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Powerful And Common Themes In The Monkey's Paw

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Essentially, every story that ever existed carries a certain theme. The story “The Monkey's Paw,” is about a sergeant who came to a family's home and gave them a supposedly cursed monkey’s paw that could grant three wishes. The family decided to take advantage of this opportunity, so they selfishly and thoughtlessly wished for wishes that would solely benefit them. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” many themes are portrayed, which include “be careful what you wish for,” “make sure to wish specifically so nothing backfires and is misjudged,” “greediness almost always leads to terrible consequences,” and many more. Nevertheless, the most powerful and common theme portrayed in this story is “one careless thought can lead to huge consequences.”
To support this theme and idea, one piece of evidence found in the text was the area of the story where Sergeant-Major Morris warned the Whites that the use of the Monkey’s Paw is extremely dangerous and it should not be done. ““If you’ve had your three wishes, it’s no good to you now, then, Morris,” said Mr.White. “The Sergeant took the paw, and dangling it between his front finger and thumb, suddenly threw it upon the fire. White, with a slight cry, stooped down and snatched it.” “Better let it burn,” …show more content…
“Well, wish for two hundred pound then; that’ll just do it.” (page 3). These specific words make it seem that Herbert is talking with a sort of disgust or inattentiveness. This careless behavior shows that Herbert doesn’t understand that the monkey’s paw can be a potentially dangerous weapon, and he couldn’t care less about all the warnings he was given. Also, in the text, Mr. White stated ”I wish for two hundred pounds” (page 2). However, when he asked for this, he eventually received the money, but not in any way he thought he would.

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