Life Lessons in “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken
What would a typical person do if they had 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 allowed to create three wishes each 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,” our main character was Mr. White. He was very discerning. When he is first introduce in “The Monkey Paw,” he asks many question and is very curious (page 88-89). Mr. White is also very greedy. He was not content with hat he had, and he then, out of all the wishes in the world, asked for 200 pounds for his own conveniences (page 91). 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 (page 101-102). 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 (page 104-105). The reader can also learn that Mr. Peters is cautious by observing the way he thinks about his three wishes. Ever...
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... original was created (page 106). The last clue given was when people ask Mr. Peters to just find another wife. Mr. Peters replies in favor of Leita and says he will always be faithful to her (page 107). This suggests the true love between the two and the loyalty they share between each other.
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. They 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.
“I never found myself needing that piece of paper,” is a remark actor Johnny Depp made back in 2010 about his relationship with longtime partner Vanessa Paradis. Depp and Paradis have been in a relationship since 1998 and have two children together, Lily Rose and Jack. Another member of Hollywood’s elite, Latin singer Shakira, shares a similar view saying that marriage is like a contract, and that is unromantic. However, celebrities living like Shakira and Depp are also committing fornication and already view themselves as being married; the marriage is just not official. This draws comparisons to Ernest Gaines’ novel 'A Lesson Before Dying'. Two of the novel’s main characters, Grant and Vivian, have sex outside of marriage because they cannot be married since Vivian is still legally married to another man (Gaines 29). Even though of Vivian’s situation differs slightly from that of Depp’s, the act is still the same. These adults are conducting the act of sex outside of marriage; they are either ignoring what their religion teaches on the subject or do not care what religion has to say.
In Night by Elie Wiesel and Welcome to Hard Times by E.L. Doctorow, the reader witnesses the purpose of hope in one’s life. Wiesel and Doctorow fabricate their works around the trials and tribulations one suffers and what causes one to persevere to continue living. Elie and Blue, characters in the works, experience a life full of suffering and destruction. Even through this, they both live on with a purpose unknown to the reader, and perhaps unknown to themselves. Elie and Blue live on, but to no avail it seems, as both authors end their works with an ultimate destruction of the lives of their characters. However, Wiesel and Doctorow express that Elie and Blue persevere through their lives entirely as a result of hope. These authors suggest that suffering will exist in everyone’s life, and amidst this suffering one often searches for meaning. As Elie and Blue demonstrate, hope determines one’s meaning and purpose in life. Wiesel and Doctorow prove that one’s hope defines one’s existence; however, that hope only masks the futility of life, through the presentation of Elie and Blue’s construction of hope, destruction of hope, and adaptation of hope.
works of literature have tremendous amounts of similarity especially in the characters. Each character is usually unique and symbolizes the quality of a person in the real world. But in both stories, each character was alike, they represented honor, loyalty, chivalry, strength and wisdom. Each character is faced with a difficult decision as well as a journey in which they have to determine how to save their own lives. Both these pieces of literatures are exquisite and extremely interesting in their own ways.
Mulholland and Mr. Temple by giving them tea. This leads the reader to conclude that since Billy Weaver has tea, he will be killed by the landlady too. “The Monkey’s Paw,” reveals how Jacobs writes, “‘I wish for two hundred pounds,’ said the old man distinctly.” This example reveals suspense by providing just how Sergeant Major Morris gave a monkey paw to Mr. White, and how he has three wishes. However, something went wrong on the third wish. Another example from the “The Monkey’s Paw” was when Mr. White said, “Heard the creaking of
White used on the monkey’s paw was to have 200 pounds (Jacobs 91). The previous examples prove how the theme of limiting luxury is illustrated differently in both stories by showing the wealth of each family. In “The Veldt,” the family is in a superior financial state where they have access to anything they want and where money is not an issue. However in “The Monkey’s Paw,” although it took place in 1902, the White’s first wish was for 200 pounds- 243 dollars and 83 cents- which is not an insanely large amount of money that would result in them being care-free for the rest of their lives. Overall, this proves the theme of the limiting luxury through showing the amount of means each family has and how their limit’s would be different from one another's as the two stories progress. Another instance of how the theme is portrayed differently in the short stories is how finances play a role in family life. For instance, in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt,” the Hadley’s have access to such an extreme amount of money that it begins to affect how the parents and kids interact. This occurs when Peter threatens his father by saying, “I don’t think you’d better consider it any more, father” (Bradbury 7). On the contrary, the relationship between the members of the White family is much
“A good story, whether it is true, made-up, or somewhere in between, reveals some truth about human experiences through its characters.” The main character in “The Monkey’s Paw” is Mr. White. He could be described as protective and caring due to his love towards his family. He is also curious, because he wants to have the magical monkey’s paw, despite the warnings given to him by Sergeant Major Morris. From the beginning, all Mr. White wants is to pay off his house mortgage. Also a man, the main character in “The Third Wish” is Mr. Peters. Mr. Peters, on the contrary to Mr. White, is a lonely man who desperately wants a companion. He is granted a wife as beautiful as the forest, Leita, for rescuing the forests king. Mr. Peters shows selflessness and kindness to Leita, when he wishes her back to swan form so she may be happy with her swan sister again.
