Fate

They met in a Bloomingdale’s store trying to buy gifts for their significant others. After a day of excitement and romance, they went back to their own partners. Before parting ways, they each wrote their name and contact information in a book, and on a five dollar bill, so if they ever crossed paths again they knew it would be fate. This is the story of Jonathan and Sara, told in the movie ‘Serendipity’. The movie shows the ups and downs of relationships and two lovers on the search to meet again. Although the movie is titled ‘Serendipity’, they often talk about fate. So, what’s the difference between the two? Every once in a while, one may have the feeling of serendipity, but may not exactly know how to name that particular feeling.

In conclusion, fate does control ones’ life. In Homers book of the Odyssey it shows clearly that fate draws limits around free will, because Odysseus went through so many battles the

Everyone else here does though. They all believe in finding your perfect soulmate. And that this clock, embedded into your wrist, would be the one who determines ‘the one’. When it hits zero, that’s when you meet your soulmate.

Fate determines each person’s will that believe it is meant to happen. In the book, In the

In the novel, The Joy Luck Club, the author, Amy Tan, employs various rhetorical devices at numerous points in the story to achieve a specific purpose, whether the aim is to expand a character’s development, to further the evolution of the plot, or to suggest a certain theme to the reader. In particular, one of the most common rhetorical devices exploited by Tan throughout the story is perhaps the anecdote, which forces the reader to analyze the hidden significance of it as its contents are much longer and more elaborate than other rhetorical devices which typically consist of a mere sentence or two. Each anecdote in the book carries substantial importance and yet, it seems that the fact that there are so many of them in the novel does not undermine each one’s individual magnificence. The most poignant anecdote in the book may in fact be the story of An-Mei’s mother of how she lost herself and became a concubine-against her will-to a notorious mogul named Wu Tsing. An-Mei’s mother ultimately chooses to commit suicide in hopes that it will save her two children from the neglect and wrath of her husband, who initially cares very little about An-Mei and her family but is convinced by Chinese myth to improve their standards of living, “Seeing her this last time, I threw myself on her body. And she opened her eyes slowly… I shut her eyes with my fingers and told her with my heart: I can see the truth too… Because we both knew this: that on the third day after someone dies, the soul comes back to settle scores… He (Wu Tsing) promised her visiting ghost that he would raise

Some people may not believe that destiny is something that truthfully exists in the world. These people doubt that there is anything that is actually meant to be, or supposed to happen, thinking that there is always a way around troubling predicaments, knowing that it is not necessary to turn out just one certain way. They trust that whatever occurs in their lives comes as a result of the decisions that they make with their own free will. Others believe that whatever happens during the course of their lives is inevitable and every event is laid out before them like a road map to life, in other words, fate. William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet has fate as an exceptionally crucial element which makes fate as important as any

Does fate control us or do we control fate? This question has been posed many times by numerous amounts of people. The struggle with answering this question is that one cannot know their effect on fate if that fate is not known. To combat the difficulties of answering this question directly one can look toward philosophy and literature to approach this question in a more direct manner. Through the philosophic ideologies presented in Epictetus’s Handbook and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, one can observe how to approach fate and free will. In addition, looking at the literature of Macbeth, Oedipus The Tyrant, and Frederick Douglass’s Narrative, one can analyze examples of the relationship between fate and free will. Taking these philosophic approaches and applying them to literary examples, one can see how fate merely establishes events in life while free will allows for change to it.

There is no such thing as fate- a person decides everything that happens to them. If something

An individual's destiny is controlled by one thing and that thing is fate. During a lifetime fate plays a role that many people won't recognize. One's destiny is always controlled by fate like in the story of Romeo and Juliet, situations that we face everyday and the way that other cultures see fate. Fate is always playing along.

Fate is the strongest force in our lives however fate is more of a destination rather than a guiding outline . This happens in Macbeth when the witches tell Macbeth he will be king, but do not say how he will become king. The actions we take to reach our fate are our own choice and no matter what we do will reach our fated end. In life, fate is often set in stone and the actions we take to reach our goals can sometimes differ from our expectations. The final destination, however, will be the same.

Philosophers have been contemplating the contradistinctions separating fate and free will for thousands of years now. This is a tremendously complicated dialogue and conceivably even inexplicable. Philosophically, there is an extremely diaphanous line separating free will and fate. Free will resides within one’s individuality; it has to do with the present. The how and when experiences that are within our controls that is free will. On the other hand, human beings do not have immortality, so one will never be capable enough to circumvent dying that is fate. Socrates was one of the most distinguished philosophers to demonstrate free will. He would demonstrate this by choosing in which manner he would perish, and when the phenomenon would transpire. His apprentice Plato would write with reference to this in Crito. On the other hand, Niccolo Machiavelli from the Renaissance epoch, writes references to the fate of one in The Prince. He would acknowledge the virtues that under any circumstances could dictate and control one’s fate. Socrates and Machiavelli, both make an observation to the philosophically validity of free will or fate in order to substantiate the noteworthiness of its existence.

In XI Xi’s work, “A Woman like Me”, the narrator is a woman who works as a cosmetician for the dead, and throughout the entire story she says how her job has lost her friends over the years. Which in some parts of the text she mentions her fear that if Xia, her boyfriend, were to find out that she deals with the dead he will leave her. It is from this fear of death that mainly drives away her friends , and the very idea that she works with the dead with no problem scares her friends away. It such the fear of death that most stray away it when possible as it reminds them of their own mortality. Although despite her career choice and the cultural role it plays, she is hopeful that the reaction of Xia after he finds out, it will turn out well. The story begins with the quote, “ I’m surprised that our love has reached this far, especially for a woman such as myself”(XiXi 303). In more detail, the narrator explores that typical woman like her are expected to not find love because of her profession, which it is assumed is not normal for women in her culture. I however, am convinced that she is a proud and brave woman because of how her career has shaped her. While it appears that she is doubtful of the meeting she is rather hopeful of the future despite her circumstance, which is the restrictions of the social norms of her social life.

Imagine worrying about what’s going to happen next, imagine being unwanted, imagine living a life with pain, when you are just a little girl in a big world. This is the story of Adeline Yen Mah. In the book Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah, Adeline hit rock bottom, she was treated like she wasn't alive. She simply didn't exist, she was screamed at and was abused since the day she was born. Her siblings blame her for the death of their beloved mother.

Most people plan their future out for themselves, getting the education they need to grow up to do what they love. However, in the novel Never Let Me go by Kazuo Ishiguro, things are uniquely different for the children at Hailsham. The children who attend Hailsham are clones, who have had their entire future planned out for them by society, to donate their vital organs for humans who need them. Even though this may seem like a terrible situation to be born into, the clones do not try to change their fate, and accept it with little resistance. One of the reasons that they accept this as their fate, is that they are simply raised with the idea, therefore it is all that they know, it is “normal” for them. Also, they do not have the proper upbringing

Life has changed many times over the years, and so has the idea of how life works. It’s gone from considered uncontrollable by man to entirely controlled by man. In Realism, an individual is seen as itself- an individual, but in Naturalism, it’s seen more as a helpless object. In Modernism, individuals are considered just the same as they are, like Realism, but fate, an uncontrollable force, controls their lives. In Existentialism, individuals are known as… just individuals, again, and unlike Modernism and other philosophies with similar thoughts, fate does not exist- an individual’s decisions always lead to what happens to them. The idea of the individual changes quite often in every philosophy.