What Do Fish Have to Do With Anything?

“Fortune Cookie” is a character study. The focus is on Parker, a soon-to-be 13-year-old boy navigating the fallout of his parents’ divorce. Parker is manipulative, sarcastic, and perceptive. He takes delight in tormenting others, especially his parents, by putting them in emotionally volatile situations. His request for a birthday dinner with both of them is not rooted in a desire for reconciliation but in his desire to test and expose them. He sets up the dinner as a trap, wanting to watch them squirm under the same tension that once defined their marriage. Parker channels his resentment and anger into mockery, finding a perverse satisfaction in inflicting the same pain on his parents that they have inflicted on him.

The story frames Parker as an unreliable narrator, for although he explains his perception of his family dynamics with great confidence, portraying himself as clever and in control, this very posturing suggests that in reality, he is deeply troubled and hurt by the circumstances that have torn his family apart. He may insist that he is manipulating the situation, but the subtext of his cruel comments toward both parents reveals his vulnerability. Even as he focuses on exposing their perceived flaws, his own issues are on full display with each accusation that he lobs in their direction, and his insistence on airing his grievances in public diverts attention away from his own flaws and unaddressed anxieties. In this light, his use of sarcasm masks his desperate need for acknowledgment. 

Underlying the emotional premise of “Fortune Cookie” is the tragedy of Parker’s 13th birthday, for although birthdays are meant to celebrate a person’s growth and progress, this particular occasion is marred by the recent divorce that has shattered Parker’s world. In an attempt to reassert some form of control, Parker deliberately derails the occasion and forces his parents to confront their failures in a very public forum. By doing so, he reveals just how much the divorce has distracted from moments when Parker should be recognized or celebrated. He has learned to preempt his parents’ selfishness by becoming the one to direct it, flipping their power dynamic so that he controls the stage. Yet this victory is hollow. By the time he admits that he doesn’t know what he wanted out of the dinner, it is clear that Parker’s plan has only deepened his isolation.

Notably, the true crux of the matter does not become explicit until the very end of the story, when Parker opens his fortune cookie and reads the message it contains. As he absorbs the meaning of the assertion “Many people will love you” (121), his emotional reaction reveals that his venomous behavior toward his parents is fueled by an unmet need for them to reassure him that he truly is loved. As his bottled emotions break loose in a flood of tears, he must face his realization that he is nowhere near as hardened or in control as he pretends to be. Thus, the symbolism of the fortune cookie delivers a note of irony, given that Parker has done everything in his power to push others away. However, its simple message also opens up the possibility that despite Parker’s bitterness, his family will still offer him the love that he seeks. The fortune breaks through his defensive posture, and his tears signal that beneath his manipulative exterior lies a vulnerable child who merely wants to know that his parents’ love for him will not vanish—even though they no longer love each other.