Free Will In The Monkey's Paw By W. Jacobs

In this paper I will present an argument against free will and then I will defend a response to that argument. Free will is defined as having the ability to make our own choices. Some will argue that all of our decisions have already been dictated by our desires therefore we never actually truly make our own choices. The purpose of this paper is to defend the argument that we have free will by attacking the premise that states we have no control over what we desire. I will defeat this premise by showing how one does have control over his/her desires through the idea of self-control. I will then defend my argument against likely rebuttals that state that there is still no way to control our desires proving that we do have free will.

Angie Bachmann married young, a typical wife and mother of three, develops a devastating addiction to gambling, leading to the family’s bankruptcy. She was a bored housewife and a stay-at-home mom who one day decided to go gambling which led to her addiction until she lost everything in gambling at Harrah’s Casino. This book, The Neurology of Free Will written by Charles Duhigg, illustrates the challenging case of Angie Bachmann who gambled away every penny she inherited after her parents’ death, and then another $125,000 she borrowed from the casino. Harrah’s casino sued Bachmann then for the money she borrowed and held responsible for her actions. Bachmann, on the other hand, countersued defending her case. She claimed that even though

“The Monkey’s Paw” is a supernatural short story by author W. W. Jacobs first published in England in 1902. In the story, three wishes granted to the owner of the monkey’s paw, but the wishes come with an enormous price for interfering with fate. I agree on how some occasions the events are giving away as you can see in this sentence, how the friend gives Mr. White a magical wish granting monkey paw, now we all know what happens next something always goes wrong on granting wishes. It gives most of its story away before it happens such as his son saying something like he will not see what happens to the monkey paw.

White makes a wish he thought would be innocent and would benefit the family without listening to what Sargeant-Major Morris warned him about the deadly monkey´s paw. Later after he makes the wish, he finds out the monkey´s paw indeed worked, and the thing he wished for costed the life of his beloved son. Mr. And Ms. White, terrifies of the monkey´s paw, decide not to try it ever again. But Ms. White, inconsolable with her only child´s death, decides to take a risk and wish for her son to come back to life. Later at night, someone knocks harshly on the door and Mr. White, full of terror, uses the very last wish to disappear whatever was outside the door

As humans, self-reliant choices are made everyday. Free will demonstrates that self-reliance outweighs external authorities. It shows that people are able to act voluntarily upon their own choices. In the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, the expedition made by Chris McCandless is justified because free will is based off of one’s individual life choices. This is supported by the perspectives of Jon Krakauer, and it is refuted by the opinions of Walt McCandless.

Free will is an important feature of modern person’s life. It is “a philosophical term of art for a particular sort of capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from among various alternatives” (“Free Will”). In other words, free will allows person to make a choice regardless of specific surrounding circumstances. Different systems of philosophy have controversial attitude to this term. Depending on affiliation with certain school, experts admit or reject the thought of existence of a free will. But, regardless of philosophical judgments, people often admit an importance of the possibility to make independent decisions and administer own life. Free will gives person an opportunity to decide in favor of long-term, more global purposes; and this choice can expose immediate perspectives to a risk. This particular situation was described by Sarah Orne Jewett in her short story A White Heron. A possibility of free will sometimes became a vital feature; Kate Chopin showed a literal reflection of this statement in her story The Story of an Hour. The author demonstrated what catastrophic consequences can cause an unexpected loss of desired free will.

Journalist John Tierney, in his article, “Do You Have Free Will? Yes, It’s the Only Choice,” explores the notion of free will and exhibits how belief or disbelief in free will affects an individual’s life. By posing a hypothetical situation through rhetorical questions, incorporating experimental research, and using accusatory diction towards the opposing perspective, Tierney conveys his perception that a regard for free will allows for individuals to gain a greater sense of morality and ambition, even if the notion of free will is still disputed.

