The story “The Fisherman and the Jinnee” is about a poor fisherman who is struggling financially and who’s only income is fishing . One day he casts out is fishing net two times only to find useless items. The third time its cast he pulls in a jar. He figures he can sell the jar for some money and opens the jar to see what’s inside. With an enormous amount of smoke, out pops a large man. The man tells the fisherman he is the Jinnee , but instead of granting wishes he tells the fisherman he will let him choose which slow and painful death he wants. The fisherman tricks the Jinnee into getting back into the jar. The fisherman closes the jar fast and then turns the tables by asking the Jinnee the same question. In this story the point-of-view, in my opinion, is third-person limited. The author wrote the story based around the central idea that “patience is virtue” by showing that since the Jinnee wasn’t patient he ends up getting tricked back into the jar.
The author chose to make the story’s point-of-view third person limited in order to display the thoughts of every character and make them more open to the reader. In the story the author wrote:”there was once a very old fisherman” (ln 1-2) . This shows that the story is focused mainly on the fisherman’s thoughts rather than both the fisherman and Jinnee. The author achieved his purpose by initially only talking about the fisherman and things going on with him. He later on brings in the Jinnee only as a sort of secondary character.
The author wrote the story based around the central idea that “patience is virtue.” This main idea is visible in the story because in the beginning the man casts his net out three times, being that the first two were unsuccessful, and the last try brings in the jar. The author achieved his purpose because he shows that even though the fisherman got two bad catches he had enough patience to try it one last time and actually become successful by catching a jar, . The biggest way the author expressed the main idea was the way he showed how since the Jinnee was so impatient on getting freed from the jar that once he got out he was shortly tricked back into it. Thus, showing that if you seek something good by doing bad things to obtain it, chances are you’ll end up never obtaining that goal you seek.
In the story “The Fisherman and the Jinnee” the point-of-view is third-person limited. The central idea for the story, in my opinion, is “patience is virtue.” The author talked about the fisherman for the majority of the story until describing the Jinnee’s situation. The story from middle to end is showing, I think, how since the Jinnee was so impatient his reward was brief and resulted in consequence. Although this is mainly based off opinion, I strongly stand by it. Still, I advise you to read this story and decide whether or not you’d agree with my previous proposition .
The Fisherman and the Jinnee