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A Fortune

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Submitted By jonathankwok
Words 1050
Pages 5
BY JONATHAN KWOK (C)
A Fortune
3. November 2011

The novel was called “A fortune” and was written by Joy Sakaguchi. It revealed the story of a young man going around pickpocketing as a living. The man was also the narrator of the story, therefore, the story was told entirely from his perspective. Therefore, readers only got one side of the story.

One day, he saw a man with a large wallet, and decided to steal it. He hovered round the man for a while before pickpocketing the wallet. During his time following the man, he quickly found out that he had a seven-year-old son called Jeremy, whom his father treated rather harshly. The narrator even mentioned how the father would occasionally yell at his son.

Later that day, the narrator found Jeremy leaning the wall of a liqueur store, while the narrator wanted to leave the wallet somewhere without being seen or noticed. He only did so because he cared for the child, and didn’t want him to get more flack once the father found out his wallet was missing.
The narrator decided to talk to Jeremy before taking him back to his home. They spent the evening reading out fortune cookies loud that the narrator had collected from the local low-price Chinese buffet restaurant. It turned out that Jeremy loved the fortune cookies, therefore, the narrator decided to give him all his fortune cookies. The seven-year-old boy didn’t think he deserved those cookies, but the narrator wanted to prove him his worth, and started boosting Jeremy’s self confidence by telling him that he was tremendous before sending him back home the following morning.

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Growing up in a trailer park, so his family wasn’t wealthy at all. This led to his father “Pop” teaching him how to pickpocket at the age of just five. He was also thought how to be realistic and only believe in what you saw by cases like his Uncle Barney went to visit him at the trailer, but ended up pulling his beard drinking.
I stopped getting excited at the sight of Santa Claus walking through our trailer door when I was five and Santa pulled off his beard and ask me to get him a stiff drink.
The narrator and his father had a very fragmented relationship, the narrator’s father never appreciated his son, even though the narrator loved him. As a child, he was simply afraid to count the money his father gave him, because he doubted how much his father appreciated him.
Usually he would hand me a couple of bills and I would absently stuff them in my sock without counting it. Of course I should have counted the money - I just didn’t want to know how much Pop thought I was worth.

Despite the narrator having a job and could earn his living, he still pickpockets just to be able to show his father one day when he someday returned. He clearly loved his father, and he just wanted to be able to prove him selves to him on day.
I don’t know how much is in there, but it’s helluva lot. One day Pop will show up again. I’ll hand him the boxful of money, he will throw me some bills, and then I’ll just stow them away without counting them.

He also loved those Fortune Cookies, because they told him things that he usually wouldn’t hear. They were the life that he wanted and wished his entire childhood even though he knew that they were fictional. The narrator’s father never told him kind words during his childhood, therefore, he saw hope in fortune cookies, just like the child Jeremy did.

The narrator also loved his mother, even though she was afraid that her son would become like his “stinking, rotting, lout-of-a-father”. He did love to share his fortune cookies with his mother, even though she if she didn’t understood the message behind.
I like to read them to my ma when I visits her at the trailer, but she usually doesn’t get it. She always think I’m trying to tell her she was a bad mother. I don’y know where she gets ideas like that. I just want to share my fortune.

The narrator also cared for Jeremy, taking the father roll that he knew everybody deserved by telling him things that Jeremy fathers was supposed to tell him, and giving Jeremy what the narrator wished so much.
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The entire story was told in the narrator’s perspective. It therefore only included his thoughts and his point of view.

The main theme of the story was that we all need to be appreciated and acknowledged by somebody, regardless of our social status, religion or age. Leaving people around you happy made you a good person. The fortune wasn’t money or anything materialistic. It was the little boy Jeremy, the narrator also told how Jeremy’s father didn’t deserved having a fortune like that little child, since the father didn’t treated Jeremy like his fortune, hence the title of the story. By stepping into Jeremy’s father role, the narrator got to the fortune that the child had to offer, and making Jeremy happy also made him emotional and gracious. Not getting acknowledged or love by anybody else could hurt, but not coming from the parents simply made it a whole lot worse. It also showed just how much little encouraging words could mean for an individual’s well being, self esteem and self respect. It told us to focus on the bright side of an individual rather than just trying to improve on the weak side.

Both Jeremy and the narrator lacked the sympathy needed from their parents, which explained their low self esteem and self respect. They were therefore prime examples of just how wrong it could go with poor parenthood.

The fortune cookies defined the story very well. They are only sentences that wished luck, they also focused on the good side of life, which could be the reason behind why Jeremy and the narrator were so fond on them, since both their father couldn’t fulfill their job of giving their child hope and believe in themselves and telling them that their child are good enough as they already are.

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