In conclusion the characters described in the two stories are from different countries and time periods but they both face the same dilemma. Each example demonstrates the compromises they made in order to get ahead. Hong gave up on love for wealth. The invisible man gave away his honor for a college scholarship. Everyone in life is forced to make tough decisions when challenged. One cannot blame these people for selling out given the circumstances. Select few would choose to endure the pain not to betray their
Inequality was a big issue back then, when there was not a clear understanding of what it was. The novel “A Lesson Before Dying” by Ernest J. Gaines was set in 1948 before the Civil Right Movement. It shows the problems and successes of African-Americans. The short story “None of this is Fair” by Richard Rodriguez was about how Affirmative Action benefited the minority making it unfair for white students to succeed. In the novel, Grant is a black person and educated, he is different from the other black people that are supposed to work only on the field. In the short story Rodriguez was a Mexican-American student and during his time there was a program called Affirmative Action. This program was designed to help the minority groups get job opportunities. Both Grant and Rodriguez, honorable men fought against inequality and unfairness to embrace their goals and to be acknowledged for what they have done.
In A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens’ choice of sentimental expression had an excellent effect on the readers’ responses to the characters. The use of exaggerated sentimentality helped create a clear picture of the story’s issues in the readers’ minds; it gave a feel for the spirit of the times, and made it easier to understand the characters’ points of view. It was this very sentimentality that Dickens strived to achieve.
A Comparison of The Signalman by Charles Dickens, The Red Room by H.G. Wells and The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs
Imagine living a horrible life where . Where people disliked people and wanted them to die, just to get there money. Although in three nights it could be fixed so life would be normal again. In the story "The Christmas Carol" Ebeneezer Scrooge lives this miserly life.Scrooge has three nights to change his life into a compassionate one because Christmas Past, Present ,and Future visit him to teach him a lesson. Present one of the Christmas spirits influences him the most to fix his present in society.
One of the monkey’s fingers went down so the man knew he now had two wishes left. The man went into the living room and saw the money on fire by the fire place.
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis and The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood The adolescent years are often associated with turbulence, illusion, and self-discovery; however, Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim and Margaret Atwood’s The Edible Woman demonstrate that more often than not, the twenties possess these qualities to a greater extent than adolescence. The age period of the twenties often consists of relationships, employment and self issues and using the premise of these uncertain times, Amis and Atwood effectively satire various societal systems. Moreover, Amis and Atwood both implement the use of the foil, a character who, by contrast with another character, accentuates that character’s distinctive characteristics.
In Charles Dickens’, A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge lives as the unhappy owner of an accounting office who mistreats those around him. Scrooge has not lived life in a satisfying manner and now resides in isolation, in no hurry to right the wrongs of his past. Through the intercession of three ghosts, Scrooge journeys to Christmases of the past, present, and future and transforms from a man of greed into one of care and compassion. In the beginning of the story, Dickens contrasts the harsh personality of Scrooge with, “Gentlemen of the free-and-easy sort” (Dickens 31). Scrooge’s treatment of others is not easy to overlook, but he must seek forgiveness and set himself free.
Both books are good for parents and children to share a new adventure in life changing experiences, whether the baby is not the baby anymore, but a big brother or sister or if the young child is not happy about who they are until they see that who they want to be is not what they expect. Literature can provide young children adventures they may never experience in their life time. For those young children, who do experience adventures in their life, they need good age appropriate literature in their lives to show them different ways on how to deal, cope, or function in their life. A child’s personality can be supported and nurtured if they are given opportunities to explore and learn from their environment, whether the learning is exploring or reading a good book.