Analysis of Mr. White in The Monkey's Paw and Mr. Peters in The Third Wish

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What would someone do if they had only three wishes and knew that there would be a price that they would have to pay in order for them to fulfill their wishes? This is the question that overcomes the main characters, Mr. White and Mr. Peters, in the stories “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken. In these two stories, two men were each allowed to create three wishes and had consequences that followed; therefore, they learned a valuable lesson about life.

The men in the two stories were distinct in their own ways, one being very greedy and the other very cautious. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” the main character was Mr. White. He was very discerning. When he was first introduced in “The Monkey Paw,” he asked many questions and was very curious. Mr. White was also very greedy. He was not content with hat he had, and he then, out of all the wishes in the world, asked for two hundred pounds for his own conveniences. On the other hand, the main character of “The Third Wish” is Mr. Peters. Mr. Peters is a kind-hearted, cautious man. The reader can tell that those are his traits for number of reasons. First of all, the reader can tell that Mr. Peters is compassionate because of his reaction towards a swan trying to extricate itself from a branch. He quickly rushes over and tries to free the bird. Another reason why the reader knows that Mr. Peters is kind is because they see how he wants his wife to be happy more than himself. This clearly shows how “warm his heart” is. The reader can also learn that Mr. Peters is cautious by observing the way he thinks about his three wishes. Every time he thinks of a wish, he pricks his tongue with a thorn. The traits both characters demonstrated also led the reade...

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...inal was created. The last clue given was when people ask Mr. Peters to just find another wife. Mr. Peters replies that he would be faithful to Leita. This suggests the true love between the two and the loyalty they share between each other.

As I have explained, these two stories, Mr. White and Mr. Peters both were eligible to wish for three things and, therefore, they encountered some consequences. Due to their experiences, the reader learns a valuable lesson about life. All in all, these two stories were very interesting. The way the authors set the mood of the stories based on character traits, wishes, consequences, and theme was very intelligent and well-though-out. Both stories had great themes that helped a reader understand the story and life better. I thought “The Monkey’s Paw,” and “The Third Wish,” were both marvelous pieces of literature.

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