Blog #2

I believe our life is a mixture of fate and choice, but is mostly governed by fate. This question can involve a religious/spiritual answer or a more real-life approach. To me, it is pretty obvious that people are not solely in control of their lives. Up until we are adults, our parents get to decide pretty much everything for us. Out name, the house we live in, where we go to school, etc. Even if a person has a choice of what high school to go to, their decision is influenced by their friends, or their middle school experiences, which their parents decided for them. Our lives greatly depend on the actions of others, sometimes more than we realize it. Our previous experiences basically set us up for our fate.
In more specific aspects of our lives, we certainly have choices. However, I believe that in many cases, it is our fate to make a certain choice, which in turn determines the rest of our fate. We can choose to escape certain fates of ours, but it is very difficult. Sometimes escaping our fate means giving up things very dear to us, and not many people are willing to change their entire life for something that may or may not happen.
Oedipus could have escaped his fate, but it is very unlikely that that would have happened. Oedipus' natural reaction to the words of the oracle caused him to make the choice to flee. This was his choice, but it was governed by fate. Oedipus' personality caused him to ultimately kill everyone in the chariot, including King Laios (unknowingly). Once again, Oedipus did choose to act this way, but his previous experiences built his personality, which caused him to behave violently. Oedipus could have chosen to refrain from killing anybody, but the fact that Laios pushed him off the road and nearly attacked him caused Oedipus' natural reaction and caused him to meet his fate. In this case, Oedipus' choices were fated because they depended on his natural reactions, his previous experiences, and the actions of King Laios. In conclusion, Oedipus did not have much control over his tragic fate, and even if he could have controlled it, it would have been unlikely that he would have wanted to do anything other than what he ended up doing: killing his father and sleeping with his mother.