The Monkey Paw - Creative Writing

Title: Death in Magic Paw

Purpose: to explore characters’ mindset and reflect the theme.

Speaker: Mr. White’s best friend, the staff reporter- James Demer

Audiences: the masses in Haze town

Text type: news report

Rationale:

I have chosen to write a news report as I believed that the event happened in Mr. White’s house must be breaking news if it is real. In the story “The Monkey’s Paw”, we have seen that the magic monkey’s paw from India has killed their son Herbert and changed the fate of Mr. White’s family. The whole family was immersed in sadness and wished their son back to life. The tragic fate of Herbert sets me thinking of magic and fate. Therefore, by writing this news report, I aim to dig deeper to Mr. White’s mindset. Also to debate and reveal the critical views of the underlying meaning of the symbol - monkey’s paw through the voices of interviewees in this report. Their voices stand for the significance of this incident to average people.

News report is a format that helps to achieve my aim effectively and comprehensively. It allows me to re-present the story in an objective tone and from multiple angels.

To achieve my purpose, I created a reporter- James Demer to report the tragedy event happened in the village - ‘Haze town’ in my first part. James Demer knows the entire event since he is the best friend of Mr. White. Specifically, the greedy, naïve, and reckless personalities of Mr. White are illustrated from the testimony of interviewees. In addition, the tragedy has spread immediately to Haze town in the second part of the news report, and it raises the awareness of the villagers. Two villagers – ‘Mr. Cofer’ and ‘Ms. Judith’ are created. Their opposing points of view help to mirror my personal standpoint. I also explore the theme - to be thankful for what you have but not being greedy.

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Task: A News report written by Mr. White’s best friend – James Demer.

Death in Magic Paw

By JAMES DEMER, Reporter from Science Magic World

Wed, Dec 29, 1902

HAZE TOWN –Yesterday, a teenage boy Herbert was killed by machine accidentally, and the cause of death is said to be a wish for 200 pounds by a magic Indian monkey’s paw.

Mr. and Mrs. White and their son, Herbert, welcomed their friend Sat. Maj. Morris back from India. He brought mysterious stories and a souvenir: a mummified monkey’s paw which had a spell put on it by an old fakir. Morris doggedly refused to give it to the Whites because the previous death of the first owner. Yet, after Morris solemnly suggested burning the paw, Mr. White rescued it from fire. To test the so-called power of the paw, the father made the first wish out of three.

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