A Fortune by Joy Monica T
It is not always easy to tell what is worth treasuring in life and what is truly valuable. Having a fortune is not necessarily synonymous with owning a lot of money. A man can be rich in several other ways but he is not always aware of just how fortunate he is. Just like the rich father in Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi’s short story A Fortune from 2000 who doesn’t seem to notice how valuable his son is and how much he should actually treasure their relationship. The short story discusses the importance of father-son-relationships, or rather the lack of one, and what effect it can have on a child being left all alone.
The story is told by a first person narrator in a lower class English using a lot of slang such as: “D’you wanna see something?” This linguistic style supports the point of view of the text as being very subjective. As well, the narration is quite childish when the narrator tries to be reflective: “It’s just that, it must be nice, you know, to be found.” The narrator, which in this case is the main character, is a young man who has had a hard childhood. His father taught him to steal when he was 5 years old and he has been pickpocketing ever since. He defines himself through the failed relationship to his father. He looks up to him and wants his acceptance badly, which is why he is still stealing: “One day Pop will show up again. I’ll hand him the boxful of money (…)”. But even though he misses him, he knows that his father doesn’t care much for him and does not appreciate him at all: “I just didn’t want to know how much Pop thought I was worth.” The main character tries to find something valuable in his life which is why he likes fortune cookies so much. He tries to share this fortune with his mother but she doesn’t seem to get it: “She always thinks I’m trying to tell her that she was a bad mother. I don’t know where she gets ideas like that. I just want to share my fortune.” As he can’t really talk to his mother and because his father has left him,
The story is told by a first person narrator in a lower class English using a lot of slang such as: “D’you wanna see something?” This linguistic style supports the point of view of the text as being very subjective. As well, the narration is quite childish when the narrator tries to be reflective: “It’s just that, it must be nice, you know, to be found.” The narrator, which in this case is the main character, is a young man who has had a hard childhood. His father taught him to steal when he was 5 years old and he has been pickpocketing ever since. He defines himself through the failed relationship to his father. He looks up to him and wants his acceptance badly, which is why he is still stealing: “One day Pop will show up again. I’ll hand him the boxful of money (…)”. But even though he misses him, he knows that his father doesn’t care much for him and does not appreciate him at all: “I just didn’t want to know how much Pop thought I was worth.” The main character tries to find something valuable in his life which is why he likes fortune cookies so much. He tries to share this fortune with his mother but she doesn’t seem to get it: “She always thinks I’m trying to tell her that she was a bad mother. I don’t know where she gets ideas like that. I just want to share my fortune.” As he can’t really talk to his mother and because his father has left him,