Jacobs also uses symbolism to elaborate on the theme of the human condition. Jacobs uses several throughout the hectic timeline; the first symbol brought up being the fire. The White’s use the fire for warmth at the beginning of the story, but later, Sergeant Major Morris uses its flames to rid his hands of the corrupting paw. Mr. White is quick to retrieve the paw from the fire’s destruction despite the negative effects it has on the lives of its handlers. In an analysis of “The Monkey’s Paw”, it states, “Another common truth about the human condition is that people’s best qualities often turn out to be their worst,” (Chesterton 150). Similarly to the fire’s blaze being used as a source of comfort and to incinerate the evil paw, Mr. White’s reasonable curiosity leads him into a lethal predicament. Another symbol presented in the story is the monkey’s paw itself. The monkey’s paw reveals to the reader the aspect of aspirations. Sergeant Major Morris explains the origins of the paw and states, “[The fakir] wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and those who interfered with it did so to their own sorrow,” (Jacobs 378). It was the fakir’s goal to prove the desire for what one does not have that resides within the brain. This greed drives people into shameful situations. Fate can not be manipulated by humans, yet it is in our nature to at least try. An additional symbol that Jacobs uses is light. The story takes place during an evening storm, one deterring any possible shred of sunlight. As the story intensifies, Mr. White finds himself in a frantic situation where he drops a box of matches. In an alternate analysis of “The Monkey’s Paw”, it explains this event as this: “...this loss of light means they have lost their direction; that they have lost hope,” (Chesterton 152). As Mr. White desperately struggles to locate the box of matches in the dark of night, he has a gut-wrenching feeling that whatever is knocking on the door will be a horrific scene.

“The monkey’s paw” is a story about a mystical charm, a monkey's paw that grants you three wishes to three people by W. W. Jacobs. The paw was given to the White family by Sergeant Morris. The first owner used his third wish to die, the second owner was Sergeant Morris and the third being the White family. At first, they didn't think the Monkey’s paw actually granted you your wishes and they believed it was a hoax. The author uses suspense and tension in order to catch the reader's attention and get them more interested.

“The Monkey’s Paw,” teaches you the lesson of being careful of what you wish for because the outcome may be very dreadful. A strange Monkey’s paw that grants wishes would seem a little bogus to me. The myths of this paw granting the beholder three wishes, anything you can think of. The beholder gets their wish; only to have consequences to pay for the granted wish. The wishes leave the beholder in either shock or grief. Only leading up to the person granting the wishes, to regret that they ever came up the Monkey’s

Taking place in a countryside home, W.W. Jacobs’s short story “The Monkey’s Paw” illustrates the White family’s two-day interaction with a seemingly innocent mummified monkey's paw. Each character presented in the short story represents natural human traits that can prove to be negative when greed and curiosity are involved. The use of symbolism throughout the story proves to be vital to the reader, as it allows him or her to understand the importance of every action done to the monkey’s paw has an opposite consequence. This correlates to everyone on Earth’s predetermined fate and the problems that an individual could face when greed overcomes their needs, even when it is for a better or worse life. When individuals are consumed by greed, like the White family, they must accept the consequences no matter how severe it is when it is something they truly seek in life.

In "The Monkey's Paw”, author William Jacobs conveys the message that fate rules peoples' lives, and that those who try to interfere with fate do so at their own peril. This premise is clearly shown as the plot of this clever story unfolds. Sergeant Morris reluctantly gave Mr. White the monkey's paw, but warned him of the consequences. The White family playfully wished for two hundred pounds and when nothing happened immediately, they dismissed the sergeant's story as a fairy tale. However, the events of the next day show the cruel irony of the wish. A man from the company that the son, Herbert, worked for, arrived at the White's House with the terrible news that Herbert had been killed in an accident on the job. The man went on to say that

No one can be the master of their own destiny because destiny does not exist. However, underpinning the question of whether anyone can master their own destiny is the question of whether human beings have control over their own actions. This paper will argue that despite not being able to master destiny as it does not exist, human beings have control over their own actions, enabling them to be masters of their own actions as opposed to destiny. This paper will argue three main points that lead to this conclusion. Firstly, it will establish why destiny does not exist, secondly, that we have free will, and lastly, that we are casual agents. In response to criticisms of free will and agent-causality, I will further demonstrate how these

Throughout the three novels “The Art of Being”, “On Being Authentic”, and “When I am Playing with My Cat, How Do I Know That She Is Not Playing with Me?” each of the authors touch on many different aspects of philosophical thinking. One aspect that is touched on is the great debate between determinism and free will. This essay will analyze to what extent human agency is socially and biologically conditioned. Human action is wholly determined by heredity and environment therefore we do not have complete control or free will. We must first define free will and determinism to have a clear understanding of the two concepts. Free will is defined as the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate; the ability to act at one 's own discretion. Determinism is defined as the doctrine that all events, including human action, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will.

Next, I will be contrasting the differences between the way the characters use their wishes. I think Mr. White uses his wishes in a curious kind of way because he isn’t really sure whether The Monkey's Paw is real or fake. First Mr. White wishes for 200 pounds, and isn’t taking the paw seriously, so consequences are his son dies in a machinery