What Of This Goldfish Would You Wish Summary

Do you know anyone who has made fun of someone because they are different? Have you done it yourself? Acceptance is an important skill to use and understand. Everyday, people from different backgrounds, heritage, or people different than ourselves are encountered. For example, if acceptance isn’t understood then people may feel hurt or discriminated against. In the writings, “What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?,” “Without Title,” and “American Flag Stands for Tolerance,” all demonstrate people discriminating others because they are different than themselves.
Beginning with the newspaper editorial, “American Flag Stands for Tolerance,” Ronald J. Allen explains the issue of burning the American flag as a form of expression. In a 5-to-4 vote,

the Supreme Court decided that a person has the right to burn the American flag as an expression of protest. Allen explains that the Supreme Court was not wrong: “The Supreme Court was not wrong. Indeed, a decision contrary to the one reached would have been a definitive step away from our national aspirations.” (Allen 22-4). Here Allen notes that if the Supreme Court had made the wrong decision, there would be outrage, granted that if a huge mistake would have been made. Our national aspirations are both ideas of conscience and expression, nevertheless making the wrong decision would intertwine those beliefs. On the other hand, with the Supreme Court's decision, Allen knew that the dissenters or the people who disagree with the Supreme Court's decision: “The dissenters in the flag-burning case and their supporters might at this juncture note an irony in my argument.” (Allen 39-40). In other words, Allen knows that people will disagree with his opinion, hence why Allen explains that the act of burning the flag isn't against the law, but whereas it is a fundamental value such as freedom of conscience. Thus, the court case is a display of different people having varying opinions.
Similarly, “Without Title,” by Diane Glancy explains how the city life and the modern way of life is different from the Native American beliefs and values. When the dad goes to work, he brings home the remains of the buffalo: “and went to work in the packing house. When he brought home his horns and hides, my mother said get rid of them.” (Glancy 10-14). Furthermore, Glancy describes that the wife has either moved on from the Native American beliefs or that she isn’t from Native American descent. Alternatively, the wife does not agree with her husband on the remains of the buffalo, in which she is not respecting her husband's beliefs. On the other hand, while the father is sleeping, the child hears his snores as a buffalo snort: “Oh, I couldn't see it but it was there, and in the night I heard his buffalo grunts like a snore.” (Glancy 20-23). For this reason, The daughter heard the snort because she misses the beliefs that she left when moving to the city. While the daughter wants to believe in her past beliefs, the mother refuses to accept her past, wanting to forget, or maybe not remember what she left when moving to the city.
Equally, the short story, “What, of This Goldfish, Would You Wish?” Etgar Keret demonstrates the difference between an ambitious boy named Yoni and a lonely, antisocial man named Sergei.

Yoni is aspiring to become a filmmaker, so he decides to film a documentary of the different people in the Middle East: “Yonatan had a brilliant idea for a documentary. He'd knock on doors. Just him. No camera crew, no nonsense. Just Yonatan, on his own, a small camera in hand, asking, If you found a talking goldfish that granted you three wishes, what would you wish for?” (Keret 1-4). As Yoni is asking, he received varying answers from a lot of different people, some being more poignant than others. Next, he goes to Sergei’s house, and he has a different experience than any other person he asked. With this in mind, Sergei does not like when people knock on his door due to his past with the KGB knocking on his door due to his father’s Zionism. Surprisingly, when Sergei opens the door, Yoni sees the goldfish and runs into Sergei’s house: “Sergei doesn't like this, doesn't like that the boy is almost at it, already reaching for the jar. In this instant Sergei understands the boy didn't come for television, what he came for, specifically, is to snatch Sergei's fish, to steal it away.” (Keret 95-98). As Yoni enters Sergei’s house, Sergei does not know what to do because, initially, he has not ever had this happen in a long time. In the events that happen, Sergei rushes to conclusions about Yoni and instantly believes Yoni will steal his

fish.
The writings in the “Ourselves and Others,” unit, talk about acceptance of other people. Whether it be accepting or discriminating people based on their wants, needs, or beliefs. Furthermore, in today's society, we discriminate all of the time. Discrimination has become almost blind to us. In fact, some people cannot see when they are truly not accepting people for who they are. Discrimination can come in many different ways, but so does acceptance.