By: Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi, 2000
Knowing how much you are worth and what is worth treasuring is not always easy to tell. The story is about a man who started pickpocketing as a boy and still does it as a grown up. One day he discovers a little boy leaning against the wall of a liquor store. The same boy, whose father he had just stolen a wallet from an hour earlier. The narrator starts a conversation with the boy and asks him if he wants to come home with him.
The story outlines the importance of father-son-relationships, and what effect it can have on a child being left all alone.
The narrator, in this case the main character, lives in a rented room and he is from the lower class. He uses a lot of slang such as “D’you wanna see something?” He is a young man who has had a very hard childhood. He was taught pickpocketing by his father when he was only 5 years old and has been pickpocketing ever since, even though his father left him many years ago. When he was pickpocketing, his father always said to him every time he came home to receive the money his son had collected “Hey, stupid, how many times I gotta tell you not to keep the wallets? Watcha gonna tell your ma if she finds them? That your old man’s got you stealing for him?” and today, as a grown up man, he always leaves the wallet somewhere, because his father would want him to, sometimes so the owner he stole from could get his wallet back. The narrator really wants to be accepted by his father, and the reason why he is still pickpocketing is because he hopes that his father will show up again and then he is going to hand him all the money he has collected over the years – and maybe then, grant some respect and acceptance from his father. Make him proud. “One day Pop will show up again.”
The narrator immediately feels connected to the little boy standing alone at the liquor store because they are both lonely and the boy also has a bad relationship with his father, just like the narrator. That is why he decides to give the boy all of his fortunes he has collected through his life. He wants the boy to know how much he is worth and tell him that he is a fortune. “I want you to have my fortunes. You know why? You deserve it, kid, you earned it.”
What is a fortune? That question can be answered in many ways. It can for example be lots of money, it can be as simple as a synonym for the word ‘luck’ or it can be something or someone that means a lot to a person.
I think it is destiny when the two boys meet because then, the narrator can pass on his fortunes to the boy by telling him how much he is worth and giving him his fortunes from the fortune cookies. He meets the boy by stealing his father’s pocket on a Sunday, which is something he does not usually do on a Sunday – that is destiny and just like one of his fortune cookies says “A change in your daily routine will lead you to treasure”, the narrator is led to a treasure, the boy.
He tries to boost his self-esteem and telling him that he is a fortune even though his father does not appreciate him.
The title does not give any meaning until we have read the story. At first I thought the title “a fortune” meant all the money he has collected through the years by pickpocketing, because that is one of the first things we read in the story. Maybe the author has written the story like that on purpose. She wants us to think that having a fortune means having a lot of money, but in reality having a fortune means having someone you love and having someone who appreciates you for who you are. She wants us to know that we are fortunes, that we are something worth even though there is no one to tell us.
So from everything I have just written, I can conclude that the main themes in the story are love and money, which the title perfectly captures. There are many different opinions about what is most important. With money you cannot buy love but you can buy everything else. The narrator tries to “buy” the father’s love by handing him the money he has stolen from other people.
With love, you can have a family and friends who appreciates you. Although the narrator and the little boy are not on the same social level, they both have the same problems with their father – they do not show any love to them, or at least not enough so they will know they are appreciated. The narrator’s values the money over his son and I do not think you can have a good life without love.
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