Are you superstitious? Do you own a lucky charm? Do you get nervous on Friday the
13th?
Summary
THE MONKEY’S PAW
W. W. Jacobs
Setting: Small house in England during the late 1800s
On a stormy night, Sergeant-Major Morris visits Mr. and Mrs. White and their son Herbert.
Morris is back in England after spending twenty-one years in India. He tells the Whites
about a magical monkey’s paw he got while he was away that gives its owner three wishes.
Mr. White wants the monkey’s paw, and Morris lets him keep it. Morris warns the Whites
that the wishes never turn out well and tells them to make only sensible wishes. Before bed
that night, Mr. White wishes for a specific sum of money.
The next day, Herbert goes off to work as usual. A few hours later, a man arrives
from his company to inform the Whites that Herbert has been killed in an accident. The man
gives the Whites the exact amount of money Mr. White had wished for the night before. The
Whites are devastated at the loss of their son until Mrs. White remembers the monkey’s
paw. She demands that her husband wish for Herbert to come back.
1. Define amulets and talismans:
2. Go here for images:
http://www.artyfactory.com/egyptian_art/egyptian_hieroglyphs/ankh.htm
3. Write a 600 word description essay on a chosen country that practices magic.
Please see me for approval.
Africa
Latin America
Middle East
America
Europe
“The Monkey’s Paw” Open Book Scavenger Hunt
_______________ 1. The game the father and son are playing
_______________ 2. The number of people in the White family
_______________ 3. Mr. White comments on this, trying to divert his son’s attention away
from the game
_______________ 4. The visitor’s name
_______________ 5. The type of kettle on the fire
_______________ 6. How long the guest has been away
_______________ 7. Where the guest has been
_______________ 8. Morris describes the paw as “… a bit of what you might just call
______.”
_______________ 9. The paw is desiccated, “dried to a _______.”
_______________10. A holy man, a fakir, “wanted to show that _______ ruled people’s lives.”
_______________11. TOTAL number of wishes the paw could grant
_______________12. The first man’s third wish
_______________13. What Morris does with the monkey’s paw
_______________14. To make a wish, one must hold the paw in which hand and wish aloud?
_______________15. Mr. White doesn’t know what to wish for; “It seems to me I’ve got _____
I want.”
_______________16. Amount of money Herbert tells his father to wish for
_______________17. Mr. White says the paw moved when he wished; “… twisted in my hands
like a ____.”
_______________18. Herbert says he bets he will never see the $$; this is an example of what
literary device?
_______________19. “Morris said the things happen so naturally … you might attribute it to
_____________.”
_______________20. How the stranger walking back and forth outside is dressed
_______________21. The name of the company where Herbert works
_______________22. How Herbert is killed
_______________23. Amount of money given as “compensation” for their loss
_______________24. Distance from the cemetery to the White residence
_______________25. Who demands the second wish?
_______________26. What is the second wish?
_______________27. What is heard at the front door?
_______________28. What Mr. White says the noise is
_______________29. What Mrs. White can’t reach to open the front door
_______________30. What is the third wish?