A Fortune - Joy Monica T. Sakaguchi

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from day to day. Joy Monica uses a characteristic style of writing where the main stylistic feature is to maintain a simple sentence structure throughout the whole story. This is effective in making the story easy to read. At the beginning of the story, the narrator uses flashbacks to reflect upon when he first saw the boy, then going on to tell about his own childhood. When the narrator is done telling about himself, he returns to the story and from here the story moves along chronologically.

I think Joy Monica wants to compare material love with real love. I believe the main theme of the story is that we all need to be appreciated and acknowledged by somebody, regardless of our age, social status or religion. Leaving people around you happy will make you feel like a good person. The fortune in the story isn’t money or anything materialistic; it was the little kid.

The title “A fortune” connects with the theme about the distinction of material love and real love. You can have a fortune of money like the main character, but he doesn’t care about the money and doesn’t use it. When he meets the boy he becomes aware of the other sort of love; love and care for another person. He has never experienced this kind of love before in his entire life because of the lack of affection from his parents.

All in all, I believe Joy Monica wants the reader to be aware of the “fortune” that can be found in getting to know children and other people. Before meeting the boy, the narrator got a fortune cookie that said: “A change in your daily routine will lead you to treasure.” After trying to convince the boy that he has value and is worth something, he immediately feels better with himself. The message of the story emerges as a result of this: It is important to tell people what they are worth, regardless if they are poor or rich. Making other people happy will result in you yourself feeling better as a person.

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