This sentence from the exposition of O. Henry's poignant
short story "The Gift of the Magi" is one which helps to establish mood. The color
imagery of the "gray cat" on a "gray fence" in a "gray backyard" connotes gloom and
despondency on the part of Della. For, as narrator O. Henry has indicated that Mr.
James Dillingham Young has had more prosperous times in which he was paid thirty dollars
per week; now, however, his salary has been cut by ten dollars, which is a substantial
amount within the setting of this story which occurs place around the turn of the
twentieth century.
Della is despondent because she has the
meager amount of one dollar and eighty-seven cents with the next day being Christmas
Day. With such a small amount of money, even after she has saved for months, Della
cannot buy anything nice for her loving husband. So, when she looks out the window,
nature assumes the color of her spirit as she views the scene of a cat walking on a
backyard fence in the monochromatic shade of gray.
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