This Goldfish Would You Wish Analysis

How individuals see others can also tell a lot about the person themselves. This is because people use many different things to judge others. For example people will use past experiences to make a judgment about how someone would act. This also shows who the person is by their judgement of someone. Other things that would show this is the assumptions individuals make and their family influences.

One major thing that affects how individuals see others is their past experiences. One great example of this is the fictional narrative "What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?" by Etgar Keret. This story is about a young boy named Yoni who "had a brilliant idea for a documentary" (Etgar 3). He took his camera and went up to people's houses asking

them if the had three wishes what would they wish for. He came across a man named Sergei who does not "much like strangers banging on his door" (Etgar 5). This is because he had past experiences with the KGB "knocking on his door" (Etgar 5). This causes Sergei to almost immediately dislike Yoni. The reader can also determine that Sergei is a good person by his past experience. For his two previous wishes Sergei used one when "they discovered a cancer in his sister" and had the goldfish get rid of it and the other when doctor's discovered his girlfriend's "son's head wasn't right" (Etgar 7) and used the wish to make him better. People's past experiences have a big impact how they perceive others and can be used to determine who the person is themselves because those experiences are what make up the person. Included in past experiences that also has a big impact on how we look at others is family influence.
Family influence is a big factor that changes how individuals view others.

The newspaper editorial "American Flag Stands For Tolerance" by Ronald J. Allen shows why the Supreme Court made the right decision in the Texas v. Johnson court case. Whether people believe the correct decision was made could largely be influenced by family. If a person was raised in a family that was very patriotic or have family in the military, they may believe that the Supreme Court made the wrong decision. Others that were raised in a more open-minded or less patriotic family may believe that "the flag stands for free expression of ideas" (Allen 20) and believe that the court made the correct choice. According to Allen, "[t]he Supreme Court was not wrong" (18) so he most likely was raised in an open-minded way or with logic ruling over patriotism. Family is a major influence on how we view others but so is making

assumptions.
All people in this world make assumptions.

These assumptions change how we perceive others. The short story named "The Wife's Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin is a perfect example of this. It is a story about a family whose dad has a problem of turning into a monster "[a]lways … in the dark of the moon" (Le Guin 4). As the story goes on the reader makes an assumption the this is a story about a family of humans with a dad that is a werewolf. This shows that people will use past knowledge and experiences to make an educated guess even if they do not realize it. As they continue reading the story takes a turn and the reader find out that the family was actually a pack of wolves and the father turned into a human. The wolves in the story make an assumption and believe the father will kill all of them because he turned into a "hateful one" (Le Guin 7) and the other humans the wolves had seen tried to kill them. This caused the assumption that the father would attack the pack so the wolves attacked and killed him

first.
People use all of these things to make judgements about people. Even though this has a negative connotation it is true. People can not help whether they make judgments about people but what they think and how they act on what they think shows more of the personality and who the person. How does what you think saw about you?