Jack. Guo

2020.9.29

A reward that falls from the sky is often a trap. In the story which conveys a monkey paw that is able to give out wishes, a family asked for 200 pounds the price for this son dead. The main character is a old man who became greedy. The main conflict of this story is internal conflict, at first the old man wish he could have 200 pounds, after the money’s paw gave him, his son dead, then his wife wanted to bring his son back to life by money’s paw. But the old man doesn’t think that’s a good idea, because he didn’t want to lose 200 pounds. In the story “The Monkey’s Paw”, the author believes that greed usually harms people because everything comes with a price. “’I wish for two hundred pounds,’” said the old man distinctly. As Herbert played a loud, dramatic chord the old man suddenly cried out in a trembling voice. His wife and son ran towards him.” (Jacobs 123-125) “’He became trapped in the machinery,’” said the visitor in a low voice. ‘Trapped in the machinery?’ repeated Mr. White in a daze”. (Jacobs 194-196) After he told the money’s paw what he wanted, he got 200 pounds from cashier because his son dead in their machine. He was very happy after awards, but he didn’t think his son would dead. This sentence shows he have to pay something for 200 pounds, If the old didn’t asked for two hundred pounds then his son would not dead. In China people think when a person became greedy he would not think for somethings else. “The knocking stopped suddenly, though it still echoed in the house. He heard the chair scraping back from the door; he heard the door open. A cold wind rushed up the stairs and a long, loud wail of disappointment and misery broke from his wife. It gave him the 330 courage to run to her side, then to the gate outside”[326-339]This shows they already knew the life lesson, they has to face the thing that they did. The old man became dark. They think it was too late but the truth was if you want to change there’s never late. At first they were a great family without fear, because of the greed, they change, they change too much, the boy dead, the old man’s days were over, this family broke because of greed. I also think that is the money’s paw really harm people or they were helping people, they harm people but they tells the life lesson.