Lack of Free Will - 1074 Words

In Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness one important theme in the novel is predetermined fate. The lack of free will that Marlow exhibits points to a driving sense that he has only one way out of the jungle. Marlows only mission is to find Kurtz. Tunnel vision captures Marlows psyche and his want of destruction is only rivaled by his need to find Kurtz. Heart of Darkness exemplifies the absurdist and existentialist viewpoints that reside in literature written before and after human conflicts. Two other works that support this theme are a poem â€Å"The Old Sexton† and a modern novel, Fight Club. These works share similar motifs such as a nonlinear timeline and an ambiguous, unreliable narrator. An extension of the one way out theme, that all three works share, is the unrelenting hopelessness that dominates the lives of not only the main narrators but also those characters to which they interact with inside the plot of each story. The existentialist question, Why do we struggle? is felt by every central character that exist within each tale. Humanity as a whole asks this question after viewing the horrors of war and disaster; the narrators are mouthpieces of the sectors of the population that beg for answers in a world with no hope or any light. â€Å"The Old Sexton† written by Park Benjamin presents the rumination of a grave digger who is trying to build a glorious, monumental kingdom with the dead that he buries. The poem has a narrator that quite aptly stays undefined. The oldShow MoreRelatedThe Lack of Free Speech in the Military668 Words   |  3 Pagesarmed forces cannot speak freely about government officials, as well as government issues that affect their lives, seems to be controversial because it limits one of the freedoms these sailors and soldiers have vowed to protect. To oppose the right of free speech of any member of the military takes away from the importance of the job they do. It has been argued that a member of the military should be mindful of whom they work for and the chain of command that orders come from, and that any display ofRead MoreChildren s Lack Of Free Time1823 Words   |  8 Pagesthese many of children face in their everyday life. They are forced to work an excruciating amount of time, with no hope of ever having a better life. These children are uneducated due to their lack of free time or money to attend school, which in turn strips away another possibility of rising up and breaking free of this vicious cycle that affects their family and fellow children. Within this job, they will never make enough money to earn a living, which will always put them in debt and having to workRead MoreAnalysis Of The True Prison By Ken Saro Wiwa932 Words   |  4 Pageswhile awaiting trial,† but is a true prison? Although places seem free, the people can be truly trapped through the lack of ability to express oneself. Without the capability to express oneself people feel stifled, cut off from the world around them, resulting in them feeling locked up. Through the use of opposition as a metaphor for imprisonment in The True Prison, Ken Saro Wiwa, the author, describes that a true prison is a lack of freedom of expression. The use of the â€Å"It is† statements as anRead MoreFreedom From A Good Thing Essay1734 Words   |  7 Pagesliberty – ‘negative liberty’ and ‘positive liberty’ in his Four Essays on Liberty. Berlin describes negative liberty as ‘to be free to the degree to which no human being interferes with my activity †¦ Political liberty in this sense is simply the area within which a man can do as he wants.† In contrast, positive liberty is the ability to be in control of one’s own life, free from internal obstacles to living the way one would rationally want to. People normally believe that ‘negative liberty is a goodRead MoreThe Concept Of Personhood : A Of Much Greater Complexity Than The Simple Notion Of Species Identification1195 Words   |  5 Pagesused to collect the traits that differentiate humans from animals, however, an important distinction to make is that it is not conceptually impossible for a nonhuman to b e a person and vice versa. These differentiating traits surround the notions of free will and desire. While it is no exclusive ability of a person to desire, the distinction comes from the order of desire one is capable of having. A first order desire is a very basic feeling to want or want not for something to occur. A creature whoRead MoreThe Neural Basis Of Free Will : Criterial Causation Essay1523 Words   |  7 Pagesscientists say that the human minds simply take in sensual inputs, and make a decision off of these inputs. This argument is acknowledged through the impossibility of self-causation argument which Peter Ulric defines through his book, â€Å"The Neural Basis of Free Will: Criterial Causation†, where he explains the impossibility of self-causation argument down to a neurological level. He says that the definition of impossibility of self-causation comes down to mental events and neurological causal chains occurringRead MoreSummary Of Franz Kafkas The Judgement And In The Penal Colony107 0 Words   |  5 Pagesin Franz Kafka’s texts he proves it. In both Franz Kafka’s texts The Judgement and In the Penal Colony the theme: Lack of freedom in the Modern World is shown through Georg’s cause of death, the commandants death, and the the people being imprisoned by society and not realizing it. Georg at the end of the texts commits suicide because of the realization of how he will never be free. The Commandant commits suicide because he was too ingrained in society. In both text the characters do have a realizationRead MoreHow Self Control Is Truly Free Will1143 Words   |  5 Pages In everyday life we have the free will to control every aspect of our lives and actions through our choices and self control, however there are times when this sense of free will is challenged. In Patricia Churchland’s article she covers how self control is truly free will, it can shape our actions, as well as habits. Yet, there are reasons why ones own self control could be diminished, for example, the case of the man who had strangled his own wife in his sleep. Churchland believes that selfRead MoreInternational Flow Of Goods And Capital978 Words   |  4 Pagesflow of goods and capital, and migration are more and more frequent. There are some people hold positive attitude towards both practices which tend to promote countries to use what they are abundant of in exchange of what they lack. So some people think those who support free movement of goods and investment among states are supposed to like immigration. However, since global movement of products and investment boo sts the international economy while immigration can cast threats on domestic people,Read MoreMao Zedong And The Revolution Of China1008 Words   |  5 Pagesof the West. He wanted the youth to think for themselves and choose what they want. Mao Zedong realized the lack of free will within society particularly that of parents commanding their kids who they should marry without considering their feelings, â€Å"Was Miss Zhao’s will free? No, it was not free. Why wasn’t it free? Because Miss Zhao had parents† , Miss Zhao killing herself was the only free will she had unfortunately it ended in her death. She was never allowed to exercise her freedom due to society