Comparing Stories of Wishes

The stories "The Monkey’s Paw" and The "Third Wish" have many things in common; first, they both have wishes. In "The Monkey’s Paw", Mr. White, the main character, wants to see if the paw really works. Sergeant Major Moris brought it over to them and told them about the paw. Then he threw it into the fire, but Mr. White grabbed it. The sergeant warned them about the powers, yet no one listened. The first thing he did was wish for 200 pounds (money). In consequence, his son died and his wife grieved. Mrs. White wanted Mr. White to wish the boy back to life, and, yet again, the penalty was that his son came back to life, looking like how he died. The last wish was for the son to be dead again; that happened but Mrs. White was depressed once more. In "The Third Wish", Mr. Peters got his wishes by helping a trapped swan and he asked for 3 wishes in return. His first wish was easy: a lovely wife just like the forest. He got a beautiful wife, but she was once a swan and began to miss her sister who is still a swan. Mr. Peters wanted her to be happy so his second wish was for her to be a swan again. He still had her as a wife and they saw each other every day, but they couldn’t communicate very well. He kept the third wish till he died, never using it. That was the first thing they have in common.
The next thing they have in common is that they each have important lessons. In "The Monkey’s Paw", the lesson was "Be grateful with what you have and don’t try to change your fate". Mr. White became greedy and wanted more money, but lost his son for it. Then he tried to change his son’s fate of death and wished for him to be alive again. In "The Third Wish", Mr. Peters learned that if you love something, let it go and you will be happier. He loved Leita; she missed her sister. Since Leita couldn’t decide what to do, Mr. Peters changed her back, therefore letting her ‘go.’ Those were the important lessons they each learned.
The last thing they have in common is their personalities. Mr. White, at first, too me, seemed harmless, old, and weak. Then I learned that he was greedy: he took the paw for his own good and wanted more money even though they didn’t really need it. He also kind of acted mean to Sargent Major Moris because Mr. White ignored some of what the Sargent had to say. At the end, though, he showed love for his wife because he tried to protect her from their half-dead and half-alive son. He tried to keep her from seeing the horror of it. Mr. Peters on the other hand appeared to be generous because he helped the swan at the beginning. He was also lonely, but later had a great and caring wife; then he had to let her go to her original self, which also proved he was kind and generous. There are many things to compare in these two stories, and that was one of them about the main characters’ personalities.