The Monkey's Paw Essay

“We are spinning our own fates, good or evil, never to be undone” - William James. The story, “The Monkey’s Paw”, by W. W. Jacobs is about the horrors the White family encounters from wishing on the monkey’s paw. The first wish was for money, and that came true with the death of the family’s son. The second was for the son to come back alive, and the third was for the son to go back to the grave. Throughout the story, it is shown that Mr. White had the largest contribution to the family’s misfortune. Mr. White brought up the topic of the monkey’s paw, he took the paw even after multiple warnings of it, and he was easily influenced by Mrs. White and Herbert to wish. The first apparent reason why Mr. White is to blame would be when he brought up the monkey’s paw after Sergeant-Major Morris mentioned his time in India for military service. When the family and the Sergeant-Major sat down, he talked about “...strange scenes and doughty deeds of wars…” and Mr. White went immediately to mentioning the supernatural monkey’s paw. On page 2, it reads, “What was that you started telling me the other day about a monkey’s paw or

White being to blame would be when he followed through with what his family told him to wish for. Mr. White said that he had everything that he wanted, his son said to wish for money or to be an emperor, and his wife told him to wish her “...four pairs of hands…” The text states, “Well, wish for two hundred pounds… I wish for two hundred pounds…” and “...and wish for our boy alive again… I wish for my son alive again.” Herbert tells his father to wish for two hundred pounds and they do get the money, but only when his son died. Mrs. White told her husband to wish their dead and mutilated son back to life, and he did, but he was horrified by the thought of their son’s reanimated corpse coming back. Their son dying is what caused most of the problems in this story, and it was wished on by Mr. White and his