Throwback Thursday: Fate and Consequences in 'The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs

One evening last year my daughter's former English teacher asked if i'd ever read The Monkey's Paw. I forget the trigger event, though it may have been discussing The Nonsense Room, a story from my book Unremembered Histories, short stories with a supernatural twist. I'd read it perhaps half a century ago when I was in school, but remembered nothing about it. After revisiting this story I now recommend it here to you.

The Monkey's Paw is essentially a variation of the traditional genie in a bottle genre in which a person can get three wishes. But it's three wishes from the dark side. Not only do the wishes come true, when they do they have unanticipated shocking consequences. The manner in which the tale is told is what grips you. As with all good stories, the reader plunges forward because he or she is eager to see what will happen next.

It begins on a dark, dreary night as the White family waits for a visitor to their out of the way home.  The father and son are playing chess in the parlor while white-haired Mrs. White sits knitting by the fireplace.

The second paragraph, a single sentence, foreshadows the sum total of the story: "Hark at the wind," said Mr. White, who, having seen a fatal mistake after it was too late, was amiably desirous of preventing his son from seeing it.

Chess provides a great variety of life lessons. Decisions must be made all throughout. Consequences of decisions aren't always readily recognizable. All too often they are made with unnecessary haste and dire consequences.

Thus we are conveyed into the story as the White's visitor arrives, a sergeant-major who has spent 21 years abroad in what the Whites believe to be exotic and adventurous places. As they talk, and splash down a few drinks, the topic turns to a monkey's paw that the visitor had mentioned to Mr. White a few days earlier.

The soldier attempts to divert the conversation, though against his better judgment he acknowledges that there is something magical in the matter. He is actually carrying the thing on him at that very moment, but in an effort to be done with it he throws it on the fire.

Mr. White takes fast action and rescues it. The grim visitor is solemn and says, "Better let it burn."

White's impulsiveness becomes the story's turning point, cementing the family's doom.

Like many such stories there's a moral: don't mess with fate. Stephen King's 1000-page 10/23/63 has essentially the same moral, except in a much more massive form. King's story is about a man who goes back in time in an effort to keep JFK from being assassinated.

Hollywood, of course, loves this kind of magical lore in films, in part because the public's craving for it seems endless. I half wonder if the Robin Williams film Jumanji had some of its ideas stimulated by The Monkey's Paw. Kids find a magical game board and start to play, but soon learn that there are unexpected consequences to each move. Sound familiar? There is even a connection to India and other exotic places here.

If you go back to the beginning of the 20th century you can see lots of fascination with "exotic places," which must have been a portion of this story's original appeal, in addition to the creepiness of its premise. Writers like Jack London and Joseph Conrad, among others, capitalized on this interest in all things foreign.

Meantime, as noted earlier, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read The Monkey's Paw. It's an unusual and very compelling story, and a good read.  

Throwback Thursday: The Monkey's Paw by J.J. Jacobs

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 2014

One evening my daughter's former English teacher asked if I'd ever read The Monkey's Paw. I forget the trigger event, though it may have been discussing my story The Nonsense Room from my book Unremembered Histories, short stories with a supernatural twist. I'd read it perhaps half a century ago when I was in school, but remembered nothing about it. After revisiting this story I now recommend it here to you.

The Monkey's Paw is essentially a variation of the traditional genie in a bottle genre in which a person can get three wishes. But it's three wishes from the dark side. Not only do the wishes come true, when they do they have unanticipated shocking consequences. The manner in which the tale is told is what grips you. As with all good stories, the reader plunges forward because he or she is eager to see what will happen next.

It begins on a dark, dreary night as the White family waits for a visitor to their out of the way home.  The father and son are playing chess in the parlor while white-haired Mrs. White sits knitting by the fireplace.

The second paragraph, a single sentence, foreshadows the sum total of the story: "Hark at the wind," said Mr. White, who, having seen a fatal mistake after it was too late, was amiably desirous of preventing his son from seeing it.

