Three Poor Decisions in "The Monkey's Paw"

Have you ever taken any bad decisions that affected your life or someone else’s life? Do you ever wish you could have somehow changed the outcome? Would you like to have had a magical object that granted you three wishes? Well if you do always remember to be careful what you wish for. In “The Monkey’s Paw,” characters make three poor decisions that affect the outcome of the story; keeping the magical monkey’s paw, wishing for money, and wishing back their son alive.

One poor decision was keeping the monkey’s paw. Sergeant Major Morris told the White family that the monkey’s paw had a spell put on it so that three different men could have three wishes.

The reason being was that the old priest that put the spell on it “wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it would be sorry they had.” Even after hearing about the paw’s background they still wanted to keep it.

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Sergeant Major Morris warned them about the paw already causing a lot of trouble, so if anything bad happened then not to blame him. The White family knew that there could be consequences with any wishes that were made but they did not care about the outcome so long as they were able to make the wishes.

A second unwise decision was wishing for money. Originally Mr. White did not really know what to wish for. He even said “it seems to me I’ve got all I want,” which implies that he necessarily did not need the money in the first place.

The only reason he wished for money was because his son, Herbert White, brought it up. This wish was what made everything go wrong. At first when the money did not appear they thought the paw was a sham.

Until the next day when they heard that their son died and they got sort of a reward for their sons time at work the exact amount that they wished for. A third imprudent decision was wishing back their son alive. Instead of Mrs. White accepting her son’s death she made Mr. White wish him back alive. Mr. White knew that there was a possibility of “his unspoken wish bringing his son back horribly damaged,” but he wished anyway to please Mrs. White. Mrs. White knew the outcome of this wish but she did not care about what happened or how it happened as long as she got her son back.

These decisions were poor because they were all for selfish reasons. Each one of these characters knew the outcome to their decisions, yet made them anyway.