"The Monkey's Paw" Symbolism Essay
William Wymark Jacobs. What a neat guy! His mind is almost as morbid as mine.
He wrote "The Monkey's Paw", a story about a magical, wish-granting paw that works like the genie in Aladdin, but much more deadly and, well... gruesome.
But today we're not going to talk about the obvious idiocy of the family in the story.
No. We're gonna talk about the Monkey's Paw itself.
Now, a bit of background, in case you're reading this and for some reason haven't read the story yet.
The Monkey's Paw was published in England, 1902, so we can only assume that the story takes place at about that time. Sergeant-Major Morris visits the White's house on a gloomy, rainy night to just hang at their place for a while. They talked and just had an all-around decent time. But when Morris pulls out a paw, "an ordinary little paw, dried to a mummy" (Jacobs 362), and explains with a grim expression that it would grant three separate men three wishes, then throws it in the fire.
White cries and takes it out, and even after Morris begging and begging him to let it burn, White keeps it.
And that's where we pick up.
So, this is supposed to be about symbolism. And I hear you, Ms. T. "Where's the symbolism you were supposed to write about!" Yeah, well, here it is.
No, it's not the fire, or the darkness, or whatever else on that little list we started with.
Nope.
Mine's the Monkey's Paw itself.
The best example of this is when the Whites wish for 200 pounds. However, they don't receive it immediately, or in the way they were hoping for. A man that works with Herbert, the son of Mr. and Mrs. White, gives the old couple the news that their son had died at work, caught in the machinery. While it's all terrible, the company doesn't claim responsibility for the death of Herbert, but gives the White's some compensation for the loss of their son.
Mr. White asked how much, and "'Two hundred pounds,' was the answer" (Jacobs 367).
But, so what? That could just be a coincidence. But I don't believe in coincidences.
If you believe in coincidences, you aren't paying attention.
So, I think it's time to state my case.
The Monkey's Paw - not the story, but the actual paw - symbolizes that everything is not exactly as if seems.
