Isn't it Romantic?No matter what race someone is, what country they are from, or what gender they are, they have all at one time or another loved something. Love is considered to be the language of the heart. Lydia Maria Child once said, "The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love.' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life." While this is not necessarily always true, love does seem to play a big role in every day life. Many books, stories, poems, and articles have been written on the subject. Two such short stories are "A Haunted House" by Virginia Woolf and "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Hen ...view middle of the document...
It had a garden, it had various bedrooms, it had a parlor, and many more extras that go with a "rich" house. It seemed to be quite nice at one time, perhaps in the late 1800s. In "The Gift of the Magi", however, the house was a shack rather than a grand building. It was falling apart, but that did not really matter to its inhabitants. They were more concerned about caring and loving one another. They could not afford nice things, and when they could they bought them as gifts for one another. Showing their love meant more to them than fixing up the house. Both homes proved to be quite different, but the love that was inside of them - the fact that they were homes rather than just houses - was a trait that they shared.The homes and the love in the homes set the mood for each of the stories. The reader seems to feel a certain sense of security while reading the short prose pieces. The images portrayed seem to convey feelings of warmth, hope, and acceptance. "A Haunted House" creates an aura of curiosity and mystique that pulls the reader in, while "The Gift of the Ma...
