Saturday, December 19th, 2020

Yulissa Valdez
Zobeida Sánchez
Literature of English-Speaking Countries

Essay on the Short Story the Monkey’s Paw

The short story known as “The Monkey’s Paw’ written by W. W. Jacobs is a story about a
family, a sergeant, and the magical paw of a monkey. This story tells the misadventures of a
sergeant when he encounters the paw of a monkey. He assures that the paw is magical and that it
can concede three wishes to its owner, but he also warns the family about the price that the
person would pay in case of asking for those three wishes. This story has three great teachings
about three interesting topics.

The first aspect to be taken into account would be the love these parents had for their son.
The love of a father or mother for their children has no limits, no boundaries. During the plot, the
love between these parents and their son can be witnessed by the reader from the very first
paragraph. Imagining this scene of these three people sitting there and sharing thoughts and time
is something worth reading. This became the most simple and appreciable moment in the story,
and it lasts, unconsciously, until the end of the plot, pictured in the mind of the readers.

Second of all, a word to be thought of when finishing the story would be the word
“blessing” Most of the time seems not to know what they have until they have lost it. Blessings
form an important part of life, but most of the time, people do not stop to count on each one of
them. The simple fact of waking up has to be considered one of the greatest blessings. In the story,
the family discovers it when one day, all of a sudden, the son never gets back home alive. The
simple fact of being together as a family was the greatest blessing they had, although they did not
notice it until the family was left there without one of its members.
 Finally, the last aspect mentioned in this essay would be fear. This word describes a feeling
sometimes needed, some other times not necessary, but in the case of this story, fear was a fact,
and it was totally needed. In the beginning, this family does not show any fear about this thing
until a moment was unknown to them. Later on, they would discover that fear is what they
needed to avoid the separation of the family, and all the suffering they went thru.

In summary, this story teaches us to appreciate the small things in life and to love those
around us. To be thankful and, most of all, to understand that everything has a time and that
advice and opinions on things we do not know should be listened to.

La Vega 2020