A Fortune by Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi Maybe you are a thief and living by stealing wallets, emptying them from money and put them back. Or perhaps you are a rich man with a son; you maybe love but never show. And maybe you are the son of a man, who never noticed or loves you. Love and money are big things in life, and they are very important in everyday life. In the short story “A fortune” by Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi from 2000, is the relationship between a teenager and his dad illustrated. The short story ‘’A fortune’’ is about a young man who is a pickpocket.
He crooked teeth, oily hair and bony knees. When he was only five years old, he started to steal. There is maybe a good reason why he had become a pickpocket. It all started in his childhood, with his mother, father and his uncle. It was his father who taught him to steal; he said that it was easy for a little boy to pickpocket, because when you are little, you are not always noticed. The father was also that ma would find out, because the narrator used to save the wallets, and once a month his father found them and yelled at him. ’Hey, stupid, how many times I gotta tell you not to keep the wallets? Whatca gonna tell your ma if she finds them? That you old man’s got you stealing from him? ’’. His mother was an ugly lady with a curly black wig and cried all the time. But some credit he had to give her, because she tried to raise him well. She was always worried that he would end up like his “Stinking, rotting, lout-of-a-father”. His uncle was drunk all the time, and the only job he ever had, was to dress up as Santa Claus on every Christmas Eve.
He always hid a bottle of Whisky in a pillow under his Santa Claus jacket. Sometimes he pulled the white bead to the side and asked for a stiff drink. The narrator is in many ways a bad person. Because steeling and actually taking a total stranger with him home, is illegal. But when he steels, he doesn’t see that it is wrong and forbidden. He grew up with it. But even though his father left the town, he continued on steeling. But in another way he is a good man, because he tries to help a kid which father is a yuppie, and have a lot of money.
The kid’s father is ignoring his son, and he always yells at him. And when the narrator sees them in the fish market, he follows them and listens to their conversation. He decides to steal the Yuppies wallet, because his does not deserve money. The meaning of the title “A fortune” is that the teenager isn’t his father’s fortune, but the money is. And when the narrator where a kid, he wasn’t his father’s fortune. He needed love and contact with his parents.
So he created his own fortune of money, he believed that money could replace the missing love. But when he met the boy, he saw the meaning of love. Love is a need, and every kid should be loved by its parents or guardians. That is why he takes the kid at home, and takes care of him for the night. The main themes in this story are love and money. There are different meanings about what is most important. If you have all the money you want, you can buy everything but love. And when you have love, you can take care of your friends and family.