“Be Careful For What You Wish For”
By Danielle Kaufman
In many fairy tales characters often make wishes that in theory sound great, but tend to have a harsh reality. In the classic fairy tale The Tinder Box by Hans Christian Andersen a soldier is greeted by an old ugly witch who asks him to climb into a tree and retrieve a magical tinderbox. She explains he can take anything inside the chamber, but must give back the tinderbox. The soldier finds three dogs guarding coins, takes the coins, finds the tinderbox then returns to the witch. Despite the witch being pleasant and giving him money, the soldier decides to cut off her head. He is now in possession of the tinderbox and uses it to his advantage. He becomes wealthy and loved, but soon his money will run out. Greediness is strung upon him and uses the tinderbox to wish for wealth and a beautiful princess. Granted by the three dogs inside, the soldier now has money and a princess; but the King and Queen are on a hunt to find where the princess is running off to. Just as the soldier tries to trick the King and Queen, the Queen deceives him right back and discovers his true self. The soldier was sentenced to death — Be careful for what you wish for. Long story short, the soldier deceives the King and Queen again with the help of the tinderbox and the three dogs by attacking the royal council. In order to stop the violence and madness, the towns people and soldiers declare him as their new king. While he got his happy ending it was undeserving and came at a price for everyone else. He is corrupt. He should have been careful for what he wished for, it will bite him back sooner or later.
In the Disney film “Coraline”, Coraline Jones is faced with moving to a new home where her parents seem to be paying attention more to their gardening website than on Coraline’s everyday needs and wants. She is welcomed by her “Other Family” in her dreams with three mice leading the way. Her dreams soon become real life. Her Other Family seems to be nothing but perfect, except for the fact that they have buttons for eyes. Switching back and forth from the fantasy of her Other Family to the reality of her real family, she becomes fed up. She wishes for her Other Family to be her real family; her Other Family loves the idea (of course), with one exception, she must have button eyes as well. Coraline soon realizes that her Other Family is actually evil and her real family is being held hostage by the Other Mother. Is it too late? Like the soldier in The Tinder Box, Coraline ends up having a happy ending and saves her real family; but now she will be careful for what she wishes for.
Internet Scams! With today’s technological advancements, you never really know what is real and fake. People see an ad online thinking it will answer all of their financial errors. People think to themselves “man, I wish I could fix my finances… if only I could give my information to a website and all of my financial troubles will go away”. Then pops up: HELP YOUR CREDIT SCORE! People can be naive and trust the internet to fix their issues. If someone falls for a “helpful ad”, it is likely they will become a part of an internet scam. More than 60% of Americans have been a victim of internet scams. Be careful for what you wish for, entering your personal information (the easy way out) can lead to identity theft and other types of fraud. Serious consequences can occur and no one wants that.
Things aren’t always as they seem. That idea leads to the conclusion that you should be careful for what you wish for. Greed, jealousy, and frustration can influence an individual to wish for something that theoretically should help their situation, but ends up hurting instead. In some situations, like The Tinder Box and “Coraline”, they ended up having a happily ever after, even if they didn’t deserve it. Hopefully they learn from their malicious wishes. However, in situations like internet scams, you can’t always bounce back.
