Comparing The Monkey's Paw And The Zero Meter Diving Team

“The Monkey’s Paw” written by W.W. Jacobs and “The Zero Meter Diving Team” written by Jim Shepard are two short stories with many similarities and differences represented throughout. These short stories show dramatic plot twists and interesting outcomes. They use interesting elements to help engage readers. Even though they may be short stories, that have huge details listed in the text. Both short stories effectively compare and contrast disasters that happen throughout, themes, and whether they are fiction or nonfiction.

To begin, one of the obvious similarities between these two short stories is how they both involve terrible disasters that can not be undone. Disasters in both stories do differ, however. “The Monkey’s Paw” involves Mr.

and Mrs. White making a wish with the infamous monkey's paw for two hundred pounds.

Instead of their money swiftly arriving to their residence, they learned that their son Herbert died from a machine accident at his factory job. For compensation, insurance wrote them a two hundred pound check. In the story “The Monkey’s Paw,” author W.W. Jacobs states, “She caught her breath, and turning to her slower-witted husband, laid her trembling old hand upon his. There was a long silence. "He was caught in the machinery," said the visitor at length, in a low voice. Nights like this family dread when they learn if one of their loves ones has died. It was a very unforniate night for the White family and it was certainly a family disaster that changes their day to day lives. On another spectrum, “The Zero Meter Diving Team” explains the horrific events of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant meltdown accident when reactor number four

malfunctioned sending radiation into the air making the area a disaster site. In the story “The Zero Meter Diving Team,” author Jim Shepard states, “Another 70 tons spewed out onto the reactor grounds, mixing with the structural debris. The radioactivity of the ejected fuel reached 20,000 roentgens per hour. The maximum permissible dose, according to our regulations for a nuclear power plant operator, is five roentgens per year. This event represented a serious change that will affect the area of Chernobyl for the foreseeable future.
A theme that is shared between these short stories is to be careful what one wishes for and the world is never a fair place. Both stores also showed ignorance on all the characters parts. Unfortunately, people get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and these stories are great examples of it. In “The Monkey’s Paw”, Sergeant Morris came over to the White’s house and brought along his monkey's paw he got on vacation to show them. A spell was put onto it to grant three men, three wishes. The Whites got completely brainwashed and did not think of potential issues that could arise. They lost their only child and truly regretted that moment. If the Sergeant would have never found the paw or even stopped by, Herbert might have never died.
Jacobs states, "It had a spell put on it by an old fakir," said the sergeant-major, "a very holy man.

He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow. He put a spell on it so that three separate men could each have three wishes from it." Wishing for items always has consequences and a catch. That's why many believe wishing is not a great activity to do because something always has the chance to backfire. In “The Zero Meter Diving Team”, the nuclear meltdown at the power plant was a prime example of how life and the world is never a fair place. Unfortunate accidents like that caused serious problems in the surrounding areas. Sheppard states, For thirty years, accidents went unreported, so the lessons derived from these accidents remained with those who’d experienced them. What is truly unfortunate and completely unfair to the world is how management and employees ignorance contributed to the biggest nuclear disasters in all of time. Imagine being removed from your house forever because of high levels of radiation and having to move far

away?
Short stories are usually thirty pages or less. Even though they are smaller than standard novels, they still feature similar elements to novels such as whether they are nonfiction or fiction. “The Zero Meter Diving Team” was based on a true story. The entire situation happened because of a flawed design and employees with no training. Sheppard states, As Chief Engineer of the Department of Nuclear Energy, I was a mongrel: half technocrat, half bureaucrat. We knew there were problems in both design and operating procedures, but what industry didn’t have problems? Our method was to get rid of them by keeping silent. This is disgusting on all levels seeing there true ignorance of the employees, but it shows that this really was a true situation. “The Monkey’s Paw” on the other hand was fiction, or not real. Magic to that level is absolutely made up. Even though it is a fiction story,it shares a great lesson to all audiences who read as explained above.
Jacobs states, "The first man had his three wishes, yes," was the reply. "I don't know what the first two were, but the third was for death. That's how I got the paw."
As one can see, “The Zero Meter Diving Team” written by Jim Shepard and “The Monkey’s Paw” written by W.W. Jacobs combine many similarities and differences throughout the stories. Both short stories effectively compared and contrasted disasters that happen throughout, themes, and whether they are fiction or nonfiction. Whether it was a true story or fiction, these short stories engage readers to keep on reading along and teach numerous lessons to all age groups.