He codified the idea that a good debate argument or essay should begin with an introduction, go on to make three arguments in support of the thesis, and conclude by reiterating the introduction and concluding. We have Cicero to thank for the way we construct arguments.

Why three wishes? In fairy tales, and in rhetoric, all things tend to come in threes. We read on with the appealing sense of dread, while a part of us wonders what we would wish for, trying to contrive wishes that could not possibly turn against us. From the very start, we know that the wishes will lead to trouble. But there always seems to be a catch in these stories, whether the wish-granter is a genie emerging from Aladdin’s lamp (Arabian Nights), a magic talking fish (Indian folktale), an elf living in a fallen tree (Grimm fairytale), or a wrinkled monkey’s paw. Part of the pleasure of this foreboding and rather heavy-handed opening is that it provides its own warning-the Whites will surely be lured, as we might be, by the seductive idea of wish-fulfillment. White retrieves it, ignoring the man’s warnings. He wanted to show that fate ruled people’s lives, and that those who interfered with it did it to their own sorrow.” He hurls the paw into the open fireplace, but Mr. “It had a spell put on it by an old fakir, a very holy man. The military man spells out the lesson that the Whites will learn, if they should choose to use the paw. He got it from a colleague who had all three wishes come true, and his third wish was for death. But the military man warns them that he intends to dispose of it. Thinking this a marvelous find, the Whites are enthusiastic. While there, he acquired a mummified monkey’s paw, which he shows his hosts, telling them that it will grant its owner three wishes. White host a military man who has recently returned from colonial India. Who wouldn’t want to see a son one never expected to see again, to welcome him home? What if you had just buried him? “The Monkey’s Paw” is one of the scariest stories ever written, a classic of the subgenre of tales of wishes gone wrong.

The monkeys paw