Summary Of What, Of This Goldfish, Would You Wish

We are shaped by our relationships and experiences in many ways. We may act a certain way because that’s how we were taught, and because that’s how we think. There are many things that happen on a daily basis that help shape us, some in minor ways, while others in major ways.

The first story that supports this is What, Of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?, by Etgar Ketret. It is about a boy named Yoni, a man named Sergei, and a magical goldfish. Some examples of where experiences help shape people in this book are when Sergei doesn’t like strangers coming to his door, because it reminds him of the KBG in Russia. Many of the different wishes people tell Yoni about also have a reason behind them, because of past experiences or relationships. Another example including relationships is that at first Sergei doesn’t want to use his last wish to make Yoni be alive again because he doesn’t want to set the goldfish free. And when Yoni(now alive again) asks Sergei what he wishes for, Sergei basically says he doesn’t want to be alone.

The second story/film that supports this is My So Called Enemy, by Lisa Gossels.

This is about girls who are either Israeli or Palestinian, who learn to become friends. For both Israeli and Palestinian, the girls on either side are taught to hate the other. They are taught through experiances(bombings, war) that the other group is evil. These many girls, though, learn overtime that just because of your religion, you can still be friends. They had built a sister-like relationship with each other, learning that it shouldn’t matter ones religion if they are a friend or

not.

The third story is The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. This story is about a village who holds a lottery every year, but getting your name called does not mean ‘winning’. This story works a lot with experience, as the main reason they still do the lottery is because it’s what the village has been doing for many years. Even though the ‘winnings’ to the lottery is being stoned to death, and you’d think that the whole village would be against that, they still have the lottery, because that’s ‘tradition’. Because its tradition, the villagers, even though they may know it’s wrong, still feel as if they need to hold the lottery, because that’s how they were taught.

As you see in these stories, there are many different things that help shape us and how we live. We may know that the way we do things is wrong, but sometimes we do them because that’s all we know how. We are exposed to many things daily, and everyday we are being shaped a little differently.