction in righteousness.
I'll get down from the soap box now.

Why We Think The Way We Think About the Puritans

I remember the way teachers at high school and college treated the Puritans in history and literature classes when I was growing up. It was not a pretty sight. The Puritans were presented as very drab and solemn folks who had no sense of joy whatsoever and wanted to make sure no one else did either. They were dogmatic in their beliefs and intolerant of anyone else around them having even a slightly different opinion. In a day when multi-culturalism and cultural relativism was the rule, the Puritans didn't strike my teachers as worthy of anything but spite.
As I read more and more history and literature, I began to see where that thinking came from. It didn't come from reading the Puritans, I can tell you that. It came from, or at least began with, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne (1804-4864) was a descendant of John Hathorne, one of judges in the famous Salem Witch Trials of the late 1690's. Hawthorne (who likely added the "w" to his name to separate himself from his ancestry) despised the actions of his grandfather and linked those actions to the austere Calvinism that pervaded much of New England at the time.
Hawthorne began writing in the 1820's and continued to write until the early 1860's. Many of his novels vehemently attack the Puritanism of New England history or simply picture the Puritans as ineffective and hypocritical. One of Hawthorne's most famous works, The Scarlet Letter, does this masterly. The main characters are hypocritical, ineffective, intolerant, and unloving. This was the version of Puritanism that colored the way generations of Americans view the Puritan movement.
Leland Ryken has done the world a great service by writing Worldly Saints: The Puritans As They Really Were. While not a work of classical literature or history, I like to teach this work in the course on 1500 - 1800 to show what Puritans were really like. It helps students see what good ideas they had, while not sugar-coating the bad things they stood for. It also helps frame many discussions that come up in American history; things like education, social action, and attitudes toward work and labor.