Question

Select the correct answer.

Read the excerpt from "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. What is the tone of the opening passage?
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies, Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the
grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing
implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life
is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week
It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also
appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."
The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when
the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James
Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already
introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.
OA dissatisfied
OB
humorous
OC sarcastic
OD. unhappy

Answer 1

The Person above me is correct ti is Dissatisfied

Step-by-step explanation:

I took the test and got it right

Answer 2

A. Dissatisfied

Step-by-step explanation:

In the beginning of the excerpt, there are many uses of simple and concise sentence structures and a sense of discontent, such as "That was all".

Also, O. Henry includes harsh connotative word choice to effectively describe the apparent disatisfaction of the speaker, exaggerating the situation of how difficult it was to scrape up enough money, using words like "bulldozing" and "silent imputation of parimony". Using such words builds emphasis and importance of what lengths the speaker must endure in order to collect money.

When describing the "furnished flat", it's described as that "it did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad". Depicting the flat in such a way evokes a disappointed tone towards how the speaker feels about the flat.

{these are a few examples that I saw for my reasoning; I hope this helped!!}