Chess provides a great variety of life lessons. Decisions must be made all throughout. Consequences of decisions aren't always readily recognizable. All too often they are made with unnecessary haste and dire consequences.

Thus we are conveyed into the story as the White's visitor arrives, a sergeant-major who has spent 21 years abroad in what the Whites believe to be exotic and adventurous places. As they talk, and splash down a few drinks, the topic turns to a monkey's paw that the visitor had mentioned to Mr. White a few days earlier.

The soldier attempts to divert the conversation, though against his better judgment he acknowledges that there is something magical in the matter. He is actually carrying the thing on him at that very moment, but in an effort to be done with it he throws it on the fire.

Mr. White takes fast action and rescues it. The grim visitor is solemn and says, "Better let it burn."

White's impulsiveness becomes the stories turning point, cementing the family's doom.

Like many such stories there's a moral: don't mess with fate. Stephen King's 1000-page 10/23/63 has essentially the same moral, except in a much more massive form. King's story is about a man who goes back in time in an effort to keep JFK from being assassinated.

Hollywood, of course, loves this kind of magical lore in films, in part because the public craving for it seems endless. I half wonder if the Robin Williams film Jumanji had some of its ideas stimulated by The Monkey's Paw. Kids find a magical game board and start to play, but soon learn that there are unexpected consequences to each move. Sound familiar? There is even a connection to India and other exotic places here.

If you go back to the beginning of the 20th century you can see lots of fascination with "exotic places," which must have been a portion of this story's appeal, in addition to the creepiness of its premise. Writers like Jack London and Joseph Conrad, among others, capitalized on this interest in all things foreign.

Meantime, as noted earlier, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read The Monkey's Paw. It's an unusual and very compelling story, and a good read.  

Robin Williams, R.I.P.

It's difficult to wake and learn that another someone who has been part of your life for so many decades has passed away. The reverberations are felt broadly because his countless films have repeatedly touched our lives. Many of these films would not have been the same without his "mad genius."

In the age of instant everything, his imdb.com profile has already been updated. His Wikipedia bio, too. Robin Williams is gone. His creative range was remarkable and he wasn't afraid to try new things.

Good Morning, Viet Nam
Dead Poets Society
Jumanji
Patch Adams
Mrs. Doubtfire
Moscow on the Hudson
Awakenings
Hook
Bicentennial Man
and on and on and on...

What would Aladdin have been without Robin Williams as the Genie?

*

He used to say his Hollywood hero was the late Jonathan Winters Perhaps like Winters his mind was just too hyper-active for a normal existence. Both men had the privilege of making a living in a career that enabled their electric-eclectic hyper-energy outbursts to run rampant and become streaming entertainment. But both struggled at times with who they were. Williams was open about his struggles with mood-swings and depression.

But Robin Williams was not all comic. He gave us serious and challenging performances that connected. It's hard to believe his role as John Keating in Dead Poets Society was already 25 years ago. This passage spoke volumes to me:

We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?

And this line was delivered with equal eloquence.

No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world.

My kids grew up on many of these films. There's no question this was a normal experience for Gen-Y... growing up with Robin Williams as a part of the family experience. In some ways when a person like this passes, it is a family loss. I anticipate talking with my daughter about this as we watched Bicentennial Man together on more than one occasion. As the ever-living robot who is destined never to die, Andrew Martin asks (after the death of Little Miss), "Will every human being that I care for just... leave?"

Yes, we all must leave one day. That's part of the human experience. So is having one's heart broken.

In 2000 I wrote a journal note about Good Will Hunting titled "Heartbreaking Beauty."  Life is complicated because we're complicated. In the midst of all our challenges we try to give back something good. Robin Williams gave us some of that.... moments of forgetfulness where we laughed and forgot our troubles.... or moments we never forgot because they left an impression on our hearts and memories.

May the broken wings of his loved ones find healing, comfort and hope through the outpouring that washes their way in the days and weeks ahead.

Photo by celebrity photographer Eva Rinaldi, used by agreement with Creative Commons and does not imply an endorsement of this blog by the photographer.