Monday, February 3, 2014

Is Fate More Dangerous Than The Unknown?

How unbelievable it is to watch our beliefs played out before our eyes; when the ideas we take on faith become reality. The notion of fate versus free will, ever discussed by religious, philosophical, and scientific officials alike, remains a difficult idea to conceptualize and discuss rationally. Supernatural created an interesting diagram of fate driven existence, albeit an absurd one. In “The Monster at the End of the Book,” we can see the horror of knowing what lies ahead and the paradoxical conflict between knowing what will come and wandering into the unknown.

Sam and Dean, once aware of their fate, try desperately to alter the future but have to watch in horror as their efforts go down in vein. Their efforts end up condemning them to the fate they feared and it was not until Dean decided to stop fighting fate that the situation was saved. The episode suggests through its direct representation of fate, that fate is more dangerous than living with the unknown. “The Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge” presents a less absurd confrontation with fate, but one that sees a similar struggle to that of Sam and Dean. Confronted with certain death, Peyton Farquhar could only fight fate with his delusions, and, like Sam and Dean, they evaporated entirely.


While Supernatural is highly exaggerated and “The Occurrence on Owl Creek Bridge” may only describe a narrow situation, the two suggest that, whether or not fate is predetermined, perhaps, for sanity’s sake, we should never know our own fate. And further, no human should be forced the curse of correcting that which is ultimately far removed form its own control.

1 comment:

  1. You say that "fate is more dangerous than living with the unknown", and I completely agree. As shown by "Supernatural", Sam and Dean fall into the fate they are dealt even though they try as hard as they can to escape it, and as a result seem even more defeated by their lack of free will.
    I wonder why, then, we have such a strong tendency in contemporary society to predict our fate. For example, many people reach out to psychics or read horoscopes to predict their future. Where do we get the desire not only to know our fate but also to control it if it is more dangerous to do so? And don't we have a more positive outlook on life if we believe we are the controllers of our fate? How can we still motivate ourselves to work hard and be good people if we feel our fate has already been determined for us? Is the only way to deceive ourselves and act as if we do have a say in our future?

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