POVERTY THEME ANYLISIS ON 3 SHORT STORIES

I.                   Introduction

Theme is one of intrinsic element in a literary work. This paper is focus on poverty theme that writers took. There are three short stories; “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant, “The Gift of Magi” by O. Henry and “A Pair of Silk Stocking” by Kate Chopin. The three short stories write about poor people from lower class and how they deal with their poverty.

The first short story is “The Necklace” by Guy De Maupassant that writes about a poor woman named Mathilde who was invited to a party but she had no dress to wear. She was given 400 francs by her husband and she bought a dress. She was still upset because she was got no jewelry, which can give the illusion of being wealthier than she actually is. Her husband didn’t have more money so he told her to borrow from Mrs. Forrester, a rich woman. After the party, she lost the necklace she borrowed. She and her husband would have to replace it with dealing and getting indebted with a lot of people to get 40.000 franc. They bought the necklace and returned it to Mrs. Forrester. 10 years later Mathilde met Mrs. Forrester accidently and she told her what happened to her necklace and how she and her husband had to pay the replacement necklace that they gave her. Mrs. Forrester was so shock that they bought the real diamond necklace because they borrowed an imitation necklace which only costs 500 franc.

The second one is “The Gift of Magi” by O. Henry that writes about a young married couple from the lower class and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. Della Young (wife) sells her beautiful hair to buy Jim (husband) a platinum watch chain, and Jim sells his heirloom watch to buy Della some tortoise-shell hair combs. These gifts are useless because Della cannot wear her combs without her hair, and Jim, without his watch, cannot use his watch chain.

And the last short story is “A pair of Silk Stocking” by Kate Chopin that writes about a poor woman named Mrs. Sommers who found a huge number of money (fifteen dollars). It is a very large of money for her, so she thinks hard how to use the money wisely, and finally she set up a good plan to use the money; she will use the money to buy the new dress and hat for her kids, a new stocking for herself and the rest will be saved. But, at the day she goes to the shopping center she breaks up her own plan. Instead of buying clothes for the children she buys a pair of silk stocking and a new boot for herself, eats in a luxury restaurant, buys high-prized magazines and goes to the theater. She acts like a high-class woman a whole day, that is not herself at all.

  

II.                Poverty Theme Analysis

1.1.    The Necklace

“The Necklace” takes place in Paris, France, in around 19^th century when castes and social classes were strongly existed. The specific location that we could found in the text are in the residence of Mathilde, the home of Mrs. Forrester, the Place of Ministry of Education and Champs-Elysees. The characters of this short story are Mathilde Loisel who has a beautiful appearance such a high class woman, daydreamed, charming, envy, selfish, has strong willingness to look wealthier and want to be admired and also has a high self-deception and disillusion. Another character is Mr. Loisel who is Mathilde’s husband. He is a good man, patient and loves his wife so much. The other character is Mrs. Forrestier who is kind, generous, rich, young & beautiful woman, in addition she is Mathilde’s friend.

       As focus on poverty theme, the conflict of this short story is when Mrs. Loisel does not have any dress and jewels to use in the party because they were poor. The climax is when Mrs. Loisel lost the diamond necklace she borrowed from her friend.  She and her husband try to find the necklace for several days with no result. The Falling action is when with their hardworking to get loan from some people they buy the replacement necklace which costs 37.000 francs. And the Resolution is when Mrs. Loisel sees Mrs. Forestier and finally she knows that the necklace she borrowed was an imitation. She realizes that she and her husband do their hard work just for a fake.       

       Style of The Necklace is depressing. From the beginning the writer tells about Mrs. Loisel life that is not like what she hopes express depressing. She feels that her life must not be there, she feels that see should be in a luxury place and surrounded by all luxurious things. In the raising action, conflict, climax, falling action even the resolution are full of depressing expression. This short story is told from the 3rd person limited point of view.  The author focuses on Mathilde’s thoughts and feelings.

       Poverty leads disillusion and self-deception is the theme of this story. We can see what happened to Mathilde and his husband because of their poverty that leads Mathilde’s disillusion and self-deception, and finally made them suffer more than before because they have to replace the diamond necklace that they borrowed to be used in the party.

1.2.    The Gift of Magi

The setting of time of “The Gift of Magi” is the day before Christmas when people usually prepare the gift for their love one. Setting of place of The Gift of Magi is in Mr. James Dillingham’s flat; an expensive flat for the young married couple who only earn $20 a week. There are 3 characters in this short story. The first one is Della Mrs. Dillingham Young), a beautiful woman that has a wonderful hair, love her husband so much, generous, unselfish and wise. The second one is Jim (Mr. Dillingham Young) a young man, generous, wise, love his wife and unselfish, patient. And the last character is Madame Sofronie, the owner or the shop who buy Della’s hair. The conflict of this short story is Della decides to sells her beautiful hair to get the money to buy a gift for Jim (a watch chain) because she does not have enough money to buy it. The climax happened when Jim gives beautiful combs to Della as gift, and he tells her that he got it by selling his watch. They realize that both of their gifts are useless.

The dominant style of “The Gift of Magi” irony (Being wise, their gifts no doubt wise ones… two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other), and the story itself is ironically, they sacrifice their greatest thing to buy a gift for the other that finally both of their gift are useless. The story itself is from third person point of view (omniscient) that means a story-teller with total, God like knowledge of the characters and their actions.

Poverty leads sacrifice is the theme of this short story. The characters in this short story (Della and Jim) are a poor person that suffer al the time. They do not have to buy the gift for the other, and finally they sacrifice their most valuable things to buy the gift that is actually useless.

1.3.    A Pair of Silk Stocking

“A Pair of Silk Stocking” takes place in a shopping center where Mrs. Sommers can find the stocking and shoe store, book store and restaurant. And also it is the place where many high-class people go and enjoy their day. Seeing many high-class people gives Mrs. Sommers a strong desire to be one of them even just a while. There are only two characters in this short story; they are Mrs. Sommers who is a poor, weak and easily swayed woman and the shop girl.

The conflict of this short story is that Mrs. Sommers starts “loosing” her mind and her plan after used the silk stocking. She breaks up her plan. In a simple word, she starts feel that she is a rich woman after took the luxury silk stocking. The climax happened when Mrs. Summers is not only buys a pair of silk stockings, she also buys a pair of pointed-tipped boots, then she buys two high-priced magazines, and she eats in an expensive restaurant. And the other places she enters the theatre. She is not thinking at all those pleasant things, it just to get what she desires and her satisfactions.

The style of this short story is satire and irony. It satirizing poor people who have not had a large number of money, but when one day they have the chance to get it they forget their priority, they prefer to buy luxurious things instead of buying their primary needed. This story written in third person (limited omniscience) point of view, the narrator limited to only one character that is Mrs. Sommers. The readers only knows the thoughts and feelings of Mrs. Sommers and see the rest of the character externally only.

Poverty makes people become unrealistic. The character in this short story become unrealistic and forgets her priority of using the money after she buy the silk stocking and feels it luxury. What in her mind is what to do next to seems as a rich woman.

           

III.             Conclusion

After analyzed the three short stories, we can find that all the stories’ theme are poverty effect to our life. It were written by the different author, so beside have the similarities in theme it also have differences.

The differences are the way the written present the story, how the writer gives a sense of the story and how the writers satirize. In “The Necklace” the writer shows us how poverty lead disillusion, in “The Gift of Magi” the writer shows us how poverty leads sacrifice and in the “A Pair of Silk Stocking” the writer shows us how poverty makes people become unrealistic.