The Monkey’s Paw by W. W. Jacobs, was a fictional horror story about the White family. Mr. White’s friend, Sergeant Morris, brought back a mysterious artifact from India called The Monkey’s Paw, which would grant its owner three wishes, but there would be consequences to them. Mr. White tested it by wishing for 200 pounds at the request of his son. He got what he wanted, but his son, Herbert, died. Mrs. White asked him to wish their son alive again, and he conceded, but there was a strange pounding on the door. Finally, Mr. White secretly made the third wish and asked for his son to not return. Mrs. White was hugely disappointed and sad as she would not be able to see her son again, but the wishes were already used up and nothing could be done about it.
Humans have a good and bad side, with the bad side being full of greed and reckless curiosity. It's fine to think a little bit about your well-being and to demonstrate moderate levels of curiosity. However, too much of any trait is bad. Herbert was too excited because the monkey’s paw would give his family three things. Initially, Herbert dreamed that his father would be a famous emperor and that they would have all the money they could ever want. Mr. White was not as greedy, but he still wasn’t happy, even though he had a good life and a fancy house. He wanted to be able to pay off the mortgage, so he gave in to his son’s demand and wished for lots of money. However, the thing with the paw is that it grants wishes, but it causes much evil and mischief to happen. Later on, Herbert was killed by machinery. Because of his greed, Herbert died after he convinced his father to wish for riches. It’s safe to say that somebody is in moral danger if he/she has his/her head full of greed and curiosity.
Some people are greedy, but others are worse because they take advantage of human nature. One could easily set up a trap in which human curiosity would get things going. Morris took advantage of human nature to try to sell the Monkey’s Paw. Since few people knew about it, many were eager to have it, but most still wanted to use the wishes first to make sure that it wasn’t dangerous. Morris apparently gave the paw to his friend, Mr. White whose family wanted money and was very interested in the paw. Morris did not intend to benefit the Whites and instead harmed them and did so quite easily by not answering their questions. Morris was evil because he exploited how humans behave to lure Mr.White into using the paw. Some people can fool others very easily because of human behavior.
Suspense is a great way to keep a reader interested in a story. When people cannot find answers to the questions in their reading, they are eager to continue the book. The author of The Monkey’s Paw demonstrates unique writing skills by keeping us in suspense. In the story, we can derive from the first wish that if your wishes are granted by the Monkey’s Paw, evil things will happen to you. The consequences of the Whites wishing for money is that their son dies, and a compensation is offered to them. However, for the second and third wishes, the results are unknown. When Herbert is brought back from the dead, there is no seen effect, perhaps other than Mr. White wishing that his son would ont come back later, but there is no way to know for sure as the book does not provide us with much evidence. In this way, the reader does not lose interest in the story because he/she would like to figure out what happened after the last two wishes. By concealing some aspects of a story, authors make sure that we read the whole book as it's natural for people to try to find the solutions to their questions.
The Monkey’s Paw is a horror novel about the White family which receives an artifact that grants it three wishes. The first wish killed Mr. White’s son, Herbert, and he was wished alive. However, while he came back, it was unknown what happened to him and he came banging on the door. Mr. White had to end it by wishing that his son would not come back. Mr. White was not able to overcome human nature and wished for what he wanted, and the wish killed his son. Meanwhile, Mr. White’s friend, Morris, also had an issue as he was evil because he took advantage of human nature. This story also shows us the writing skills of the author by demonstrating how suspense makes a book interesting.
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